Stop and think about this for a moment.  What do people like to talk about the most? Themselves, perhaps?  Not only that but we find that people like to hang out in communities with like minded people.  Have you ever considered how to leverage this sort of thing in a business context?

If you look at social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook, we see people who want to connect with each other both as friends/colleagues or in common interest groups.  They want to share what they are doing and they want to be part of a solution to a problem.

What would it mean to your business if people had the desire to solve problems based on the expertise they could bring to the table?

Recently, I was talking to an IT Manager about Social Business and how they could use it to harness the collective expertise of his organization.  His response was that this was not something that they would need as they already know what everyone in the business had to offer.  The fact is, he is completely wrong.  There is so much that we don’t know about the people we are close to, let alone employees.  People have so much expertise that may never appear on their Résumé.  An employees life experience is bound to add incredible value to an organization.  The best ideas often come from the least likely of people.

Over the past few months I have been talking to a number of people in business, who have had issues with fraudulent staff.  The problem has been the length of time that it has taken management to identify that there is an issue to the time it has taken to take action.  Therefore, this tweet caught my interest.

I decided to click on the URL or link at the bottom of the tweet and here is what  came up on the screen:

It would appear that there is a security issue preventing this page from being displayed.  Or could it be that a staff member stole the information?

One of the things that companies need to be mindful of is their on-line reputation.  You need to know that every link you tweet is going to produce a positive experience for a potential or existing customer.  At a minimum, this organization should have a customized page appear and maybe even a form for the user to complete which would allow them to outline what they were looking for.

We need to ask the question, why?  Why do these mega events which attract crowds of thousands, prove to be no longer financially viable?  Why is it that attendance drops by the thousands?

We live in changing times, people are wanting something new and fresh.  They are looking for new thrills, not an experience of the same thing year after year.  The key thing is to understand what your customer is looking for, allowing the masses to provide information which could transform an organisation as new markets evolve.

The thing about these large gatherings/festivals, is that the organizers can make use of crowd-sourcing techniques.  This is when you draw on the collective intelligence of the masses for ideas, discussion and interaction.  Part of the discussions I have around Social Business, cover the need for customer intimacy.  Getting close to your customer and understanding them can not only drive increases in profit, but also transform your business into a market leader showing innovation which will become a competitive differentiator.

I guess I would sum this post up as – It is one thing to copy the competitor, but another thing to harness the collective intelligence of the masses

One of the things that I liked, mentioned in a session at Lotusphere, is that IBM is trying to make common tasks in Lotus Notes so simple that they can be preformed in 2 or fewer clicks.  Obviously, this is in response to feedback from the user community about their views on usability.  I think that this is also an important consideration that all IT departments need to give when thinking about their users.  How can I make their job as simple as possible?

Let’s consider the iPhone and the iPad.  Why have they been so successful?  It would appear that they are really easy to use.  With little or no education people seem to be able to use them and even full in love with them.

Employees want to be able to use the tools they require to productively fulfill the requirements of their jobs.  Frustrations with technology leads to loss of productive time.  IT departments often place restrictions on what users can and cannot do on a machine which lead to frustration.

The result can be the loss of good employees and even make it hard to attract great talent.  I am just wondering if it is time for the business to ensure that IT is running for the business, not the other way around.

Many companies have experienced trills of having their brand catapulted into the social-sphere while gaining potentially  positive results.  However, over recent months we have seen some of the worlds most well-known brands, come under attack with devastating results.  The question needs to be asked, how do you protect your brand from the savage world of social media?

I talk to a number of businesses about what they’re doing in regards to social marketing and social business.  Too often, the answer is that the business has decided that it is not within their plan and will therefore not engage.  The response could be summed up as burying their heads in the sand.  Today, this should be considered to be negligent business management.  In my years managing businesses, it has been important to identify risks and to either eliminate them or, to sort out a plan on how to manage that risk should a situation arise.

You need to have a plan.  Are you listening?  No, not to me.  Are you listening to what people are saying about your brand on the social networks?  What is the sediment, is it positive or negative?  What is your plan when someone posts something negative or potentially destructive?

A service which I offer to customers, The Social Business Agenda, is a series of workshops which helps businesses to understand the importance of putting in place strategies.  The world has changed and so must your business if it is not only to survive, but to thrive in this new era.  Burying your head in the sand will not make it go away, it is time to Get Bold and Get Social.  Contact me to organize your Social Business Agenda.

We struggle to dream of what the next 5 years will hold with technology, but one thing I am sure about, is that we will no longer talk about Social Business.  The reason for this is that it will just be the way we work.  Businesses all around the world, will adopt Social Business strategies as they go through business transformation.  They funny thing is that the children of today are using these tools as part of their everyday like.

Who knows what/who will be the technology leaders in the next 5 years.  It may well be that today there is a trend which is quietly leading to the explosion of another era in technology.  Today, children are being taught and prepared for jobs which don’t even exist today.  I am starting to hear of a number of new top level (c-level) roles.  One of the main being the role of the CLO (Chief Listening Officer).  This is a person who is strategically engaged in listening to and interpreting what sentiment there is for a particular brand or group of brands.  The interpretation of this social capital will lead to better services, new products and the flex required to react to rapidly changing markets.

For readers who are interested, here is a link to my wife’s blog

So often I have seen companies put in place new technologies and say to the users “here it is, now use it”.
Nobody likes change, especially when there is no strategy for adoption of the change, whether it be a change in IT systems or a change in process. There are many reasons for this and the business need to consider ways to make any transitional change easy with buy-in from all parties.

Having a “geek” background. I know how easy it is to see how a new technology can help solve what I may perceive to be a problem. I so easily jump on board and embrace the technology, while struggling to put into words the value for someone else. As Michael describes ‘first wave’ users, I felt that he was talking about me.

Michael Sampson has used a technology agnostic approach, for which I feel helps to keep his message out of the technology gutter (so to speak). His straight forward approach is likely to be understood by anyone in business leadership and decision makers.

Social Business is not about technology (though it may have been driven by technology), but it is more to do with the culture of a business.  It is about increasing productivity, working smarter, providing more value to customers and being able to take new ideas to market in less time.

If we are to look at social media, we see a lot of great ideas taking off and going viral.  We see people become famous over night, such as Justin Bieber, who despite my lack of enthusiasm has been successful on the world stage.  The term “crowd-sourcing” is one which suggests that we can get feedback from a crowd of people, who add power to an idea, such as the Occupy New York movement which went global.  This seems to be quite powerful in what many consider to be a fantasy world, but in reality it is a world which seems to be wielding great power.

If we were to look at this in a business context, it could be that a platform is created to encourage employees (crowd-sourcing) to share their thoughts on how to do business better.  A lot of staff are customer facing and while their ideas may not be practical or inline with best business practice, an active conversation may lead to a solution which will set your company apart from the competition.

Here are some traits found in a Social Business

1. Employees feel like they are an integral part of the business
2. They are able to attract and retain good employees
3. They can deliver on products and services, faster than their competitors
4. Innovation is the signature of their success
5. 57% of go-ahead businesses are Social Businesses