There’s an old example many of my teachers used growing up to display a number of different points. My teacher would show a jar on a table surrounded by a plethora of different-sized rocks. The task is to get all of the rocks into the one jar. No matter how you try, the only way that works is to put all the big rocks in first, then the medium-sized rocks, then fill the rest f the space with the pebbles.
The point of the exercise is to show the importance of priorities and how to organize your life.
Priorities are key to school, life and, of course, business. We’re going to talk about a major rock today that you need to have an understanding of if you’re going to be brining in a Social CRM to your company or brand: Social Business.
We’re putting our normal curriculum aside today to address the issue of Social Business which, as you’ll find out, I feel is a larger goal than purely Social CRM.
Building a Business That’s Social
In her book Get Bold, Sandy Carter defines a “Social Business” as the following:
At its core, a Social Business is a company that is engaged, transparent, and nimble. A Social Business is one that understands how to embrace social technology, use it, get value from it, and manage the risk around it. A Social Business embeds social tools in all its processes, and for both employees and clients–the entire ecosystem. A leadership company explores the social techniques that really matter to its business with a sympathetic approach, by creating a bold, unique Social Business agenda.
That’s one of the best definitions I’ve ever read and I highly suggest Sandy’s book to anyone who cares about creating a business that works with its customers. I’m not going to fill more in with what she said, but I am going to give you a couple seconds to read it again and take it all in……..
……..good.
Social Business is important and it’s vital to your brand surviving the next 15-20 years intact. I’m not going to dispute the fact that everyone needs to be paying attention to this phenomenon, but does Social Business makes Social CRM obsolete?
Social CRM vs Social Business?
A few weeks back, Michael Brito had a wonderful post focusing on this very question. Does the importance and eventual necessity of Social Business negate the need for a focus on Social CRM or should it all be wrapped up into the same idea and eventually just be called “business as usual?”
Honestly, I agree with Michael’s post in almost every way, even though it seems at first glace we would be in disagreement. While I may not totally agree completely on every single semantic, I think we will get to a point where Social CRM in the larger context of a Social Business is not only necessary, but expected. If you aren’t starting now with your plans, you will be left behind and a Social CRM is part of that emerging business.
Where Michael and I differ is that I believe it’s not as important to shift focus away from the components that make up a Social Business, Social CRM being a part of that. Just as 50-60 years ago, marketing was a new idea and another 60 years before that the telephone was a new idea that are all now “standard operating procedure” in successful companies.
We will always have to understands the components of what we do for the good of our brands while at the same time understanding the larger pictures that encompass all those little things.
Social CRM may be a little component at this point and in the future be a natural aspect of all companies, but we’ll still be supplying top-notch Social CRM advice, innovations, trends, topics and strategies to help your businesses understand it how and in the future.
What do you think? Is there still a place to discuss smaller components of Social Business? Do you agree with Michael that Social Business will eventually be just “business”? Where does Social CRM fit in?
Thoughts?
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@joey_strawn all the rage at sxsw.
@Aaron_Wragg Jealous! Wish I could be there.
@joey_strawn would have been good to connect. How have your clients been responding to the social business integration?
@Aaron_Wragg It seems a lot are scared of the transition. I’m trying to build a framework that will make it easier to understand and accept.
@joey_strawn most I work with are resistant to any change in their corporate structure. Just bought “get bold”… Looks like it’s helpful.
@Aaron_Wragg I’ve been reading through it. Sandy makes a great case. Hoping to bring some of that energy in with me.
@Aaron_Wragg Do you read any of the stuff by @britopian? You should.
@joey_strawn ya I just started his book and got to chat with him a bit earlier this week. It’s already a great book
@Aaron_Wragg Wait who? Sandy Carter?
@joey_strawn I bought Sandy casters book today and started britopians last week.
@Aaron_Wragg I haven’t read Britopian’s yet, I want to.
G’Day Joey,
As a relative newbie to web marketing, I never cease to be amazed at the amount of wheel reinvention that occurs in the blogosphere. My first book was published in England in 1984. It was called “The Social Manager: Let’s Stop Playing at Management Training.”
Work is a social event. That’s why I claim that the basic human unit in the workplace is the team, not the individual. Joey, I’m not saying “I told you so.” But I am saying that business, by it’s very nature, is Social Business.
I do become a little concerned when I find that some people think that ”social” means “sociable” I notice from LinkedIn that innumerable people still want to debate things like the difference between “leadershio” and “management” rather than effective business performance.
As I’ve been known to say on equally innumerable occasions, “marketing isn’t everything; but everything is marketing.” David Ogilvy put it nicely when he said, “The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife.” And Peter Drucker said “the purpose of business is to create customers.”
Perhaps we should stop reinventing wheels and rebuild the cart on the wheels that have been there for years. I’d still like to be the bloke who wrote the Shlicht beer commercial. That was genuine social business.
Make sure you have fun.
Best Wishes
Leon
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