In the spring of 2009, Jive Software rebranded their collaboration software as 'Social Business Software'. This was the first time I had seen the phrase 'social business' used to classify enterprise collaboration software. At the time, I struggled quite a bit with the use of the word 'social' when it came to enterprise collaboration, but that is another blog post.
Now I'm not sure if Sam Lawrence, who was Jive's CMO at the time, can take full credit for establishing this new enterprise category, but 'social business' clearly repositioned the 'enterprise 2.0' conversation. In the fall of 2009 the Dachis Group came to market with 'social business design' and the use of 'social business' was off and running, leaving 'enterprise 2.0' in its dust.
Today those of us working to help businesses adapt and succeed at breaking down the barriers of communication and collaboration both outside and inside the organization are carrying on the banner of 'social business'.
We are launching a new website for Defakto today and we are utilizing 'social business' in our messaging. Yes, we are following the lead of those who have come before us, but we are embracing the term social business for one very important reason. If you read all of the pundits debate about what social business really means, you will see one common thread. It is about people first.
There are two critical questions a business has to ask itself every minute of every day. How can we help our customer engage and communicate with our brand, our company, our product, our service and with other customers? And, how can we help our employees not only to collaborate more and improve productivity, but also understand and embrace what our customers wants and needs are?
Start with the people, think about the tools, then adapt and execute. This is the path to a socially calibrated business that optimizes its vital human resources to attain business objectives.