This past month, I completed my series on social business. It was an exercise of discipline to stay focused on one topic and go deep on it. My role at my employer has changed so it allowed me to step outside of it and think deeply about what worked and what didn’t.
I felt a great need to share this knowledge with others and figured this blog series would be a great outlet to do it. It was therapeutic by nature because it allowed all these thoughts in my head to be released and it made room for new ideas.
It became clear through this series what was needed for me (and my peers) to succeed. Internal buy-in definitely helps, but isn’t the total solution. There has to be a shared interested from top to bottom and bottom to top to adopt post-modern business initiatives. It takes someone strong to carry these ideas out so they are sustainable and long-lasting.
Not every business is ready to shift from social media to social business. I’ve found this is a cultural issue. You can’t teach culture. You can’t train on it. It’s not an age thing, either. It’s the unwritten set of guidelines, practices and engagements that develop a culture of shared interactions, shared lessons and shared wins.
As community managers, I suggest that you stand strong. Welcome the change around you. Your peers and leaders depend on you to think ahead. Don’t be complacent because you’ll soon be stuck in a vacuum of focusing on the tactics and losing sight of your vision and strategy.
I kicked things off by explaining the need for a series about social business. I encouraged you to give up control and stop trying to own everything. I progressed into establishing a vision for your social program. I offered different ways to size up opportunities. I explained the different types of questions leaders will ask about in a social business program. I took a moment to unpack the differences between social media and social business. I illustrated the big picture of social business the way I see it. I listed out practical ways to get an organization to adopt social business, if they’re ready. I shared the books and blogs I read regularly about social business because they have helped me along the way. I found a handful of real-world examples of social business transformation that we could all learn from. I shared the big picture of why the shift to social business is happening. I concluded the series with ten lessons I learned while implementing social business initiatives.
I hope this series was helpful to you. If I was a lone community manager, I would have loved this advice. I may soon turn this into a digestible PDF guide that you and others can consume easily. I’m open to feedback, so feel free to contribute your views on any of the pieces.
Photo Credit: agup627; U.S. Air Force
