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Review and Hands-On
ANDS
-O
NReview of the Main Points
Implementing social business initiatives challenges many of the accepted norms in tra-
ditional top-down management systems. It requires rethinking some aspects of running
a business, and in many ways involves the not-so-obvious discipline of running your
business as if you were a customer.
The main points covered in this chapter pull together the connection points
between an organization and its stakeholders, and in particular accomplish this in a
way that facilitates knowledge sharing.
• Businesses connect socially to customers through visible relationships and use-
ful, collaborative applications.
• Participation, knowledge transfer, and social activity can be measured.
• Friending and reputation management are important aspects of social behavior
that lead to strong communities.
• Effective moderation and clear policies spur community growth.
• Brand outposts created within communities popular with your audience are
ideal places to “connect” your social business.
By recognizing the components of the Social Web and the ways that your cus-
tomers or stakeholders use them, you can adapt your business or organization to a
more participative, collaboration-oriented audience. This closer connection comes at a
cost: Accepting customers as collaborative partners imposes an obligation to consider
what they offer and to act on it. Not all businesses can do this, and even fewer can do
it easily. That said, there is a clear process for accomplishing this; and there are plenty
of cases and best practices from globally recognized firms that have been successfully
building their own businesses using social computing and related techniques.
Hands-On: Review These Resources
Review each of the following, ensuring that you have a solid understanding of the con-
cept being shown in the example:
• Brand outposts like Coca-Cola’s Facebook page are viable alternatives to one-off
microsites and branded communities:
http://www.facebook.com/cocacola
• Atari’s Tweet in Klingon is an example of a social application that taps an exist-
ing audience and its passion: You don’t have to reinvent wheels to create great
social media points of presence:
http://tweetinklingon.com/
• Clearly articulated policies create a strong platform for collaboration and the
adoption of social computing:
http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html