280
c h a p t e r10: SOCIAL OBJECTS■If you find yourself in ______, then you must visit:
• Austin, TX: Black’s, Iron Works, The Salt Lick or Cooper’s for BBQ, or Péché,
Austin’s finest Absinthe bar
• Marshall, IA: Maid-rite, for a loose-meat sandwich
• Boston, MA: Woodman’s, for fresh lobster and crab rolls
• Phoenix, AZ: Greasewood Flats, for music and entertainment
• Seattle, WA: Pike’s Market, The Pacific Northwest Shop for Market Spice Tea
• The Basque region of Spain: To eat anything
Any one of these locations is an instant conversation-starter, and there are as
many more as there are small towns or regional areas with something cool, delicious,
or otherwise talkworthy to offer. Any one of them could be the center of a well-
defined, passionate gathering that drives conversation about these specific businesses.
Figure 10.7 shows a collection of the Facebook pages for some of these local brands:
Facebook is a great place, by the way, to anchor a small-business presence. The larger
social object—people hanging out together and sharing things—is already in place. All
that’s needed is a conversational brand, and if there ever was one, “The best ___ you’ve
ever tasted!” is it. If you own a small business, think about Facebook: It’s free, it’s
effective, it’s easy and (your) customers are already there, waiting for you to do what
you already do best: serve them.The Workplace as a Social Object
Many organizations—and often those with a strong, well-defined internal culture
(firms like Zappos, Progressive, SAS Institute, and Whole Foods Market)—are effec-
tively tapping their own culture as a social object as they implement collaborative
internal systems that drive external business success through their ability to outmaneu-
ver and outperform competitors in terms of response and understanding of customer
issues. SAS Institute CEO Jim Goodnight put it succinctly: “Our company culture is a
competitive weapon.” Tapping internal culture as a social object around which to unify
employees is a powerful way to build a social business.
The organization itself—right along with the content its people produce—is thus
a social object. Around these types of social objects, the culture of the company can
be made tangible—through discussion, for example—and can be further strengthened
through collaboration. Most importantly, “work” as a social object can form the basis
for internal employee development and recognition programs, employee-to-customer
collaborative efforts, and for the attraction of additional candidates to support the fur-
ther growth and collective achievement of the organization.
The culture inside a company has always been a big deal: Plenty of organiza-
tional managers and HR professionals have spent countless hours trying to “get com-
pany culture right.” Consider the firms referenced at the start of this section: Being