Social tools have helped to change
the way people interact. In businesses, “smart” companies have taken advantage
of these social tools; forming communities of their clients/consumers. They
gained from these communitie's products/service criticism and better understanding
of the needs of their clients; an information which has helped them evolve
products/services that now satisfy their clients.
Many other smart companies have used social
tools(networks) to form talent communities – a way of filtering interested contributors
who are knowledgeable about their kind of business and are useful potentials in
forging ideas that would move their businesses to new heights.
But how does this social networking “structure”
(we really mean the “structure” not the social network itself) apply directly
to business growth? To answer this, we ask another question; what has driven
most social networks to popularity?
- Ease of use
- Interoperability
- Sharing
While “ease of use” and “interoperability”
are already parts of most companies plan for particular products or services, the
not so new (yet most overlooked) strategy is sharing.
Smart companies have already
implemented sharing as a means to quickly
popularize their products and services. Sharing
in this context simply means to take responsibility together. It means creating products and services
that other companies can share in. Take IBM for example with its partner
program that creates millions of dollars in revenue for partners sharing in the IBM experience. IBM produces world class software and hardware
that its partners can market around their region. Some partners complete the
IBM products more by building software that runs on the hardware or hardware
that utilizes the software. IBM goes a step further by helping their clients
all the way through by been part of any negotiation process if partners need an
expert to shed more light on the IBM product in questions.
One might begin to see business
sharing as an IT thing or like the traditional business distributorship; it is
more. For a company to share products/services effectively, that
product/service must first be complete on its own while having the ability to
accept a third party plug-in – essentially for a new functionality. As another
example, facebook and the Zynga app; and a lot
more in power generation, banking, etc.
Research and development teams must
begin to design innovative products/services that are sharable i.e. products and services
that have responsibilities that can be shared by potential clients/partners.
The concept of Sharing implemented on
any product/service gives room for third party innovation (creating room for
the much needed openness on your product/service); which creates new use for
your product/service, new market you don’t need to compete in and quickly popularizes
your brand.
Related readings:
- Gartner research gives an example of how Scotiabank Boosts Productivity, Communication and Collaboration With Social Software.
- Rules of social recruiting - social recruiting.
