Traditional Strategy Is Dead. Welcome to the #SocialEra - Nilofer Merchant. By Nilofer Merchant | 10:34 AM September 12, 2012 When I say, “Social is and can be more than media,” people resist. It’s as if the two words (social and media) are now permanently fused together. But they shouldn’t be. The fact that they are joined at the hip in so many people’s minds means that marketing agencies are thriving — but that the rest of our organizations are not. Social can be — and already is — more than Media. The companies thriving today are operating by a new set of rules — Social Era rules. The failing organizations around us — many of which I explore in my new book, which publishes today — continue to follow the operating rules and ethos of Traditional Strategy. It’s helpful to call this new context the Social Era to emphasize a point: while in the industrial era, organizations became more powerful by being bigger, in the Social Era, companies can also be powerful by working with others.
Here’s the simplest way to define the Social Era. MIT global study on social business: Executives increasingly understand the value and success drivers. MIT Sloan Management Review together with Deloitte have just launched 2012 Social Business Global Executive Study and Research Project, drawing out some very interesting insights from a survey of almost 3,500 executives from 115 countries. Below the slides of the report I have selected several of the interesting slides with brief commentary. Comment: The importance of social software to business success is now well recognized, with 80% of executives seeing it as important to managing customer relationships, the most glaringly obvious use case. It is encouraging to see that ‘Innovating for Competitive Differentation’ comes up as the second most prominent application of social approaches, especially since that is seen as the second most important challenge for organizations over the next two years, after growing revenue. The role of social business in attracting and retaining talent is fortunately now well recognized.
Social Media Evolves Into Social Business | Insurance Marketing HQ. As social media has expanded over the past couple of years, it is obvious the affect it has had on our society. We have now become more fast paced and invested in understanding the true definition of communication. According to the Harvard Business Review, the future of social media stands right in front of us. From Washington, with Obama utilizing Twitter for his campaign, to millions of Facebook users all around the world, it is clear that social media as something spontaneous reflecting how we behave in the real world is coming to an end. We are entering an age of social business, bringing about a purposeful, planned, orchestrated, and integrated way of doing business in a social context. This strategy allows one to complexly make a message feel personal to the outside, while on the inside, the organization is planning and navigating every move. As further evidence to the shift, one can look to technology.
Credit: Masternewmedia.org.