Big Idea 2014: Social Business Grows Up


This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. See all the ideas here.

Sometime in the late 90s, we hit a tipping point after which it was just not acceptable to not be on email. The same thing has happened with social media. Social media is no longer optional but expected and even mandatory for both consumers and businesses.

When Steve and I pitched the original Hearsay Social business plan up and down Sand Hill Road in 2010, many venture capital firms dismissed our idea of building a social business platform because they thought Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn were passing fads headed for the same fate as MySpace and Friendster. (Thankfully, Sequoia Capital invested in March 2010.) It’s amazing that less than four years later, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are now all publicly traded (and doing quite well, I might add!) with a combined market cap of over $150 billion.

Today, there are over 1 billion monthly active users on Facebook, 259 million monthly actives on LinkedIn, and 232 million on Twitter, and businesses large and small are following suit-- social business is still one of the fastest-growing areas of investment and focus. For many organizations, social business has elevated to a CXO- and board-level imperative due to its potential for disruption, transformation, insights, and engagement by customers and employees alike.

Chart courtesy of Altimeter Group.

The first wave of social business was employee collaboration. This first wave gave rise to a number of social collaboration startups in the mid-2000s including Yammer, CubeTree, and Jive. Lotus Notes (now IBM Notes), Microsoft Sharepoint, and Salesforce Chatter were all reimagined with collaboration in mind. Before long, SAP acquired CubeTree, Microsoft acquired Yammer, and Jive went public. Now, organizations regularly promote social collaboration for everything from training and knowledge sharing to organizing social events and keeping remote employees engaged. Last year, Michael Chui and his colleagues at McKinsey conducted a massive cross-industry and geography study estimating that enterprises can unlock over $1 trillion in value from enhanced collaboration.

The next wave of social business was external and rooted in customer service, corporate marketing, and communications. The rise of Twitter in particular forced brands (many reluctantly at first) to assemble corporate social media teams to respond to questions, issues, and complaints which had been tweeted publicly.



A whopping 77% of Fortune 500 organizations now have an official social team and presence, according to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. No doubt there has been incredible business uptake of social media over the last few years. But what if this were only scratching the surface of the business value we could tap into with social media? What if the true prize is going from brand presence to empowering individuals to do the talking?

We already see this with email. Think about which emails you are most likely to open, read, and respond to. Are these part of a corporate marketing campaign, or sent from someone you know? Obviously, the latter. Today’s customers are similarly guarded against “automated marketing.” Just like you, your customers demand a personal touch as a core part of how they interact with your company and they want to do so not only via email, phone, and in person, but also--and increasingly so--through social channels.

While forward-thinking companies like Zappos have encouraged all of their employees to become social media brand ambassadors, the majority of organizations have focused on empowering externally-facing employees only, such as agents, consultants, and sales reps with existing relationships and regular interaction with customers. These efforts are highly complementary rather than competitive with corporate initiatives, and they increase the overall impact and reach of a company’s social business program.

Nationwide is a great example of this:


This financial advisor and others like him can access the Hearsay Social content library to build out their own profiles, but modification allows each to customize profiles and posts to match their personal brands.

In 2014, not only will social business continue to mature and go from optional to expected, it will get personal, and this will enable a new level of trust and relationship between your customers and your employees. Salespeople who are product pushers and cold callers will continue to lose and be on the decline. Salespeople who can become trusted advisors will win and be on the rise. These “social sellers” will increasingly connect directly with customers and prospects over social networks in a way that feels as personal and authentic as phone calls and house visits once did. And, by winning the hearts and minds of your customers and putting them at the center of your customer experience, true business transformation can finally happen.

Graphic: VLADGRIN / shutterstock

Thanks for this great post Clara. In the nonprofit world, we haven't seen this same level of the use of social media, but I think it's coming. Good to have corporate create the demand that nonprofs can learn from.

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Monica Whelan

Marketing Manager | Innovative Communicator

10y

Social media has definitely reached the maturity tipping point. We are already seeing companies taking a more "team" oriented approach to building social capital and being thoughtful regarding their choice of platform and preferences.

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Leigh Mathena

Owner/Breeder at Longshadow Australian Shepherds

10y

The same basic attributes that set businesses apart in the past remain even more valuable in this new and evolving social media world we are creating. Integrety must remain and we will prosper.

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Awesome. Thanks

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Robert Restino

Founding Member at Pinnacle Financial Advisors LLC

10y

Clara, I couldn't agree more. As my group learns more how to use these great tools, I believe our "reality" will unfold as you see it. Much of my business is by referral as it is now. We are just dipping our toes in the water with Facebook and I see only incredible potential in reaching more people in a true and valuable way. Those that mean to do good for others will prosper. Those that see these social tools for use in self-serving ways will not. It is social, people talk, and when people talk b.s. walks.

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