Call it Enterprise 2.0 or social business, the semantics don’t really matter here.  The point is that we are seeing a shift in how organizations are functioning internally and how they are interacting with their consumers (externally).  We’re going to get into this in much greater detail in upcoming posts but for now let’s start off with the basics.

There are essentially two social business challenges that companies must face; internal and external.  Internal challenges can be things such as supply chain inefficiencies or lack of internal knowledge sharing.  External challenges can include things such as increasing sales, getting more customers, and increasing brand awareness and positive brand sentiment.  Most social media consultants consistently refer to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as part of their recommendations for “social media strategies.”

There is more to social business than Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.  If this is the core tool-set that you are offering to clients then start looking for another job now because you’re in trouble.  Yes the tools mentioned above do have some enterprise level business value but they are mainly outward (consumer) facing and even then they are still not the only ones you can utilize.  If a large organization is struggling with supply chain inefficiencies you’re not going to tell them to get on Twitter or to create a Youtube channel (well, I hope you’re not).

It’s interesting because when most people think about social media they think about platforms such as Twitter and Facebook but there are a lot of other software solutions and applications that exist in the space.  The goal of social business is to identify challenges and opportunities that companies are faced with and to utilize social or “collaborative” approaches to solve those challenges and to take advantage of those untapped business opportunities.

Thinking of social business, social media, or enterprise 2.0 in Twitter and Facebook terms is a fallacy.  The whole point of this post is to say that there’s a lot more out there besides Twitter and Facebook.  Tools are just tools, success comes from process and from strategy, the tools simply act as…tools.  Again, I’m hoping to talk a lot more about this in upcoming posts but for now let’s start with thinking beyond the tools that we use on an everyday basis.  Here are a few things for you guys to check out:

• Crowdcast
  • Prediction markets for forecasting (one of my new favorite software solutions)
• Jive
  • Enterprise social software solution
• LiquidPlanner
  • Online project management and collaboration

These are just a small sample of some of the software solutions that solve real business challenges for enterprise companies.  Have any other you want to recommend?