Here are the 10 steps to consider for social transformation:
1. Think of the social enterprise as a core competency, not an add-on. As Wendy Arnott, VP of social media at TD Bank said during a presentation at Connect2012, "You have to align with the core values of the company." Treating social as something that takes place in human resources or marketing will doom the project to inactivity.
2. Think way beyond technology. Creating the social enterprise uses technology, but it is not a technology project. Tying together dispersed groups into development teams utilizes technology, but must come from a top-down leadership commitment.
3. Acknowledge risks. The idea of a transparent, open enterprise is a difficult concept to champion in many companies--particularly in heavily regulated operations. As Arnott outlined, you should face the risks head on, build a team that includes legal, security, and other departments, and work through the list, until you get to the risks that cannot be discounted and must be part of the social enterprise plan
4. Think mobile from the outset. Mobility has to be an integral part of the social enterprise. Your employees are mobile, your customers are mobile, and tablet and smartphone use will only increase.
5. Start small. Model your use of social tools for collaboration and communication starting with small groups from across your company. Work out the bugs with those groups, then roll out the social capabilities in stages. This is not unlike traditional enterprise software deployment strategy, but you'll need to operate at a faster pace and be ready for comparisons with consumer social networking tools.
6. Think single sign-on. That's a key social enterprise element, along with a single content management system and an employee skills and capabilities database. Multiple systems requiring multiple sign-ons only lead to confusion and lack of use
7. Don't bet on immediate ROI. The biggest return on investment may not be immediately apparent. Michael Chui, a senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, told Connect2012 attendees that faster product development, faster speed of access to internal experts, and faster time to market capabilities have all surfaced in McKinsey's research into the social business. But those benefits are often not immediately quantifiable from a project's outset.
8. Apply analytics to the social network. This may be one of the biggest differences if you compare creating a social business to merely doing social activities. You need to use the business intelligence techniques that you have applied to the internal workings of your company to the external operations, including brand and customer sentiment.
9. Bring customers into the company-wide social network. Restricting customer interaction to customer service centers and help desks is a prescription for failure. Customers are obviously the best source of information about how your company is perceived and performing. Those customer interactions need to be visible throughout your organization.
10. Question your speed. "Are you as an organization learning as fast as the world is changing?" That was the big question posed by William Taylor, founding editor of Fast Company. Taylor, the author of Practically Radical, told the Connect2012 audience that it's the transformation to a fast learning company that will distinguish winners from losers in the socially networked economy.
As I stated earlier, IBM is not alone in offering up a social business agenda. Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and many other vendors in the enterprise space have their own products and services, of course. My advice is not to get too caught up in the product feature-by-feature comparisons. Use these 10 steps to build a broad social strategy, then use it to judge vendor offerings.
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