The Social Business Shift [Infographic]

What’s a social business all about?

Is it about having your brand on Twitter or Facebook? Is it about private social networks?

Certainly, these all play a part. But what social business is truly about is a “shift”, a move from enterprises attempting insulate itself from disruption and instead greeting it warmly.

To pull this off, organizations need to establish a more transparent environment, both externally and internally. A social business allows organizations to better solicit and understand customer feedback, to react in real-time to industry changes and not be caught flat footed. Internally, it allows communication to go from a top-down model to a back-and-forth, up-down strategy. (We’ve called this the “bathroom moment” in the past.)

This may scare some, but the reality is that the same technologies that bring the disruption are enabling businesses to organize – just in a more agile manner. The social business shift is leading to a social business economy.

We partnered with data visualization firm: JESS3 to explore this emerging ecosystem. “The Social Business Shift” infographic focuses on four key areas of business currently experiencing disruption – sales, marketing, HR and R&D – and  tools that are giving us the opportunity to adapt. It’s not meant to be exhaustive. There are far too many players to fit in one place. But we believe it gives an accurate snapshot.

You can click on the infographic below to see a larger image and save it. What’s your definition of a “social business”?