Why It Makes Economic Sense to Use Social Business Technologies

Using social business tools makes economic sense. Leveraging these technologies can help midsize businesses deliver more value to their customers, identify new opportunities, and move quickly - all features that can help businesses be more successful in the current economic climate, according to a recent IBM report. To gain these benefits, midsize enterprises must take advantage of social tools both inside and outside the enterprise.

Internal Social Business Tools

We have all become familiar with social media, especially some of the bigger sites like Twitter and Facebook; but did you know that innovative companies are using similar tools within the enterprise to enhance internal communication? Often, these social business tools function almost identically to their external counterparts. For example, employees can have profile pages where they can post their status, making it easy to see at a glance when the people you want to get together are available for meetings. Project teams can use shared workspace so that everyone has access to the latest project documentation. Brainstorming can become easier by using technology that mimics what happens in a Twitter chat.

These are just a few examples of how social tools make communication easier, with a resulting increase in productivity and decrease in unnecessary meetings. Using social technologies can also help midsize enterprises share information across the organization. This results in better-informed employees and enhances productivity, creativity, and innovation.

External Social Information

Speaking of innovation, accessing social data generated outside the enterprise can also make economic business sense. That’s because most of your customers spend a lot of time online. Their interactions on social networks and on your website can give midsizes a clear indication of what matters to them. Knowing what your customers want is half the battle when it comes to delivering products and services that will wow them. Midsize enterprises can go one step further and use social technologies to interact with their customers and deliver exceptional customer service. In an era where some companies are still not using these technologies, adopting these methods provides an obvious competitive advantage.

Implementing Social in Your Midsize

How can midsizes gain the economic benefits of using social technologies? To do so means working closely with IT administrators. At the start of the cycle, administrators need to know what users’ priorities are for both internal and external communication. That helps with identifying the right social business software solutions. Then it’s a matter of installing and configuring the system and helping users learn its capabilities. Once that is done, IT administrators can take a step back and focus on the behind-the-scenes work of keeping data secure, an essential role in a more open communication culture. Meanwhile midsizes can continue to enjoy the economic and competitive gains that come from using social business technologies.