By Christopher Carfi, entrepreneur and CEO of Cerado, Inc

Churchill famously stated, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The fact that many “social media” startups have shuttered their doors in recent months as the global financial crisis has dragged on may, in time, prove to illustrate a similar sentiment.

Although “social” currently is often under the purview of communications-oriented media functions within an organization, the concepts are finding their way into every aspect of the business.  Three quick examples:

• Communities such as InnoCentive (http://www.innocentive.com) are using social business concepts to bring together “Seekers” and “Solvers” with a goal of rapidly accelerating fundamental areas of business innovation.

• Internal product development teams are using tools with heavy social components such as Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com) for product and project management.

• Customer support is being “socialized” with communities such as those driven by GetSatisfaction (http://www.getsatisfaction.com), which provides infrastructure for “people-powered” customer service.

In fact, “social” seems to be affecting nearly every aspect of business.  A great example of this is an interview with John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, that appeared in August in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/02corner.html )

In 2001, we [Cisco] had a near-death experience. We went from the most valuable company in the world to a company where they questioned the leadership. And in 2003, he [Jack Welch] called me up and said, “John, you now have a great company.” I said, “Jack, it doesn’t feel like it.” But he was right.

Q. How has your leadership style evolved over time?

A. I’m a command-and-control person. I like being able to say turn right, and we truly have 67,000 people turn right. But that’s the style of the past. Today’s world requires a different leadership style — more collaboration and teamwork, including using Web 2.0 technologies. If you had told me I’d be video blogging and blogging, I would have said, no way. And yet our 20-somethings in the company really pushed me to use that more.

Q. Did you need to be pushed?

A. I thought I was very leading-edge in terms of how I communicated. My team just kept pushing, and I finally said, “Why do you want me to do this?” And they said: “John, if you don’t do it our company won’t learn how to do this. It won’t be built into our DNA for the way we interface with customers, our employees. The top has to walk the talk.” I was expecting text blogging and we did video blogging.

The first one was a little bit uncomfortable, because it’s very unprofessional. You just basically put a camera there, and you go. By the second one, I realized this was going to transform communications — not just for the C.E.O., but it would change how we do business.”

Did you catch that last part?  “It would change how we do business.”

Social affects every aspect of the organization.

Marketer’s How-To, From The 60 Second Marketer

1. Realize that business is changing, and your business will need to change also.
2. Like Cisco, your changes need to come from the top if you expect everyone to come on board.
3. Figure out what services your company can provide to encourage better social interactions among your followers.

++++++

Christopher Carfi is an entrepreneur and CEO of Cerado, Inc. In December 2009, he was named One of the Smartest People in Social Media. His blog, The Social Customer Manifesto, is a “Top 25″ marketing blog, and has won numerous other awards including “Top CRM Blog” in 2005 and 2007.

++++++

Friday, January 22nd, 2010, 7:06 am   |   Social Media  |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback