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At it’s core, social business is more than a marketing tactic or new social media endeavor. It is a major shift in how a company does business, both internally and externally. Social businesses reach a fully transparent environment that allows it to better learn and apply customer experiences, and make agile and quick changes to stay up to speed with the industry and their markets.
This can be a deep concept to grasp at first, but the reality is that the same technologies that are facilitating the disruption are enabling businesses to become more agile. Social is not just contained in one department, but it fully permeates the culture of a company and integrates into the work of every department.
The Social Business Shift Infographic from Eloqua gives an insightful look at the old and new business paradigms companies are operating in and how it specifically impacts HR, marketing, sales and R&D.
It is likely many companies are still operating somewhere in between these two paradigms — with a focus on new social business goals but operating in the old paradigm and using old methods to try to reach those new goals.
What is your definition of a social business? How do you think it is revolutionizing the way companies do business?
Strategy + Research 
Hey Amy
Thanks for sharing this. I agree with you that most companies are probably operating somewhere inbetween the two paradigms and am personally not convinced that they will easily shift over to the “new” paradigm. I think key to this is that companies like to stay in control and social media is just too much of a loose canon to fully entrust one’s brand and product to.
I must comment on the infographic in that it aims to communicate something but I found that it doesn’t really communicate much, save to pit one paradigm against the other, but without actually getting into where the defined paradigms actually come from (i.e. the underlying data that makes them conclude their paradigm decisions). When analysing information, we must be careful to ensure that we are indeed buying into a new trend and not just somebody’s idea of a new trend. We must also be careful that people are not pushing their own agenda for the sake of promoting themselves. Thus, whilst his infographic may be based on someone’s real data, I don’t see it as a swinger to change a company’s business practices.
All the best
Darryl