Social Media Requires Business Process Integration

Strapping new tools onto old processes is a common problem when enterprise start using social media. Enterprise Social Media often requires a process integration effort to harvest online community and collaboration as it can change the way business is being done.

Take for example a client-focused online community – a private area for say 10,000 of your key clients and prospects. You create a community and launch content, user generated content opportunities, forums, polls, etc… the usual suspects. You spend a 6 months focused on this beautiful thing, it launches, clients and prospects love it, and everyone is thrilled. This is a good thing.

Now, the typical enterprise is not stupid. They rose to be a sizable organization for a good reason! But, somehow, because new media is, well, new… companies often don’t know what to do with the assets created by the social media. Sure, they are celebrated, and touted as valuable, maybe even a few good case studies get built: about how social media was able to help support a conference business by bringing in additional enterprise attendees, or maybe it saved a critical client relationship, but so often the integration-point between social media initiatives and business process are not really crafted to support each other. But they should be as that was likely the reason the social media project was begun in the first place, right?

So, take a look at where the business process gaps are within sales, marketing, even product development etc. and also examine your social media efforts with a critical eye. Link the two processes, and create repeated and repeatable measures so they can support each other. Make good use of the data and outcomes of social media through-out your organization. It’s just a matter of time before “new media” loses its “new” luster and you will be ahead of the curve if you build in business process alignment.