A perfect pitch for enterprise social software

One of the last dinosaurs to turn towards social software has rightly been the entreprise. I say “rightly” because corporations are usually more concerned about the real value and meaning of a combined investment and change in modus operandi than a lot of the digirati. They are hard to convince and close a sale on.

However I do think this is changing. And to be honest it’s not because of any new features or value propositions that the vendors are offering.

No, its because the alternative towards not thinking about enterprise social software is WORSE than doing it. Reading Jeremiah Owyang’s post on his work analysing community platforms, it seems quite clear to me that the near perfect sales pitch for someone trying to sell an entreprise social software solution to a corporation would go along these lines:

Look, you know the people in your organization are starting to embrace social software in different shapes and forms. Looking at it from the point of the enterprise, what would you rather have? That they use the services available out there, but which you cannot hope to begin to control, for work related things or offer them a complete suite of social software designed to increase knowledge sharing and subsequent productivity and the bottom line at your company? Its up to you.

The good news in the latter proposition is that this is something that IT can get engaged in and try to manage in a way that doesn’t compromise the enterprise too much. It’s something senior management can monitor. And by tailoring it to the specific needs of the enterprise, there’s a good chance that it will have the best achievable impact on the business as such.

What’s not to like about that?

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.