Comments on: A social business definition from Clearlyso

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:11:59 +0000

Nice to see that our definition makes sense to you…

All the best,

Thomas, ClearlySo UK

By: Colin Henderson

Colin Henderson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:03:04 +0000

@Ron … thats a terrific point you note there. Three years ago it was the “social economy” which I always had issues with.

That said there is something related to ethics, morals, and lack of trust in corporations. That suggests there is a better way. Whether something social is the answer remains toe be seen. Certainly it is an open question on the impact of group surveillance of corporate activities and actions. The good in it can be overwhelmed by the instinct of lemmings that we see in Twitter RT’s, which are higher than original input by orders of magnitude.

This really is an ‘over a beer’ conversation!

By: Ron Shevlin

Ron Shevlin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:02:18 +0000

Years ago I read a book called Beyond The Hype (I think that was the title) written by some Harvard professors (I think).

One of the points the authors made was that there’s great power in a label that’s NOT clearly defined. (I think “reengineering” was the example they used).

The power in a loosely defined term is that it enables many people to define it how they want to, and make it their own.

This is what’s happening with “social”: It’s not good enough anymore to have a CRM strategy, you have to have a Social CRM strategy. You have to adopt social media and social networking. And so on.

What anyone person means when they use the term social is likely to be different than the next 9 people use it.

Trying to legislate or gain consensus on a definition is a losing battle.