The Difference Between a Social Brand and a Social Business

I don’t like to debate with people because I am not really good at it.  And, for what it’s worth, I don’t think this was an actual debate but more of a discussion.

A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel about social media and social business. It was a conversation that included Chris Heuer, Founder of the Social Media Club as Moderator, Peter Kim of Dachis Group, Jen McClure of Thomas Reuters and me.  Much of the discussion revolved around definitions.

In my mind, social media is a verb, an action … I communicate with my friends family using social media.

Companies use social media to connect with customers.  On the other hand, a social brand and social business is a noun.  A company that uses social media to connect with the community is a social brand; and companies that focus on internal culture change, collaboration, etc. are trying to achieve social business status.

To help, I put this little graphic together that explains the difference.  Of course, these are just my thoughts and I welcome your feedback, support and even criticism.The difference here is clear and broken down:

Social Brand

- Core Focus: External Communications
– Company Participants: Corporate communications and in some cases customer support
– Chief Mandate: Engagement with the social customer and the external community
– Measurement: Measuring clicks, impressions, engagement, likes, comments, etc
– Budgets: Budget allocated towards Advertising and PR agencies, community management, Facebook  applications, blog development
– Collaboration: Little to no internal collaboration needed to be somewhat effective
– Difficulty Level: Easy

Social Business

- Core Focus: Operations & Change Management
– Company Participants: Business leaders, employees in every job function across the organization
– Chief Mandate: Engagement with internal teams, channel partners; focus on governance, process and technology
– Measurement: Measuring employee participation, # of employees trained, process efficiencies, etc.
– Budgets: Budget allocated towards “consultative” agencies, internal social technologies, training and change management initiatives
– Collaboration: Collaboration is imperative  to its success of becoming a social business
– Difficulty Level: Hard, Very Hard.

I write at length about this very topic in my upcoming book , Smart Business, Social Business: A Playbook for Social Media in Your Organization scheduled to be released in July 2011. You can pre-order by clicking on the below book cover. Thank you for your support.

Originally published on Britopian