In our increasingly mobile world, all enterprise, regardless of size, needs to have an online presence.  This takes many forms including mobile websites and a social presence.  While Facebook is the largest of the social media websites, there are a multitude of options including Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and the quickly growing Pinterest.  Social coupons such as Groupon and LivingSocial are areas that also should be considered by enterprises looking to increase their social profile.

For many small business owners the idea of having to expand into the mobile and social realm is one that can be overwhelming but a necessary aspect of the business to remain competitive.  In lieu of spending large amount of capital on advertising, the social presence can act as a means of getting the name of the company out, both large and small.  With Facebook or Twitter a user is as likely to see the neighborhood pizzeria with a profile page as they are to see Target or General Motors.  By offering deals through LivingSocial and Groupon enterprises of all size can introduce their product to new audiences.

What do the experts say?

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George Zachary, a Yammer board member and partner at Charles River Ventures believes that “Businesses are inherently social, the handwriting has been on the wall, enterprise is starting to mimic the real world.”

Needham & Co., analyst Laura Martin cites Salesforce’s purchase of Buddy Media and Oracle’s acquisition of Virtue and Collective Intellect in the support of Facebook’s target price of $40.  “These commitment of new money to the social space, of which FB is the anchor tenant, imply that well-regarded public companies are valuing FB more robustly than investors are values FB.  Without a vibrant FB platform, these investments will be worth zero.”

Microsoft, a multi-billion dollar multinational enterprise, recent acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion, which is a social network for businesses, and is just one more “sign of how consumer technologies that once seemed like toys are reshaping the slower-moving corporate information technology market,” writes Nick Wingfield and Evelyn M. Rusli.  This can be seen with the initial response to the iPhone and iPad, initially they both were fun toys, now they are both being utilized more and more in the lives of businesses.

An analyst from Gartner, a technology research firm, Larry Cannell says that he expects “corporate social networking would one day become as embedded in the communication habits of big companies as other more familiar tools sold by Microsoft and others [and] it will be up there alongside e-mail.”

Business implications

There are many positive implications of introducing an enterprise to the social aspect of the internet.  While the social aspect of a business is still developing, over the next few years the importance of it will be cemented into the enterprise model, forcing executives and everyone underneath to embrace becoming social, and building up both internet and extern social networks.  “Their large networks wield tremendous power, collective intelligence and the ability to influence both employees and customers,” creating the opportunity for positive growth.  Social integration into the market might be voluntary right now, but this will not be the case for much longer when customers demand a social option to what is now standard business strategy.

 So how does an executive or owner make their enterprise social?

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Start using one new social media site

“If you have been spending all of your time on Facebook,” says Melinda Emerson of The Huffington Post, “it might be time to branch out,” and begin using a social site the enterprise is not currently using.  By widening the reach of the company and targeting a second social networking site, the enterprise can reach a new audience that might not be on the platform currently used.

TOP TOOLS

SAP

SAP AG is a world leader in enterprise applications when dealing with software and software-related services revenue.  SAP offers a multitude of solutions in several different areas such as business process applications, analytics, and technology.  The company also has specially tailored products for Small and Medium Enterprises with software made just for these businesses which “streamline your processes, drive profitable growth, reduce risk and help improve customer engagement,” while also allowing companies to unlock the value of their data to make faster and smarter decisions with analytical solutions and enabling the business to connect securely through mobile access.  While the company is typically associated with large businesses SAP is now focusing on smaller enterprises, helping more than 96,000 companies streamline their processes.

Oracle

Oracle offers dozens of solutions for any small, medium, or large enterprise.  Oracle is taking a “unique approach to cloud management” which is helping customers provision applications 84 percent faster bringing to the customers the social experience they need quicker.  Through Oracle’s WebCenter Suite 11g “provides a platform encompassing portals and Websites, composite applications, social collaboration and content management to deliver a modern user experience.”  The Oracle Social Network is a private and secure network that gives users social tools which are “designed to capture and preserve information flowing between people, enterprise applications, and business processes,” offering customers the total package in terms of social enterprise.

Salesforce

Salesforce “is the enterprise cloud computing company that is leading the shift to the Social Enterprise,” by offering both a cloud platform as well as apps, including their flagship CRM solution, which help foster collaboration among employees while allowing them to connect with customers.  Boasting more than 100,000 successful customers, Salesforce is a global force to be reckoned with in terms of the social enterprise.  The products offered by Salesforce are broken down into six distinct areas: Sell, Service, Collaborate, Extend, Market, and Work with products specifically designed for these areas.  Social enterprise is embodied in Market, through Heroku and Radian6; Extend, through AppExchange and Database.com; Collaborate, through Chatter and Do.com; Service, through Desk.com and Service Cloud; and Sell, through Sales Cloud.

Jive

Jive Platform “provides the industry’s richest feature set for collaboration, sharing and connection,” through an easy to use program giving business owners one-step solutions.  Jive offers four out-of-the-box social solutions for businesses, Jive for Teams, Social Intranet, Social Customer Service, and Social Marketing & Sales based upon the Jive Platform offering rapid results. The Platform “combines all the enterprise-class businesses require, plus an elegant consumer-style experience,” that allows users the ability to launch viral social networks.  The latest platform was introduced in May, and includes such industry-first features “that redefine what’s possible:” Jive Anywhere, Jive !App Experiences, Jive Edge, and Jive Find.

Social enterprise is still developing, but it is the future, and any business that wishes to remain competitive is going to have to address their social enterprise strategies going into the future.