Remember when e-business was first coined by IBM in 1997. Yes that's the same company that is trying to make the world a smarter planet. These days IBM has its sights deadlocked on what it describes as social business.

What is it and why is it important for today's brands?

Let's think beyond social media and the digital properties that help brands spark conversation, engage auidences, and build advocacy. Social business is a culture of authenticity, dialogue, and collaboration.

Welcome to the world of social business.

Consumers now wield unprecedented power over how brands are perceived and purchases are made. Crowdsourcing is changing industry landscapes by leveling the intelligence playing field at an extraordinary rate. In addition, employees are demanding social tools in the workplace, and are actively sidestepping established hierarchies and IT processes to use them. As a result, the world finds itself at a transformative point with regard to how business is done.

The following demo video for Cars.com provides an excellent window into the power of social business and why its important for today's brands.

The preceding video does a good job of showing how consumers tap into their networks and harness the value of recommendations to make purchasing decisions. Think of social business as an opportunity to increase value, drive conversation, and build a culture of collaboration.

Here are three characteristics of a social business:

• Engaged—deeply connecting people, including customers, employees, and partners, to be involved in productive, efficient ways.
• Transparent—removing boundaries to information, experts and assets, helping people align every action to drive business results.
• Nimble—speeding up business with information and insight to anticipate and address evolving opportunities.

Welcome to a new arena of social that goes beyond the popular microblogs of the day and into a new plateau for business efficiency and consumer value.

“The internet, at this time in history, is the greatest client assignment of all time. It’s offering you a blank check and asking you to come up with something fascinating and useful that it can embrace en masse, to the benefit of everyone” (Koczon, 2012)

Design and Communications are the tools of the modern day farmer. We have the potential to plant seeds of prosperity, impact, and progress or the seeds of complacency, distraction, and destruction.

We are enabled as communicators and powered by design to deliver good. The internet is a platform and not the panacea that some make it out to be. One aspect of the digital landscape that is garnering immense attention is the proliferation of apps.

Take Instagram: it’s one of the most popular services on the “web” and the entire experience is controlled not by some HTML pages, but rather by an iPhone app. Twitter and Facebook are just as popular—if not more so—via native apps for various platforms (iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, etc.) than they are on the browser-based web. As “web designers,” we have to start realizing that our job is no longer solely to produce sites, apps, and pages built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We have to expand our definition of what the “web” is. More and more, the “web” is not a platform. It’s a service with clients on many platforms. Wired Magazine called it the “death” of the web. I call it an evolution. (Croft, 2011)

“Clients on many platforms” sure sounds like integrated marketing communications.

Those who specialize in bringing orchestration to chaos in customer touch points will enhance experiences and drive meaningful interactions. We as consumers make this a difficult task with our constant motion and desire for that which is fresh, creative, and inspiring.

You wake up one morning inspired ready to take hold of the future and create a social movement. Maybe it was a simple question that caught your attention and interest or perhaps a little unexpected motivation. The next thing you know…you’re in hyper-drive fully engaged in the transformation from brainstorming to the awesome arena of…action! Armed with the strength and reach of the internet, your every desire is to plant a seed, water it, and watch it grow!

The passion and fire we experience in those moments of ideation and inspiration should serve as the fuel to keep the train moving full speed ahead.

However, the road to actualization and reality can be quite ferocious causing us to lose sight of our values, mission, and what really matters.

Following are four helpful steps for making sure your influential and game-changing group is in for the long haul. (And I’m not even diving into the dynamics of contingency planning!)

Communicate with Your Audience

It is vital during all stages of growth to communicate expectations.

Empower Your People

The old saying is true. There is indeed power in synergy.

Trust Your Trailblazers

These are the individuals who have the passion, dedication, and genuine interest to help your community flourish and inspire a Revolución.

Stay True To Your Roots

Everyone has a reason for starting something big or small. As organizations and communities evolve we must stay true to our roots of authenticity, resonance, likability, approachability, and passion.

Final Takeaways

It’s not the size of your organization that matters but rather the people that make it tick.

And remember…every opportunity is a chance to build a bridge or cut down support cables.

Have fun, thrive, and watch your baby grow!

10. General Electric
9. China Mobile
8. Marlboro
7. at&t
6. Coca-Cola
5. Microsoft
4. McDonalds
3. IBM
2. Google

And number one...

#1. Apple at $153.29 (Brand Value in Billions)

Very interesting special from the New York Times on the negative dynamics of today's technologies.

Twitter is not just 'en vogue'...it is a powerful microblogging platform and engagement tool.

The reason for this post is due to an interesting conversation which took place today in which tweets were under direct attack as being just some miscelaneous recreational undertaking. Sorry but for those of us who use twitter on an almost daily basis understand its true importance and impact in helping us communicate, network, and become informed. For some, twitter is just the new kid on the block and for others it is an essential component of creating a strong online presence.

Here are two good sights full of statistics to share and help you make the most of those "So what?" conversations.

50 twitter goodies

The Ultimate List: 100+ twitter stats

However, some still forget about the ultimate shortcut to engagement and relevance.

Content.

Quality content can be the key that unlocks new doors of opportunity and influence.

Content matters.

Our environment is ripe with information, updates, entertainment, and a variety of media. Emotions lead to a strong desire to express ourselves. Oftentimes, we run to the internet to stake our claim, make our case, or just plain vent without considering the potential outcome of our digital rants.

We tend to forget that the internet is a massive vault in which our ideas, expressions, thoughts, and opinions are easily stored but not easily removed. The tasks involved with erasing a tweet, removing a blog post, or shutting down a website can be numerous and challenging making it important for us as content producers and social media participants to remember what we publish will make its way to the visual aperture of today's audiences. It is almost impossible to avoid the trap of disregard in the online arena.

Before you tweet...blog...or comment...think twice.

Kind of like measuring twice before you cut that last piece of lavish mahogany.

Communication is an integral component of building rewarding relationships. Paul Ford, a Project Manager for Digital Marketing agencies in London, provides us with some keen insight into the communication arena and context of shared meaning.

If communication is to involve shared meaning, five principles must exist to create variables to the context of communication. These are: transaction; interaction; irreversible and unrepeatable; culture-specific; and content and relationships.

1. Communication is a transactional process: a transaction is a business or activity that is carried through to settlement. It is a continuous process where elements are constantly changing. Sometimes, it can appear to be going around in circles. During conversation, each party requires a response after talking, and the conversation only exists as long as these transactions take place.

2. Communication is an interactional process: interaction must occur for communication to exist. Interaction can also include no interaction. If the second party does not respond to the first party’s statement, interaction has still taken place. There may be several meanings to this. The second party may not have heard the first party, or the second party may be deliberately not answering. Further transactions are required to establish the meaning of the initial interaction.

3. Communication is an irreversible and unrepeatable process: every communication is a unique event. It can be repeated later, but not exactly. Some elements will change, possibly voice tone, volume or expression. An actor might repeat the same lines in a play for many years, but some performances will stand out more than others. In that case, the actor’s attitude and mood on any given night can affect the communication. The performance of the other actors will also be an important element that is constantly changing every time the play is performed.

4. Communication is a culture-specific process: different cultures interpret the same communication message in different ways. In some cultures, it is considered inappropriate to look into someone’s eyes when speaking with them, whereas in other cultures it is considered to be a sign of openness and honesty. A hand gesture that is a sign of approval in one culture, may be an insult in another culture.

5. Communication is about content and relationships: messages in communication may have multiple meanings. Both the spoken word and the written word can have hidden meanings. This is sometimes referred to as “reading between the lines”. The relationship between the people communicating can alter the shared meaning. The words “I love you” spoken between two lovers has a different meaning than if spoken between a parent and a child.

Source: http://paulford.com/shared-meaning-and-the-communication-process/