Putting the business into social software

While social media is a roaring success in the consumer world and has found a worthwhile role in the B2C environment, it is still struggling to find a position within business. Its consumer roots have tainted its perception as a business tool despite its obvious ability to support group collaboration and interaction within businesses and their ecosystems – and do it securely.

One of the problems is that the loose and unstructured nature of social media is not a good fit within business where there are things that need to be done, on schedule and in a particular way. The latest insight from the ESASViews research stream - Is social software an enterprise proposition? - looks at social collaboration software – collaboration software with social capabilities layered through it – and its impact within business. This is an active area for suppliers and the key is to add structure and integrate social with line of business applications and business processes, without losing sight of the ad hoc discovery aspects that make social media what it is.

The combination of social software and business process management software and services could be a potent combination for suppliers looking to generate revenue from the social scene. Actual revenue from social software is low, social BPM could provide the reason for businesses to unlock their social budgets. Eligible subscribers can read the research here. Those of you who don’t have an subscription will find that Deborah Seth (dseth@techmarketview.com) will be happy to provide you with information on how you can get one.   

Posted by Angela Eager at '10:18' - Tagged: socialmedia   software