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8.1 Social Business and Social Enterprise 237

social purposes more than to profit-making,” and a second The Social Business Forum’s Definition
type that describes companies that “use social media to The Social Business Forum defines social business as “an
advance their business objectives.” (See webtrends.about. organization that has put in place the strategies, technologies
com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm.) and processes to systematically engage all the individuals of
The above second type is the basis for the social enterprise. its ecosystem (employees, customers, partners, suppliers) to
In summary, we view a social business as one that is built maximize the co-created value” (2012.social- businessforum.
mainly around social objective(s), while a social enterprise com/what-is-social-business). The Forum also discusses the
uses social networking to facilitate its commercial objectives. implications of this definition and its relevance, across and
A major organization dedicated to social business (refer- outside organizations. Note that an efficient creation of value
ring to itself as “social enterprise”) is the Social Enterprise using technology is emphasized.
Alliance (see se-alliance.org/what-is-social-enterprise). Three interesting videos are recommended for a better
understanding of the concept:
Social Employees
The successful social business needs to empower their employ- 1. “Social PHD Sandy Carter: How Do You Become a Social
ees (e.g., using IBM Connections). For how it is done in IBM, Business?”(1:05 min) at youtube.com/watch?v=OZy0dN
AT&T, and other large corporations, see Burgess and Burgess Qbotg
(2013). 2. “How Do You Become a Social Business?” (3:27 min) at
youtube.com/watch?v=3Hov0l7SvAo
The Social Enterprise (Enterprise 2.0) 3. “Social Business at IBM”—An Interview with Luis Suarez,
Social Computing Evangelist (8:50 min), at (youtube.com/
Social enterprise refers to the use of social media tools and watch?v=enudW2gHek0&feature=related)
platforms and conducting social networking activities in
organizations, while its major objectives are either commer- Notice that our definition of social enterprise is based on
cial or nonprofit activities (e.g., the government) (Ridley- the use of social media tools and platforms. A related topic is
Duff and Bull 2015). business networks.
The concept of the social enterprise has become a buzz-
word in recent years. For an example, see socialenterprise.
us/about/social-enterprise. Business Networks
Social enterprise applications are growing rapidly. They
appear under different names, mostly as social enterprises Business networks are a core component in the social enter-
and Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise applications are conducted prise. A business network refers to a group of people with a
inside enterprises, on companies’ private social networks or professional business relationship; for example, the relation-
portals. They also are conducted on public social networks, ships between sellers and buyers, buyers and suppliers, and
both pure business-oriented (e.g., LinkedIn), and other net- professionals and their colleagues, such as the twenty-first
works, mostly Facebook and Twitter. Major applications are Century Community at CEMEX. In this chapter, we use the
recruitment, collaboration, and problem-solving. Enterprise term buyers to refer to agents buying something for a busi-
social capabilities facilitate a new type of collaboration, ness (e.g., a purchasing agent). Such a network of people can
encourage business upgrades, and enable more vendor form business social networks, which are business-oriented
applications. networks that are built on social relationships and can exist
Most workers used social media for business purposes at off-line or online. For example, public places, such as airports
least once a week. Corporations are rushing to get involved or golf courses, provide opportunities to make new face-to-
in several innovative ways, as will be described later in this face business contacts if an individual has good social skills.
chapter. Similarly, the Internet is proving to be a good place to net-
For additional definitions, characteristics, and discussion work and connect. In this book, we address online networks.
on social enterprise, see centreforsocialenterprise.com/what- The most well known network is LinkedIn (linkedin.com).
is-social-enterprise. For a discussion about business social networks, see Bughin
For a comprehensive description, see Ridley-Duff and Bull and Chui (2013).
(2015).
Types of Business Social Networks
More Complex Definitions
There are three major types of business social networks: (a)
In addition to the above definitions, there are some defini- public networks, such as LinkedIn, which are owned and
tions that are more complex, as illustrated next. operated by independent companies, and are open to anyone