The 2013 CMO Survey, a group created back in 2008 (Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, McKinsey & Company, AMA, etc.), predicted earlier this year, social media spending as a percentage of marketing budgets, will more than double over the next few years.  Currently social media accounts for approximately 8% of marketing spending according to the CMO Survey; 11.5% within a year; 22% within five years.  A year ago, IBM published their Global 2012 survey of 1,700 CEOs.  The survey revealed that only 16% of CEOs were active on social media.  They projected that 57% were expected to be more involved over the next 3-5 years.

Why are companies waiting?  It is time to build a social enterprise!

Based on what I have learned as I continue my online experimentations, the foundation of a social enterprise will require four basic steps as follows:

1.      Knowledge Workers – Employees who exhibit “social smarts” thanks to their ability to embrace social technologies that improve their overall communication and collaborative skills.  Consequently knowledge workers will be better informed.  This first step requires training and resources!

2.  Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – Once trained, knowledge workers will connect and get closer to their key customers via ongoing engagement.

3. Collaboration – McKinsey projected back in 2012, knowledge workers will increase their productivity as high as 20 to 25 percent due to their ability to collaborate more effectively via social tools (e.g., company intranet) both internally and externally (e.g., key suppliers).

4.   Big Data – The final step!  Big Data will be the byproduct of any company that embraces social technologies. The key will be to assign skilled resources to analyze Big Data in real time.  As a result, social enterprises will make better decisions across the board that result in increased profitability.

Social Enterprise Smarts = Profitability Plu$.  Are you ready to walk the talk?