Social business strategy – an example @ DELL

Hello,

I have come across an interesting article on a recent evolution in corporate strategy, the so-called social business strategy. The article presents the strategic approach of Dell on how to employ social media to a) communicate with customers, b) promote the flow of information in internal networks, and c) foster social innovation in the organization.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2011/12/01/dell-social-business-strategy-the-secret-sauce/

According to the article, Dell is dedicated to constantly improve its social media appearance and devotes a large amount of resources to achieve this. For example, Dell employs several thousand “social media professionals” that take care of the various social media channels and communities of Dell.

This interesting link is also in the article: http://socialbusinessindex.com/

The index ranks companies according to their social media activity.

I strongly believe in order to be successful, organizations must define a strategy on how to leverage internal and external networks and how to effectively use social media technology. To achieve the required coverage in the organization, a social business strategy should be part of the corporate strategy definition.

Note: The article also talks about Dell’s efforts towards social responsibility (i.e. doing something for the greater good), which displays the problems in defining the magnitude of a social business strategy. Where does a company set the boundaries of its social business strategy? Is it limited to the use of social media to foster internal and external social networks? Or should it also include the corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches of a company?