Social business (the use of internal and external social media, software and data) is growing in its importance to organizations around the world, according to a new study released by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte. This year, 36% of the 2,545 respondents from 25 industries and 99 countries said that social business is very important to their business today, double last year’s 18% ascribing that level of importance. But despite a host of positive signs, separate results suggest that “the majority of companies… appear to be stuck in first gear” on the road to becoming social businesses.
The researchers asked respondents: “Imagine an organization transformed by social tools that drive collaboration and information sharing across the enterprise and integrate social data into operational processes. How close is your company to achieving this ideal?” (This presumably is the social business ideal.) Faced with this definition, a majority 52% of respondents said that their social maturity remains at an early stage (1-3 on a 10-point scale). Slightly less than one-third rate their maturity as developing (4-7), while 17% are in the “maturing” bucket (7-10). Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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