Observations from Enterprise 2.0

Every year people come together on the east coast and the west coast to discuss the next phase of the inter-web, also known as Enterprise 2.0. This year as much as previous years, thought leadership is uniting the directives that guides the ever evolving world of social media and networking. It is very encouraging to see the vision the thought leaders are sharing during this days. There are new platforms introduced and visions shared. You learned how to measure ROI in social collaboration tools or how to sell it to your executives and what trend to adopt.

Company Thinking of Social Networking
This year's focus is clearly around companies reputation based on their use of social media. Great companies are embracing transparency and are showcasing their customer service on Twitter, Facebook and other tools. Fan pages have become a community for those to evangelize around products they love. The open question at Enterprise 2.0 was "how to engage effectively engage with customers through social media". Since many people think that social media applies to their business, the fundamental question for them still were open to how to boost revenue and build deeper relationships with other businesses using social media.

Lesson's you were making throughout the session were, that social media is no longer an option, but it is a necessity that drives your organizational reputation. Ignore social engagement and your business clients will ignore you.

Simplicity
The best keynote during Enterprise 2.0 this time was certainly the presentation of Tim Young. He introduced the concept of About.me, the company he co-founded and sold to AOL in December 2010. He believes it is a template for the future of social media. He believes that simplicity is the way which ultimately aboutl.me took. In business terms, if you are asking people to do something new make sure it is simple enough for easy transition.

To summarize Enterprise 2.0, you can't ignore social media. Your coworkers, customers and competitors are in it, why do you want to ignore the benefit it can bring to you to engage!