For me, the holiday season always means a trip to see my family. And that means I have to figure out how to explain what I do. Social business strategy is anything but simple—but that doesn’t

mean talking about my work has to be difficult.

Social business? Do you do your

company’s Twitter?

So basically it’s like everyone’s got a dispatcher who

coordinates everything.

Well, social media is part of social business, yes,

but it’s more than that—

it’s a new way of working that focuses on connecting the people in a business so

they all work better together.

It can take people a little while to get their mind around it.

Lots of companies make charitable donations, sure.

But social business means helping your people communicate to find great ideas, share best practices, and learn from

each other better.Ah, so you can get

good information from someone you hadn’t

even met.

Social business—that’s about doing good deeds, right?

But, in some ways, it’s just an update of traditional, person-to-person business.

When I ran my company, I had to know everyone’s

name and face—and I got to talk to all of them.

These days, big companies have to do that to keep their customers—even global

companies with lots of offices. And they can, with the right

social business tools.Ah, so social business is just another way of

being smart about your customers.

And innovation is always a step away.

When I work on a big group project at school, I brainstorm with

my study group by videochat, from the library or soccer practice. And then we

put our ideas together in a shared document, and put all the feedback together. We’re getting great grades

on our projects.

She’s already wise to social business.

What’s really scary? She’s only in eighth grade.

Sure, it’s a little exhausting to travel home for the holidays. But it’s a great opportunity to talk more about what I do and how social business makes a difference in peoples’ work. After all, I’ve been collaborating with this

team all my life—and they’re a team that gets it.

Happy Social Business

Learn more at ibm.com/socialbusiness