When someone uses social media platforms for personal use, the focus is simply about updating your followers about what is happening in your life or sharing cool content. For businesses, social media is a much trickier nut to crack. This is why businesses need to change their focus on how they use social media, by adopting the idea of “social business“.

David Armano, EVP, Global Innovation & Integration, Edelman Digital, was a speaker at a session titled, “The End of Social Media & The Beginning of Social Business”

His main point from the session is how businesses need to focus on scale and finding presence on the global stage, “It may not be the end of social media exactly, but the days of ad hoc and chaotic social initiatives may be coming to a close. As medium sized and large organizations come to the realization that “social” needs integration across multiple business functions, they will take the first step toward social business integration.

While social media may be measured in likes and followers, the success of social business initiatives will be evaluated by how effectively they can scale and be executed globally. In his session, David will outline the co-dependent relationship between social brand and business, and outline the migration path from developing media which is socialized, to truly becoming a connected business.”

One of the biggest hurdles businesses are facing in trying to grow their brand is they have to rely on the fickle, and strong reactions of the users. Nearly 70 percent of information on the internet is created by individuals, and the population of the digital universe is growing at a heightened rate.

Relying on individuals and customers creates a dichotomy for businesses. It allows consumers to become advocates for a business, but it also provides them an avenue to become a detractor. Having this split has changed the focus of a lot of businesses, increasing the importance of trust and transparency. Instead of simply relying on a quality product or service.

Community management has become a staple for businesses due to the need of staying in constant contact with consumers. Community managers are seen as ambassadors for an organization. They need to learn the Five C’s of Community:

Content (start with content)
Context (understand how your community wants to engage, where, why)
Connectivity (people know how their community works, and see a need, and know how others can help and connect accordingly)
Continuity (loook at social as a continous thing and keeping doing it. iterate and improve)
Collaboration (whether it’s internal or fb, if you have people collaborating over your business, that’s a good metric)

A strategy many businesses are starting to adopt, is using social media as an internal as much as an external platform. This creates an organic transition, and keeps social media in the minds of everyone in the company.

All of these various factors, and outlooks represent how social media is in a complete transition period for businesses. Their focus needs to change, and become more transparent for consumers. Their most important platform for increasing brand image.