Social media is the fastest adopted media in human history.  Organizations are working hard to catch up and quickly realizing that a social business is a connected business. Spending on the enterprise social market is expected to increase steadily to an estimated $4.5 billion by 2016. The integration of social media across all aspects of an organization to maximize efficiencies results in a myriad of benefits including: Enhanced communications across the supply chain of day to day activities. More opportunities for collaboration amongst organizational silos. Heightened focus on the frontline provides faster customer feedback and response time. Organizations can quickly address any quality concerns and use shared data to develop products that are more aligned with customer needs. Sharing of cost minimization ideas across organizational silos. Heightened employee engagement and productivity. Enhancement of work flow along the supply chain. Inspires employees to have fun at work while doing good things. Breakdown of internal barriers.  Business are often created in silos that don’t communicate well with each other. Integration allows employees to communicate across organizational boundaries.      

It seems like not that long ago that my previous employer instated a company-wide ban on social media websites and blocked us from accessing any of them from our company computers. It also seems like it wasn’t that long after that they lifted the ban and rolled out the enterprise social network Yammer and encouraged its use. So why the about-face? How did social media go from being a workplace pariah to an invaluable business tool? For companies like my previous employer—and many others that deal in consumer products—one of the key benefits to an enterprise social network is collaboration. Collaboration breeds innovation and innovation is key to success when new ideas and products are your business.