Top 5 Videos on Social Business and Enterprise Social Networks

What exactly is Social Business? What is an Enterprise Social Network? Why Should I care?

Trying to explain to clients and colleagues the concept of Social Business, Enterprise Social Networks (ESN’s) and their value proposition is often complicated. Even when you spend a significant amount of time explaining what Social Business is or what an ESN can do, I have found that the old cliché is often true, “Show me, Don’t Tell me“.

The fact is that for many people, a visual example of a concept or idea is much easier to understand than having someone describe something, whether by word of mouth or in writing. That was certainly the case when I was consulting for Pernod Ricard and helping them launch an Enterprise Social Network. I had many conversation with people, trying to convey what the ESN would look like and how it would enhance their day-to-day work. Sometimes people got it, but many times I could see by looking at their faces that they had no idea what I was talking about.

It was then that I decided that the best way to convey this information is to give them a visual example of what I was talking about. We hadn’t built and deployed the ESN yet so I couldn’t show them a live environment with good case studies to demonstrate the value. Instead, I reached out to Kevin Jones who has created some of the best videos I have seen that explain the concept of social business and collaborative technologies. I asked Kevin to create some videos, using actual employees from Pernod as examples, that can demonstrate the value of ESN’s and social collaboration. The result was fabulous and employees at Pernod Ricard really began to understand what we were trying to accomplish.

In an effort to help others who are having a hard time conveying the value of Social Business and Enterprise Social Networks, I have gathered a collection of my favorite videos that demonstrate the concept and promise of enterprise collaboration and social networking:

My first go to video is a video by Kevin Jones titled. “Business Practices That Refuse to Die #44: Email Trees“. This is an excellent video that very clearly illustrates why collaboration technologies are better than email when trying to communicate with more than one person. I usually will start a client presentation by showing this video.

The next video is from Socialcast an ESN vendor. I like the video because it gives a really great illustration of Why Companies Need Enterprise Social Networks and list various ways in which an ESN can help in your day-to-day work.

This next video “Have I Shared Too Much?” is a humorous slant of social networking in the work place. It demonstrates people who don’t have an understanding of how to use social technologies for work purposes. Warning the video is 12 minutes long but well worth viewing it if you have the time.

The next video is not actually one video but a series of videos on social business adoption best practices. The series entitled the IBM Social Business Coffee Break is a great series of videos from Sandy Carter who is the Vice President for Social Business Sales and Evangelism at IBM. In this very useful series, Sandy gives 10 best practices on social business adoption. The video below is the first video in the series.

The last of my favorite videos on the value of social business is actually not about a business at all. It’s a video that illustrates how the Obama campaign in 2012 was able to take advantage of the Salesforce.com platform and social business technologies to succeed in their quest to re-elect President Obama. It is a truly inspirational video and one that demonstrates what is possible with social business technologies.

Do you know of other videos that do a good job at demonstrating and explaining the values of a social business and enterprise social networks? If so please share them in the comment section below.

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