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When I think about business, I know there are many components to factor in when truly building. You can have the best idea in the world, but nothing happens until action is set forth. Ideas, drive, ambition are all great things. But it is action that gets the ball moving.  Would you agree?

There are many brilliant CEO’s out there that have put ideas into action. But most of them would tell you that it’s not all about them. To have any successful business, it’s the people, supporters, buyers who actually make or break an organisation. So the big questions here are how are you serving THEM, and what can you do in 2010 to satisfy the whole of your organisation?

2009 was a major marker in the growth of social media for business purposes. More and more organisations turned to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in order to reach their stakeholders.  Facebook, as of December 2, reached an astronomical number of 350 million users. Mashable.com explains that it grew roughly 50 million users every three months.  However, it was Twitter who took the cake in expansion with their open platform of real-time communication, causing Facebook to shift their strategy by incorporating not only Twitter feeds, but Friendfeed as well.

This is the smart part about it. Facebook, rather than trying to come up with its own ways of competing with Twitter, they embraced it, incorporating this social media platform along with Friendfeed. That’s not to say that Facebook isn’t going to stop making features that are user-friendly with its fans. No, this development will continue. But what it will also continue to do is embrace what new developments come out, outside of them.

This brings me to think about collaboration, social sites, and turning 2010 goals into reality by incorporation of both. Chris Brogan recently wrote on his blog about collaboration, stating:

“I think we’ll see more of that. I think we’ll see more solo people tucking in with bigger organizations. I also think we’ll see smaller groups banding together to form stronger groups, not just in marketing, but in any of the newer businesses out there. Collaboration, consolidation, and a refocusing on business value will drive a lot of the social space.”

I think it’s pretty safe to say that most organisations have stakeholders on a social platform, be it Facebook or Twitter.  Why not create your own social network for your tribe and incorporate the others? Community Engine has made this easy for any organisation to create their own social space. We believe in the power of a social platform. We’ve seen how it works. We’ve created the technology to drive new people to your organisation and introduce new prospects, allowing you to communicate quickly with you advocates. It allows you to gain insights to what your stakeholders really want to need. It also allows you to integrate the third party social platforms mentioned in this post.

If you think about the actions it will take to set forth a participatory road for 2010, having your own social platform is one action to take very seriously. The doors are in front of you. All you need to do is open and walk through. We’ll help with the rest.

Make 2010 a year of accomplished goals. Make it one that collaborates and lifts others up. If your goal is to be top of mind, take the steps in order to be that. Be social, be real, but most importantly, take action.  Here’s to an amazing 2010.

posted by Venessa in the category Social Media Social networking
Tags: chris brogan, Community Engine, facebook, Friendfeed, twitter