I love it! The shift is on from "social media tactics" (a grab-bag of participatory, party-favor technology) to "social business strategy" (an intelligent, integrated approach to driving business results by courageously connecting and learning from colleagues, customers and partners.)

Ethan McCarty, IBM Senior Manager of Digital & Social Strategy sums it up perfectly in a recent Fast Company article:

     “Social media is about media and people, which is one dimension of the overall

     world of business. With social business, you start to look at the way people are

     interacting in digital experiences and apply the insights derived to a wide variety

     of different business processes.”

And there are others imploring corporate leadership to wake up to the wisdom of their crowds, that is, amplifying the fact that you can't build a 2.0 business with a 1.0 mindset. Here are just a few voices on this ...

Michael Brito – Edelman SVP of Social Business Planning and author of the new book, Smart Business, Social Business, based on this premise (and cool infographic!): "Organizations cannot and will not have effective, external conversations with the social customer unless they can have effective internal conversations with each other first."

Nadira Hira – writer and author of an upcoming book about work attitudes among 16- to 32-year-olds who believes: "What many companies get wrong when they think of 'social' is they think of it as a marketing ploy rather than a way of extending what you already really are as a company or as a brand."

David Kirkpartick – tech journalist and author of the Forbes article, "Social Power and The Coming Corporate Revolution," who writes: "The world is becoming more democratic and reflective of the will of the people. And pragmatically, social power can help keep your company vital. Newly armed customer and employee activists can become the source of creativity, innovation and new ideas to take your company forward."

Passionate perspectives about the real revolution going on. Once again, it's not about technology, it's about people. So we better get serious about our social strategies – inside and outside of our businesses – because as Kirkpatrick reminds us, "People are changing faster than companies."

@john4frank