“you say to-may-to, i say to-mah-to
you eat po-tay-to and i eat po-tah-to
to-may-to, to-mah-to, po-tay-to, po-tah-to
let’s call the whole thing off”

All kidding aside, I had a chance to check out the discussion over enterprise 2.0 and social business that was taking place on quora. For the uninitiated, quora is an online “knowledge market” where users ask questions and share answers. In particular, I was following two conversation threads: What are the distinctions between Social Business and Enterprise 2.0? and “If Enterprise 2.0″ and “Social Business” are the same concept, why did we need to create the phrase “Social Business”?

My summary is not all inclusive, but it does attempt to organize some of the thoughts along broader themes.

To me, the only thing that’s clear is the level of confusion about that these terms and their relevance across the enterprise. Some (not me) may argue that the battle of names is a cynical ploy to create more business for consultants. While still in its formative stage, social business seems to capture the transformative impact of social media on external and internal interactions and relationship across the enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 seems more narrowly focused on collaborative efforts inside an organization.

That being said, has”social” taken on the status that “e” had in the early web days when e-business and e-commerce were all the rage?

I only wonder in time whether the “social” moniker  (as in social business, social media, social CRM) will be disappear – replaced by a completely different term or deemed unnecessary or redundant.

So check out the categories.  Are they accurate? incomplete?

Boundaries

Enterprise 2.0

• Enterprise 2.0 represents a set of technologies and methodologies for IT implementation inside the enterprise. (Jevon MacDonald)
• Enterprise 2.0 describes the collaborative use of Web 2.0 tools inside a company. (Greg Lowe)
• Enterprise 2.0 is generally used to represent the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies — like cloud computing, social media, wikis, etc. (Stowe Boyd)
• Enterprise 2.0 – 1) The application of Web 2.0 and other collaboration technologies to enhance organizational performance. 2) Establishing the organizational structures and processes that will drive success in the intensely competitive connected economy of today and the future. (Ross Dawson)
• “Enterprise 2.0″ is much more limited and primarily represents interactions of internal employees using social technologies. It’s only a subset of Social Business. (Jeremiah Owyang)

Social Business

• “Social Business” spans all customer interactions, employee interactions, partner interactions, and prospect interactions in social technologies. It’s the whole ecosystem. (Jeremiah Owyang)
• Social business is more expansive and includes functions such as marketing and communications. (David Armano)
• Social Business goes beyond the traditional boundaries of what we define as the Enterprise by including the customer in the conversation about what direction the company should take. (Mark Tamis)
• A Social Business uses Enterprise 2.0 software to implement internal social process but also accounts for things such as: external social presence, supporting process, HR issues, policy development and governance. (Jevon MacDonald)
• Social Business really encompasses much more than tools. It’s really about integrating the social aspect into all areas of your business not just behind the firewall. (Mark Tamis)
• For me the term “social business” means using social technologies in all aspects and therefore combines “Social Media Marketing” + “social CRM” and “Enterprise 2.0″ (Gautam Ghosh)
• A social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web, including social media, social networks, and a long list of other advances. (Stowe Boyd)

Evolutionary or Revolutionary

• Enterprise 2.0 seems to be transformational, while Social Business seems to be evolutionary. (Greg Lowe)
• Enterprise 2.0 is principally a technology adoption issue, and not a reconceptualization of business operations. (Stowe Boyd)
• Both signify a shift in how large business will function moving forward (affecting people, process and technologies) and will likely require new investments (just as when businesses changed when we went digital). (David Armano)
• Social Business is the evolutionary step when Social Media, Social CRM, and Enterprise 2.0 gel into one common concept — but it is no more than a foundation where the business changes the culture, their processes, and their technology to become more collaborative. The argument has been made before by — well, me among others, that the social business is an interim step in the evolution towards becoming a collaborative enterprise (Esteban Kolsky)

Relevance

• These terms are used mostly by vendors and practitioners. Most corporate leaders prefer to speak in business terms referring to professional networking, collaboration, or online communities, among other generic terms. I seldom hear the terms Enterprise 2.0 or Social Business among business executives. (Jim Worth)
• Whether you call it Social Business or Enterprise 2.0, the work centers on the strategic and decisive use to collaborative constructs to improve employee, partner and customer performance. I’ve never heard any CXO mention either term to describe the business benefit of new enterprise social computing innovation. (Sameer Patel)
• Executives have little knowledge or care about the phrase Enterprise 2.0, Social Media. All they want to understand is how does this new “techie” stuff help drive revenue..aka BUSINESS! (Richard Rashty)
• Right now, “social business” is more of an empty container term rather than a substantive idea. Let’s see what takes shape within it, as people fight over the rights to designate this or that feature as the truly essential aspects. (Venkatesh Rao)

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