Predicting the Future of Social Business (by Those Who Know)

I was getting a little stressed out a few weeks ago thinking of all the travel this month, how to keep up my blog updated (yeah, like it matter before, right?).  Then I remembered that November is when we kick predictions into full gear.

Eureka!

An epiphany overcame me.  I could jump into predictions early, fight the rush, be the first one, and use that as content for my blog this month.  Alas, that did not solve my problem — still had to write, right?  Well, not quite…

I figured that you were curious, like me, of what different vendors thought of Social Business (yes, we all hate the term – deal with it for now – we shall find a better one soon) in the next few months, maybe even further.  I wanted to know what the leading social vendors thought of the future of Social Business – and how they would present it succinctly so this project was born.

I reached out to vendors you hear about when people talk about Social Business – and some you may not have heard of – and sent them a three question survey: what is the short-term future of Social Business, what is the long-term, and what businesses can do to be prepared.  I am collecting their answers, and will begin to publish them on my blog November 8th at the rate of three per week (come on, you don’t see my readership stats — but you know that you don’t read my blog on Thursday and Friday – right?).

Based on the responses received so far, it is going to be fun.  There are many different perspectives you will hear about, as well as repeating themes.  Lots of interesting positions, and lots of potential for development.  Trust me, you won’t want to miss this series.

Yes, I probably missed a vendor you want to hear about, or included someone you don’t care to hear from – deal with it or let me know your thoughts (leave a comment or contact me for words that you would not want your 8-year old to read in public).  The line up is going to be a surprise – I want you to be intrigued enough to continue to come back — posts will publish at 8 AM PST Monday-Wednesday next few weeks (maybe an errant one on Thursday or  so to accommodate my lack of time-zone conversion skills as I travel the world).

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the uber-cool responses starting next Monday!