You are probably aware by now about IBM's Smarter Planet strategy. IBM's products and solutions are aligning and being packaged around the need to create a Smarter Planet. A key pillar to this strategy is, of course, Social Business. And to that effect, IBM has created a single page to aggregate tons of information and resources into a single place.
In that page, you'll find benefits of using social business tools, a description of what it means to be a social business, whitepapers, analyst reports, case studies, 60 seconds snapshots, and solutions to get started.
In terms of the benefits of social business tools (or the business value of social business tools), the page includes several stats such as:
- The world spends 110 billion minutes on social networks per month
- McKinsey latest study reveals that 9 out of the 10 businesses using Web 2.0 tools are seeing measurable business benefits from its use
- Standout organizations are 57% more likely than their peers to allow their people to use social and collaborative tools
As mentioned above, the site also includes various "snapshots". These are 60-second videos that show Social Business at work. One of the videos that caught my attention was the one where a group of MIT students used social networking to find hidden weather balloons across the United States. They did this as part of a challenge issued by the US Government and the team was able to find 10 balloons in less than 9 hours!
So achieve a Smarter Planet by becoming a Social Business.