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Social software business value discussions are a waste of time

There, I said it.

If I’m a C-level executive at a large enterprise, and a vendor tells me the business value that, say, four other companies in my industry have experienced using their social software, I will be hopeful. Hell, I’ll be excited. And, to be fair, maybe that’s all business value statements are designed to do - get executives to at least listen.

But, I won’t write a huge check because I don’t know for sure whether my organization would a) actually use social software, and if they do, b) realize the value you describe.

So, guess what? I’m going to ask for proof, and the only thing I’m going to base my large-dollar decision on is internal proof. Maybe I’m willing to pay a bit to get that going, but I’m sure as hell not going to be a doofus and blow a big part of my budget on an enterprise deal with no real proof.

I’m going to want some specific-to-my-company data that shows the value you predict. We erroneously call this “metrics” but what I really want is analysis of those metrics. You tell me 27% of the pilot population actively participated? That there are 73 active discussion threads in a particular community? What the hell does that mean? How can I translate that into, “hey, CEO Jane, this software will save us a bucket of money over the next three years,” ?

Soft dollar, productivity increase, knowledge worker efficiency, greater innovative opportunities… it all sounds good, but will MY people experience it? Yep, organizational culture damn well does matter.

This is why enterprises do limited rollouts first, and hopefully, they have help in analyzing whatever metrics are gathered. Just gathering them isn’t enough. And discussions about predicted business value isn’t enough. Show me.