<p>On March 11 in Banff, Alta., the Canadian Cloud Council's Cloud Matters Conference will kick off with the "Business Gets Social" panel. Social Business is a disruptive force and promises to engage employees and customers in more meaningful interactions than ever before. But to have a successful social initiative, your organization and leadership need to fully understand that it will take time and significant effort to achieve success.Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and part-time professor at York University, is participating on the Business Gets Social panel and takes the pragmatic view when discussing social initiatives.</p><p>RELATED CONTENT"Most social initiatives are doomed. Rolling out a social initiative takes planning and thought, just like any marketing program. It takes hard work," says Love. "I find it perplexing. Nobody would ever hold a conference for 500 people without weeks of planning, totally understanding the audience, thinking about the content and planning every aspect of the interaction. Yet they dive into social initiatives without even half the thought that they would give a live event. Like any social gathering or important event, we know that to sustain a conversation with a lot of people takes planning and a lot of effort. Social initiatives are no different."</p><p>Organizations of all sizes and complexity need to spend time assessing where a social initiative makes the most sense and clearly understand the purpose for each social initiative. Doing social for social's sake will end in disappointment if not approached with strategic thought. According to a report by Gartner Inc., 80 per cent of social business efforts will not achieve intended benefits through 2015.</p><p>Gartner's prediction isn't meant to scare businesses from embarking down the social path. Rather, the research helps set appropriate expectations and provides further validation to approach social from a strategic perspective. You risk more by delaying the development of a social strategy which may put your organization at a competitive disadvantage in the future. Innovative and progressive companies understand the importance of social business and are willing to invest the time and effort to achieve a successful outcome.</p><p><a href="http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/why-social-business-initiative-fail/146840">Keep reading...</a></p>