<p>The evolution of social business as we know it today traces back to The Cluetrain Manifesto in the late 1990s, where its authors predicted that markets would become conversations. Here we are at the cusp of 2014, and businesses, and the strategists who lead social efforts, continue to struggle with sparking executive understanding, adoption, and leadership.</p><p>Part of the problem is that social media and how it differs from traditional channels remains largely misconstrued. As a result, new opportunities, and the strategies, systems, and processes that support them, are either nascent or overlooked.</p><p>A social business is more than an organization that invests in a positive global footprint to overcome the world's biggest problems, such as inequality and poverty. The term has developed to now also represent companies that are more open, transparent, and participatory in conversations and activity that defines markets. But the challenge is that social media strategists may actually be hampering its potential by not helping executives see the bigger picture beyond the technology.</p><p>Last month, Charlene Li and I published our latest Altimeter Group report, "The State of Social Business 2013." In our research, we were surprised that businesses were still unsure of the role social media played enterprise-wide, beyond marketing and communications. Many, we found, were limited in scope and not universal in engagement with customers, employees, suppliers, partners, community, et al. Specifically, we learned that...Only half (52%) of companies say that their executives are informed, engaged, and aligned with the enterprise social strategyA mere 26% of organizations self-describe as being "holistic" in their social media approach, where business functions operate against an enterprise-level vision and strategyJust 17% of organizations self-described as being truly "strategic" in the execution of their social strategies</p><p><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131125211741-2293140-new-slides-and-data-the-state-of-social-business-evolution-2013">Keep reading...</a></p>