Recently I followed a really throught-provoking webinar put on by Social Media Today, in which Maggie Fox of Social Media Group interviewed Sandy Carter, IBM Vice President, Social Business Evangelism and Sales. The theme was (broadly) how businesses can become more social.

A lot of webinar opportunities pass through my inbox each day, but I liked the description of this one, in particular the assertion that "It's not all about technology, nor is it so much about marketing technique; it's more about changing basic assumptions and getting comfortable with the new communications reality ..."

Sandy shared many great insights based on her experience at IBM and her own research (she's an prodigious author and blogger), but the one thing that jumped out at me was her phrase 'culture eats strategy for lunch.' In other words, when you're looking at changing a company to become a more social business, you need to find out early on just how resistant the company's culture is going to be to such a change.

If the culture is against it, you can have the best strategy in the world in place, but it ain't gonna happen. For me this is yet more evidence that 'social media' as it's currently often handled (as function of/add-on to marketing, communications or PR) is a long way from where 'social' business needs to be in the long term.

As David Armano said recently, "Organizations that integrate social into how they do business will embrace social as a layer that's woven into the fabric of each business function over time."

Robin Houghton is a marketer & writer based in Lewes, East Sussex. Under the business name Eggbox Marketing I advise, consult & speak on social media & online marketing, which I've been doing for 12 years.

www.eggblogg.co.uk