1. Organizing the governance model.  Brito introduces this as, “Global governance is a way to create accuracy, consistency, and repeatability in a process when teams are spread out far beyond just a functional group or business unit. The ability to work with global teams becomes imperative when establishing this governance and developing strategies to communicate with the social customer.”

Oooh, sounds thrilling, right?  Well, when you’re trying to help companies with tens of thousands of employees around the world reduce risk and seize social media opportunities without screwing-up, this kind of deep thinking actually takes the pulse rate up a few notches.  You need it, so read it.

2. Setting up and running social media infrastructure.  The book takes on the consultant’s triangle of people, processes and technologies.  PR people tend to glom into the first, think the second is boring and ignore the third.  But you can’t succeed without all three.  On the tech front, Brito covers nearly 20 platforms, including a few social CRMs.  Just think of the dozens that got filtered out, saving you time and digital stubbed toes.  That kind of curation is invaluable.

3. Empowering social media usage throughout the enterprise.  Brito includes research and guidance on international deployment, identifying and collaborating with a spectrum of influencers and advocates, and even a sample “digital conversation guide” to steer large groups of social-powered employees towards a collective action. There are also two terrific case studies of how a multinational really goes social from the outside in — and that’s high praise from someone who generally finds case studies to be booooring.

All of these things take a lot of work off of your desk, but there’s something extraordinary you’ll also find pressed between the pages: a new orbit-like model of communications.

Brito’s Orbit Model

We’ve all seen dozens, if not hundreds, of communication models. (Maybe even tried to sketch a few ourselves.)  But none that I’ve seen ’til now adequately capture that:

1. People operate within, receive information from, and contribute information to multiple communities

2. Each community has established, pre-social media communication channels (newsletters, phone trees, conferences) and patterns of conversation

3. Social media short-circuits these channels, often connecting disparate communities for the first time

4. Most important:  The spread of information takes time, its arrival comes in different sequences, and each person experiences the receipt of information in context.

Sure, the “network” and “web” metaphors have served us well so far.  They accurately represent the computer part of modern communication, and to a degree the people attached to those machines. But as models they’re flawed in not incorporating the four elements above together, especially the timing/sequencing aspects.  The “orbit” model that Brito draws here is far more true to life.  And that’s a big deal because better models mean better predictions.

Difference of Opinion

I do have a few bones to pick with the author.  At several points, he argues that companies have to have their social media stuff together internally before going out externally.  Also, there’s a lot of railing against silos.  From my experience, companies can’t afford to wait to engage externally, even if they’re not 100% aligned on the inside.  The risks are just too great.  And especially with global companies, it IS possible to have one division or country succeeding while others lag far behind.

Also, while no one likes silos, they do perform a valuable function: organizing the work of specialized and geographically disparate teams. Rather than break down silos, I think we need to re-shape them to embrace what social media offers.  But an end to all silos?  You’ll end up with communications chaos, not community utopia.

Those nits aside, I definitely recommend “Smart Business, Social Business.”  It will contribute mightily to your individual work, and its introduction of the Brito model will contribute even more to our collective mission.

Now, if only we could see Brito’s orbit animated and in three dimensions…