We’re out conversing with customers about social media a lot these days. One thing that strikes me is that so few use any kind of tools to make collaboration easier. Many people / companies have trouble sharing documents, sending big files and staying in touch with salespeople on the road. There are thousands of more or less social tools to solve all these problems and make collaboration much more enjoyable. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to use social  tools to be more productive, more effective and communicate better before we start using them for marketing?

Now I’m touching on the subject of Social Business Design. How can you as a small, medium or big company implement tools to become more efficient in your internal and external work? There is no shortage of tools and technology, so the big obstacles are knowing about the tools and being aware of what you could do better. Guiding companies through this jungle is an important mission for agencies that will require a firm grasp on technology, business, social tools, communication and creativity.

Don’t get me wrong – marketing using social media tools and platforms is still very important, but it will come much easier to those who use the social web as a natural part of their organizations.

You can start today by using simple tools like DropBox or Box.net for sharing files, Yammer for communication, Google Docs for collaboration, Twitter for business intelligence or Ning for most of the above.

Have a look, try some tools and get back to us if you want to learn more about effective use of “social media” in your organization.

We have done a bunch of social media workshops recently on the theme “What is social media and why should you care?”. Our goal is to give our customers a first look at social media and help them see the bigger picture. Setting up a Twitter account is easy, but we’re helping them understand why, for whom and what to do with it? It’s the first step in evolving to a more social business culture.

I have written a guest post for Film Arc about the subject and I will be at their Master Class workshop in Luleå to rant about the possibilities of the social web.