This week I met with a big global think tank that is evaluating social media strategy proposals. All the proposals focused on tactical items like creating a Facebook page and Twitter feed and none addressed high value opportunity areas that would provide additional value to the organization’s clients and/or create new business models.

Then I came across Dion Hinchliffe’s blog post where he also laments that people are missing the bigger opportunity for social business, where the greater value lies.  He also provides 12 excellent rules for taking your business social. Check out his post for details, but here are the 12:

1. Social businesses are made of people.
2. The right tools and infrastructure naturally enable good social business
3. Foster conversations with your customers, partners, employees and everyone else that’s interested.
4. Popular social channels and services are important but are the smaller part of the social business story.
5. Put the community first.
6. Add a social dimension to your business process.
7. Rethink your views on intellectual property in a highly social world.
8. You manage to what you measure; use a social yardstick.
9. Do not use social channels for traditional push communications.
10. Censorship kills participation.
11. If you’re not sure where your organization ends and the network begins, you’re doing it right.
12. Healthy social businesses explicitly extract value from the network.