Social supply chain is using "social media technology" all across the entire supply chain : from supplier's suppliers to customer's customers. It means integration of social media technologies (collaboration, sharing) to connect and encompass the participants across the whole supply chain.
The customer-facing side of companies is getting busier. Customers use social media to connect with their peers from a marketing standpoint to promote and advertise their services and capabilities. Social media is now particularly important in customer service environments. Consumers are able to communicate with customer service departments through Twitter and Facebook.
In the supply chain, companies have begun using social media to work with suppliers, vendors and customers. As an example, they can have discussions on issues and arrive at a concensus.
We will see social media-like capabilities being developed throuhout the supply chain to support collaboration between suppliers, manufacturers/distributors, and customers. SCM will have commercial/B2B solutions in addition to consumer driven social media solutions. The consumer-oriented applications lack the information management capabilities that a good commercial collaboration platform will have. This stuff is in progress and development today.
Some of the ideas I have found that are really cool are :
My experiences with social media technologies are limited to only two : a business-oriented giant and an "emerging baby" with a huge potential.
The business-oriented giant is LinkedIn which has great group discussions and lots of information on jobs, both for the job-seekers and for hiring managers.
The "emerging baby" is Retail Universe. Modeled after popular social networking sites, Retail Universe is an online community for trading partners in the retail supply chain. Retail Universe is designed to facilitate relationships and communications between all members of the retail ecosystem. For example, a supplier can use the directory to promote its capabilities to potential retail customers. A retailer can engage potential vendors in online sourcing conversations and exchange marketing information to streamline buying decisions. Retail Universe can also be used by 3PLs, carriers and other trading partners to better market themselves to potential supply chain partners and to potential new customers.
The supply chain encompasses multiple companies and the professionals in these companies will need to become involved. Even Twitter is aiming to become an educational center. In the future we are going to see Twitter-like or other social media applications provide more solutions for organizational education and training.