Jeremiah Owyang outlines four social media trends for business in 2010:

1. Don’t fondle the hammer.
   Understand customers, focus on objectives, not develop strategies based on ever-changing tools. Companies really need to understand their customers first.
2. Live the 80% rule.
   This is a movement: get your company ready. 80% of success is getting the right organizational model, roles, processes, stakeholders, and teams assembled –only 20% should be focused on technology.
3. Customers don’t care what department you’re in.
   Customers just want their problem fixed, they don’t care what department you’re in. Yet, now, nearly every department can have a direct relationship with your customers using social tools. As a result, provide customers with a holistic experience Start to investigate how brand monitoring, community tools and CRM systems are merging.
4. Real time is *not* fast enough.
   Companies cannot scale when it comes to social media, for most companies, you cannot hire enough people to monitor and respond to the conversation, As a result, lean on advocates, by building unpaid armies, and anticipate customer needs through advanced listening techniques.

They’re all essential points to note, but ‘customers don’t care what department you’re in’ is resonating pretty strongly for us all here at We Are Social at the moment.