Social Businesses Index Will Change How Companies Interact

Earlier this month, The Dachis Group launched the Social Business Index, a compilation of data that illustrates how social or influential brands are online. By assessing different indicators on a real-time schedule, businesses are ranked by their level of social influence, much like Klout does currently for individuals. Some of the businesses included in the service's beta launch are Coca-Cola, Google, Time Warner, and Nike.

Since the service is still in beta testing, I was only able to look around the website and test a limited number of features. Even though my exploration of the service was restricted, I think The Dachis Group does an excellent job of describing Social Business Index to those whose companies are not yet members. Each company is displayed through a snapshot, which provides its current ranking, change over the previous week's ranking and its raw score. Company employees, when logged in, have access to a more detailed list of actions and statistics. Companies can also earn accolades like 'Top Performer' in their respective categories depending on the industry's ecosystem and the company's dynamic signals.

The Social Business Graph was one of the more intriguing areas of the website. The graphs track the unique strategies for different aspects of businesses like company, market, employees, partners and influencers and takes into account the strength of the conversations between them. This encourages participating companies to form strong bonds not only with consumers, but with employees and similar businesses to increase their score on the Social Business Index.

As the Social Business Index continues to grow and open to more companies (REQ is on the waiting list), I think it will be most useful for companies wishing to see the strength of their company when ranked alongside competitors, since the Index provides concrete data and numbers. Once businesses begin a new campaign, they can easily follow its success and will hopefully see how they are outperforming their competition. This tool can also be useful for companies hoping to persuade clients to invest in a new social media campaign. Though I think it will all take time to catch on, I look forward to seeing how influential the Social Business Index becomes and how companies will utilize its tools over the coming months.