I was waiting in line in a coffee shop the other day and I'm pretty sure I saw more smartphones than you can find at the nearest phone retailer. With so many potential customers connected to each other by social apps it's no surprise that many companies think the pot of gold behind social media lies at the end of the marketing rainbow. But according to the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) the real gains for social business are inside the organization.

Consider that employees spend up to a third of their workweeks reading and answering email. When was the last time you had a truly productive collaboration over email? Too often an email conversation becomes a thrash-fest between a few individuals who keep hitting "reply all." Even when an email thread contains valuable information, people get left off the distribution list while others are copied into the conversation unnecessarily.

Imagine how much more productive we could all be if most email conversations boiled down to "Sharron, I think you should join the convo at #brand_launch - would love your input." The MGI report linked above doesn't stop with email. Launching an open, collaborative social platform can help organizations realize measurable productivity gains up to 30%. Personally I think the gains could be even more significant as companies communicate better and become more agile in the process.

Discover the 6 steps to a successful social enterprise.