This book examines "The Social Age" in which we are all now living and working, which arose from the massive adoption of low-cost, Internet communication tools. Azua discusses the implications for companies that must now think and work differently by using these tools to encourage innovation and collaboration, both within employee communities and beyond company borders. The Social Factor draws on examples from IBM and other enterprises, as well as the Obama Presidential campaign, which illustrate the incredible power of social networking.

Key concepts introduced within The Social Factor include:

An overview of "The Social Age," including the events that led to the social networking revolution

The defining characteristics of social age organizations, including a shift in "top-down" management hierarchies to realize the value of information residing within organizational layers

Using wikis, blogs, cloud tagging, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube as the primary tools and venues that can measurably advance the objectives of a company, including growing the bottom line

The cloud computing paradigm, or massively scalable computers available on-demand (i.e. pay-as-you-go utility model) that are changing how CIOs and IT professionals execute IT strategies

The phenomenon of open source and collaborative software development as representing a new mindset that can result in even better software solutions

Best practices for using social tools to drive innovation and technology adoption, with guidance on how to bring social innovation into the organization

Azua is vice president of Cloud Computing Enablement for IBM Enterprise Initiatives, responsible for the deployment and operations of cloud computing collaboration communities. Prior to her current role, she was vice president of technology and innovation reporting to the IBM CIO, and in this capacity she focused on the development of innovative IT solutions and integration of new technologies, including state-of-the-art social networking tools and programs for the enterprise.

A related forthcoming book, Joey Bernal's Web 2.0 and Social Networking for the Enterprise: Guidelines and Examples for Implementation and Management Within Your Organization, will serve as the enterprise decision-maker's guide to using Web 2.0 for profit.