Many sustainability processes, such as Accountability's excellent AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (AA1000SES) are complex and require significant resources to implement them to their full extent. This poses Social Studio FX a problem for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as the resource requirements for implementing the system, could well divert those resources away from the business end of engagement.
Unlike clothing stores, many business systems are designed for the biggest in the business. When smaller businesses try those systems on, they find they are not necessarily designed to scale down. I live in a small city in a small country (New Zealand) that has a smaller GDP than dozens of corporates - so even our largest companies are comparatively small.
Another level of complexity, is that standards such as the AA1000SES are relatively new and still rapidly evolving. The AA1000SES is currently in the final stages of a major revision, so those that use it need to invest in ongoing development in the use of the standard. (Accountability's revision process in itself is a stunning example of engagement, as the revision takes place online in a wiki, inviting contributions and comments).
So how do we garner the benefits from formalising engagement, while minimising initial costs? The AA1000SES currently has a four-stage engagement process consisting of 18 steps. And note that this is the heart of the process and does not include the strategic context or assurance processes.
http://worldhealthreviews.com/social-studio-fx-review
In simplifying the process there is always the possibility of eroding its value, but I believe that it is better to make a start and scale up, rather than wait for all the necessary resources to be available. Surely at the heart of the engagement ethos, is not the need to polish the veneer and look good, but rather to get to a point where we can engage in honest dialogue - and thus attain a better understanding of each other as a sound foundation for business sustainability.