Dave made reference to one of the phrases that has been a staple of the Expedition for some time: “Social” is a philosophy and a shape-shifter– not just a marketing tool. When it comes to the enterprise, Dave said, “social business’ is the philosophy, and it’s not just about bringing your workplace online.

He talked first about determining the health of your business’s ecosphere. By mapping out all the important nodes of your business — from customer service to clients to providers to marketing — and looking at the connections between them, you can see the ideal version of your business ecosphere and identify current weak points to achieve that ideal.

No doubt several of the nodes in your ecosphere, no matter your business, will be internal. Creating transparency and enhancing communication within the enterprise are just as critical to the social business philosophy as those actions taken outwardly like a Facebook fan page or Twitter handle. Dave ran through a laundry list of platforms and methods businesses may use to achieve this, from wikis to discussion boards to presentation tools like SlideShare or traditional social networks.

Dave then introduced the Expeditionaries to a handful of sites specifically designed for enterprise social, talking most extensively about SocialCast, which was recently adopted by LunaWeb. You can find out  more about SocialCast and others like Yammer and SocialText on this week’s Core Conversation podcast, where we’ll be continuing the conversation on social in the enterprise. You can call in at 11:30 a.m. CDT (646-721-9429) or listen live here.

More essential than the introduction to the tools, though, was the underlying philosophy and benefits of use: creating peripheral vision across the enterprise, sharing knowledge, allowing executives to offer praise and set the tone and pace of business and allowing employees to get help and access data easily are just a few examples.

If you missed out, you’ll definitely want to join us for the Core Conversation this Friday.