I have been talking to many consumer-oriented or end-user-oriented software, internet and mobile startups with various offerings. Feature set is usually rich, and vision of the founders is sometimes big. But a lot of time when asking about social aspect of the service, the answer is quick “yes, we have a ‘Like’ button” or “yes, we have Facebook connect”.
Facebook connect does not mean that you integrated “social” into your service, and patching a “Like” button does not mean that people will actually will share.
My point of view is that it does not matter whether you are an online retailer or a SaaS provider of a BPM platform, weaving social interaction into your service and creating value for your users and your service through this interaction is a goal worth achieving. See companies such as Zynga, Pinterest, DrawSomething, DropBox, Waze and others that are making use of the social interaction whether within the social graph of the user to totally outside it.
Deeper understanding of the user, the actual person and the nature of social interaction, can open tremendous opportunities to new services. Better ways to represent the social interaction and the content/value created in it can open others.
Using Social properly can benefit your service in user acquisition, user retention, and increase value to all participants. Social should not be an afterthought, but should integral part of the service value and service experience.
I encourage you all to invest the time and resources to see how you can socialize your service.
Startup Dreamer 
Motti – what are your thoughts on gamification as a driver for social interaction?
Liran,
Great topic – Gamification. That was exactly the reason I joint the Global Game Jam I report in my previous spot. Gamification is a great way to create a fun and engaging social interaction. It’s also a great way to get a user to engage, perform and learn from an interaction. I’m starting to see companies that are including that in the enterprise services. This is a good direction. Important to understand that Gamification does not necessarily mean AAA games, but more rewards, quick interaction, satisfaction, and sense of achievement. There is much more to think, read and do about it then this quick note. But I’m sure you are already on it…