For example, in the next year Yum Brands is updating its learning management system and Twitter would provide employees an easy way to send ongoing tips that could be used to adjust the implementation strategy, Woolf said.

Past Enterprise 2.0 conferences have suffered from a lack of end-user case studies, but that didn't seem to be the case this year. Many presentations were akin to business management seminars rather than technology discussions, with the technical nuts and bolts of the software selection and implementation process kept in the background or not mentioned at all.

Meanwhile, new data released this week by IDC shows that the market for social software is growing quickly.

Nearly every vendor in the category experienced double-digit growth between 2010 and 2011, according to IDC. IBM and Jive grew more than 70 percent, while Yammer jumped 132 percent, taking the top spot in IDC's survey.

This gold rush may have staying power, as customers seem to be embracing the tools they buy, at least for now.