Social Business Coffee Break featuring a SOCIAL Restaurant! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ibm #ibmmobile

I tend to get a lot of questions about the non large clients who are doing social!  This is a great example of a restaurant that is a Grade A in Social!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBBME56oD1A&feature=youtu.be]

 


Cool Thanksgiving Infographic and my favorite recipe for the season!! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #thanksgiving #turkey

 

Recipe:

Sweet Potatoe Casserole

            4 cans sweet potatoes

1 cup sugar

½ stick margarine

½ cup milk

4 tsp vanilla

2 eggs beaten

Mix all the ingredients together and then pour into greased dish.   Top with the topping tomorrow. Cook at 350 for 45 minutes.

Topping:

1 cup chopped pecan

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup flour

½ stick margarine


A Christmas card before Thanksgiving? 3 Social Listening Questions to think through #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

Holidays!

OK, I love my holidays!   All of them and we celebrate and decorate for all of them at my house.   My kids love the energy and excitement and learning about each.

But this weekend, I received my first Christmas card.   While I LOVE getting Christmas cards, this one came before Thanksgiving.   A bit out of order for my tastes!  By the way,  my friend isn't the only one out of order!   Every store I have been in is already playing Christmas music!

Social Listening before Social Action!

Well, in social, many companies do the same  as my friend did --  Go out of order -- they develop a strategy to "place" information into the blogosphere before they listen      In any relationship, listening should proceed talking!    So that are the best listen first.  

Leading organizations are using social business technology to positively disrupt their industries and create competitive advantage and they begin by understanding the thoughts that their clients, employees, and influencers say about them. Organizations are now moving from “liking” – simply using social technology for basic communication, to leading – where they are applying social listening tools and culture to fundamentally change their core business processes, leading to positive disruption within their organizations and their industries.   These organizations know that listening is a key first step!

Why Social Listening is so important

We all see that there is an unprecedented amount of data being gathered at every meaningful touchpoint about each customer. The best brands among us are very strategic about which touchpoints get instrumented, and what kind of data emerges as the result—not just from the touchpoints under the marketing function’s control, but all touchpoints the company has.

Question to ask: what is our instrumentation strategy on social listening?

 The most skilled companies are combining social data, other Web-based data and transaction data—and running precise analytics over them to gain new kinds of insights. In this world, the path to success is largely dependent on having comprehensive access to the data you need to formulate these insights, and strategies to discern the veracity of that data.

Question to ask: what is our strategy for attracting data? 

Armed with that strategy, we will be able to see a time when our understanding becomes predictive. What is the customer’s next likely move—so we can appropriately pair our response with the next best offer, next best action, next need.

Question to ask: how predictive must our insights about customers be to succeed in our competitive market?

I believe that these 3 questions are crucial to execute a successful Social strategy!  They begin with understanding through listening.  Doing things in the right order!


Pinterest drives more traffic to retail sites than google +, linkedin and youtube combined. #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ls13 #ibmconnect

I love Pinterest!  Have you tried it?   Did you know that

Pinterest drives more traffic to retail sites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ri__4Zjgwg&feature=youtu.be]


Getting Social in 2013: Three Great Resources to Get You Started

The new year is fast approaching, so here are three great resources to help your company get off to a fast start in 2013:

First, at IBM we're gearing up for our big event of the year, Connect 2013 in Orlando. This is an exciting event where we're really digging into the crux of social business. Sure, we'll spend some time talking technical details, but we'll really focus in on the transformational power of social. This event is an amazing learning experience for any organization looking to get into social and equally as informative for those companies who are in the transformational process. Subject mater experts, real life success stories, technical demonstrations, transformations before your very eyes, all under one roof! I encourage you all to check out more details, this is the event of the year for social business.

Next, TODAY is an exciting day! Today at bookstores nationwide, as well as at all major online retailers, including Amazon.com, there's a new book that provides you with the ultimate playbook for transforming into a social business. Socialized!: How the Most Successful Businesses Harness the Power of Social, by Mark Fidelman, is a must read for any organization, small and large, thinking about jumping into social. Mark covers all the necessary components of a successful social business, from cultural implications, engagement challenges, measuring ROI and more.

Included in the book is an in depth case study on IBM's own social business journey. Mark chronicles the organization's use of social software to foster collaboration among our dispersed 433,000 person team -- a practice that began long before Generation Y became fixated with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. It's really a tremendous use case in social and its impact on a global workforce.

Hats off to Mark for writing a truly exceptional illustration of what social business can do for an organization!

And finally, there's another book I highly suggest you get your hands on and buy for your product management team. Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager by IBM's Ed Bill is available for pre-order now, expected for release on January 20. This is the ultimate educational resource for all those product managers who have either ignored social or don't see the value in engaging to get their job done. Ed provides a first person account of how he has used IBM's social business platform to help develop some of IBM's most innovative products for our clients. Your product team needs this book, another must read!

I invite you to take advantage of these three great social business resources now at your disposal. I hope to see you at IBM Connect 2013 in Orlando and be sure to pick up Socialized and Opting In to read on the plane down!


7 Things I learned from 10 days without power! #social #sandy

Here are my ahas! from living with the effects of Sandy (no, no me but the storm!)

1.  Game night is ON and slumber parties rock!   And they are great family bonding time!   We loved the game nights but never had time!  Now with no TV -- we had the time. Slumber night was fun!  It was a real bonding experience!

2.  I love my flashlight!  Yep, I bugged my hubbie to prepare but I ended up buying the flashlights, and lights to illuminate the house.   I ended up carrying it with me everywhere!   Be prepared if this could happen to you!

3.  I missed writing in my diary.  As a young girl, I used to write in my diary daily!   I have books and books of them!   With the extra time, and no power but light. I wrote down my thoughts about the day, life, and more.   It was a great exercise and very calming!

4.  Innovation is alive!    Cooking eggs on a grill?   New spaghetti dishes from a microwave?    yes, innovative food is a must during the event with little power -- and a grill to cook on .. but we did have a generator that we used for one room!     You learn to appreciate your full kitchen!

5.  Lines are frustrating but you meet new people in them!.    During the power outage, we had lines for gas, lines for restaurants, lines for lines!   While this added to the frustration, we met some cool people.  And people really come together in a disaster!

6.  I had withdraws from Social !!   I could only go online at work.   So my tweets, my blogs were done only in the day. I missed my online friends and the news available via Facebook.

7.  I really really missed all the conveniences.  I didn't realize until after the third day of fun with the family, how much I missed the basics.   We are very blessed to have these daily and we do not even think about it!


2/3 not sure they understand the benefits of Social - Do you?! #ibm #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ibv

IBM surveyed 1,160 business and IT professionals to understand the state of social business adoption to take a pulse on how organizations are tapping the power of social technologies to advance business objectives. From the IBV survey, 2/3  of respondents were not sure they sufficiently understood the impact that social technologies would have on their organizations over the next three years.  Check it out here!

I really want to help all companies on this one.  This POV is from working with 1000s of clients.  I'd love to know if this helps you!

A social business transforms itself by activating networks of people. Whether through online communities and meetings,
team spaces, blogs, wikis, profiles or other social tools, people can explore new ways to build and leverage their networks
beyond those dictated by traditional organizational structures or means of communication. Information also becomes more
transparent and accessible, opening up new wells of knowledge and expertise. As a result, people can be more efficient in their
tasks and more responsive, authentic and familiar in their interactions. In turn, the organization as a whole becomes
increasingly nimble, engaged and creative.
The key to implementing social software is to set clear, realistic objectives for your social business initiatives and to embed
social tools into existing role-based processes.

The end point for your organization includes the following:
• Enable an effective workforce: Operations, human resources and other departments can increase overall employee
productivity and job satisfaction through improved knowledge capture, expertise location, and collaboration. Travel, training
and teleconferencing expenses also can be reduced.
• Accelerate innovation: Product research and development teams can quicken internal idea sharing and discovery, as well
as transform how they generate ideas, share strategies and gather feedback from key customers and partners.
• Deepen customer relationships: With more immediate access to content and expertise, customer service representatives can
work more efficiently and provide higher-quality service. Marketing and sales teams can have more time to spend with
customers and to dedicate to customer-focused initiatives.

From the McKinsey Study, there are measureable results.


Almost 50% of companies are investing MORE in Social Business! Get started now! #ibmconnect #ibm #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

IBM surveyed 1,160 business and IT professionals to understand the state of social business adoption to take a pulse on how organizations are tapping the power of social technologies to advance business objectives.

The entire study from IBM's Institute of Business Value report is superb!  Check it out here!

Our research found the value of social business increasing within an organization. As a result, 46% of the companies surveyed increased their social business investments in 2012.   Companies that are emerging as social business leaders are applying the technologies to drive customer-facing activities such as lead generation, sales and post-sales service.

Don't be left behind!  Have you started?!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/KKeXzVQiSkY]

 


Only 22% embed social into "Daily" Professional Life - how to go higher! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibmconnect

IBM surveyed 1,160 business and IT professionals to understand the state of social business adoption to take a pulse on how organizations are tapping the power of social technologies to advance business objectives.   There were lots of interesting data that was discovered but one that I wanted to focus on here was that only 22% of people embed social into their daily lives, despite having supported the initiative in the first place!

1.   Embed Social into your daily business process.   Unless you make social a part of the way your teams work, they won't use it!  So embed social into your patent process, customer service, sales, recruiting, and more.

2.  Social should fit the way you work!   For instance, our leader in Australia loves video so we enabled him to do video for his communications in an easy way.   You shouldn't have to change the way you work for social, social should enhance the way you work!

3.  Follow the leader!  A great way to get this embedded is when senior leaders leverage and set the example for the team!  The team then follows and embeds the new way of working.  For instance , in client service, having the sr leader leverage twitter gets others to try it too@!

I could go on and I would love to help you and your company in this endeavor!


CIO and CMO Partners in Social Business #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #ls12 #marketing

As many of you know, I have been a "CMO" for a few of IBM divisions during my career.   A secret success factor has always been the partnerships -- and today, one of the core partnerships for CMOs needs to the CIO!   IBM's 2011 CMO Study which reveals that CMOs are struggling with how to better reach and engage with customers. The report reveals that CMOs are using social platforms to communicate with their customers, 56 percent view is as a key communication channel.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZDMNU9q5DY&feature=player_embedded]
CMOs today recognize a critical and permanent shift occurring in the way they engage with customers. According to the 2011 IBM CMO Study, 82 percent of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years. The need to deliver a seamless mobile experience has also become increasingly critical to CMOs. According to Yankee Group, global online commerce is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2014 and mobile commerce $200 billion by 2015. Because of this, it's critical for CMOs to not only be aware of and monitor the social conversation, but to truly understand the sentiment and interact one-on-one with that customer. Taking it one step further would be to integrate these conversations directly into the organization's web site, providing one place to both network and shop.
We know today's consumer has unlimited access to information and can instantly share it with the world. This immediacy has raised consumers expectations for 100 percent personalized communications and top-notch service.

Here are a few examples of organization who are successfully forging relationships between the CMO and CIO and are using web experience technology to better reach and engage with their audiences.

  • Wimbledon has transformed its web presence to meet the needs of the anticipated 16 million people that will tune in online to the annual tennis championships; by visiting www.wimbledon.com, fans can share information, interact with and connect to The Championships as though they were actually there.
  • Cars.com is embracing web experience technology to provide a 360-degree view of its entire business operations, enabling dealers to examine current inventory, change pricing and manage photos, among many other business activities -- ultimately providing better services to their customers. Today, Cars.com has scaled to support 200 million unique visitors a year, an increase of 145 million visits since 2007.
  • Gruppo Amadori, a wholesale distributor of quality foods in Italy, has improved its online presence, enabling the company to communicate more directly with younger consumers and increase consumer loyalty. The organization can create new mini-sites up to 40% faster, saving time and costs. Amadori has also created an up-to-date database of consumer details, helping them better understand the needs of their customers.

Thoughts?  How do you partner?