Lesson from my daugther: Where's the Giraffe? Think Differently! #ls12 #ibmsocialbiz #sales #socbiz
In the last week, my daughter had to come to work with me, as we had no (and still don't have!) power.
In my office, I have a beautiful set of windows. She and I saw turkeys, deer, hawks, and even a beautiful red fox! When my daughter was writing the story for her school assignment, she said it was great! But she wondered how great it would have been if there were also giraffes and a window that opened so that she could feed the animals.
It was off the wall - the thought of giraffes in NY! During a Hurricane ... during the winter! But then it hit me!
Think different. Don't do things incrementally better. Take it to the next level Dream in color!
That is what companies have to do in social. You cannot just think email is good, but social is incrementally better. Think totally different! How could this change business processes? Like TD Bank, Asian Paints, Lowe's, Prudential, and more! Figure out that different thought that leverages social as a competitive differentiation!
I do see those companies who think outside the box taking social into their innovative cycles. What's your thought? Who do you see thinking outside the box on Social? Who can feed the giraffe outside my window?!
Social Business Coffee Break! First one ine November! Social email?! $&%* #ls12 #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz
Happy Monday! I hope all of you have power (we still don't!) but are full of hope and energy for November!
This is a great Social Business Coffee Break on how email fits into the new social world!
It was crowdsourced from you! Let me know if it hit the spot!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9rbSe9AAjo&feature=youtu.be]
The Rainbow of Social ! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ls12
Hurricane Sandy is gone and signalled it with a beautiful set of 3 rainbows on my drive home!! While I am not back to normal from a power, phone perspective, we are blessed not to have any injuries, etc during the storm. My heart goes out to those who are far worse off than us and we are happy to host many with what we have.
I love rainbows - and thought of the Rainbow of Social!
R -- Reveal! Social reveals your culture. I loved Lowe's quote: "Social doesn't transform our culture, it reveals it". Our cultural assessment helps you figure out ahead of time areas to work, areas to highlight, and how to get your employees and clients to help you!
A - Analytics - Social analytics help you to begin listening to the conversation! These "colorful" conversations help us to listen to the market and the employee!
I - Internal Social - Take a look at using social inside your business to innovation and collaborate! More companies use social now internally than externally! Have you taken a look at the value here?
N -Nail the Process. Social is about embedding social value into the business process. If you keep social over to the side it usually fails. Make sure you study your processes and use social to make it more powerful. Ask me how!
B - Brand Bank Accelerators! You don’t have to look far in any media these days to see brand value increased or decreased by social! As a marketer, these withdrawals from the brand bank are of concern. Of course, the accelerator is social media. With social media, any gap between what a brand promises and what it delivers instantly reaches hundreds of people who in turn reach thousands of people who in turn reach hundreds of thousands of people.
O -Openness is being prepared to share and collaborate – something aided by social media. Openness and transparency will be new Leadership 2.0 characteristics!
W - What are you waiting for? The time is now! We need to move fast to social as it is a competitive advantage!
Happy Halloween!!! This is what scares me on Social! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ibm #ls13
Happy Halloween! This is what scares me on Social!!!
1. Anyone who says " I want a Social Presence because I read about it on the plane!"
This view of social presence is spooky as it shows lack of understanding about social! I heard from so many CEOs or Senior Leaders that they want a social presence just because of their airplane reading! Social is valuable but only if you know how it can help your business goals and really have a culture that is ready to transform!
2. Senior leaders who say "I am opting out of Social"
Really? How ? Will you send a note to your clients asking them not to talk about you? This statement (which was said to me) sends shivers up my spine as you cannot opt out of social. In fact, it is riskier to "opt out" and ignore social, than to be active in the discussion!
3. People who use Social as a sales or marketing channel only.
Please slay the vampire! Social is about a relationship. It is not about selling and marketing. The relationship makes selling and marketing easier because you have listened, and had the clients become active in your company and products. But don't use this as a traditional channel.
Surviving Hurricane Sandy with Social Pics! #ls13 #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz
Hurricane Sandy drove massive issues throughout the East Coast, and in my neighborhood.
It resulted in a Social drive in all social tools. "There are now 10 pictures per second being posted with the hashtag sandy" per instagram, like the below from my neighborhood. Twitter was also alive with #sandy (yes, my name) and more.
In this tradegy, I am glad I can keep in touch via all my social tools!
And this one to get out of our neighborhood.
Social did transform the culture; It revealed it! Clarrisa Felts Lowes #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #bizsocialmedia #ls13
This past week we had the first annual NAFE Business of Social Media conference! Along with 183 other women, we learned about Social and the opportunity for all companies, and for all women!
This week in honor of Clarrisa Felts, the VP at Lowe's in charge of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration, our Social Business Coffee break focuses on their excellence in sociall!
Her quote of the conference was "Social doesn't transform the culture; It reveals it" How true this is!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPkDZNOxLtk&feature=youtu.be]
Tribal stories! Reliance Life Insurance goes social ! #bizsocialmedia #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm
Reliance Life Insurance wanted to enable hyper-growth by building a 'virtual office' to accelerate the growth in their business. They designed a Lifeline social-portal that delivers services to all of Reliance’s key stakeholder groups: customers, prospects, employees, and agents. The portal provides customers with a one-stop experience through which they can research and purchase insurance plans, manage their portfolios and pay their premiums. Agents can use the platform to get a unified, cross-sectional view of customers’ portfolios and gain the insights to make intelligent cross-selling recommendations that provide optimal coverage for customers. So far they have reduced the time required to develop new services and features by more than 50 percent and reduced their customer/agent service costs nearly 50 percent. In addition, they have doubled market share since introducing Lifeline!
Tribal Reference Stories! Social Business Communities Work! #ibmiod #ls13 #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm
Last time I was in Austin, I met with the Children's Medical Center of Dallas at a Social Business Panel. Learn from this team -- they are doing some incredible things!
The Medical Center wanted a way to help patients and families learn from one another's experiences and improve education and support networks, with the hope of driving more effectively managed care. As the 7th largest pediatric healthcare provider in the US- with nearly 570,000 patient visits every year- and a network of physicians and employees, they had a large potential 'social graph' to tap into. They created a single experience for their patients, which integrated health records, educational material, tools, and the Children’s Social Network into a single experience, CMDC provided patients and parents with a private community for communication and support. They estimate that this single experience will drive a 75% reduction in clinic phone calls, a 5% increase in referrals, integration within the continuity of care and reduced operating costs.
These communities do work -- and they can be secure! What are you doing with your communities?
Tribal reference stories! Short and Sweet on power of Social Analytics! #ibmiod #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ls13
At the IBM conference in Las Vegas, we heard the strong message that Social Analytics made a huge difference! Here is a great case study for emphasizing this point!
Amadori is a 100-yr old Italian food company that wanted to better market its products to a younger audience. Using social analytics, they listened and learned about this new target customers' preferences and integrate those insights into their digital marketing campaigns. How? They created highly interactive websites that integrated with social networking sites (like Facebook and YouTube). Through the dialog within the four microsites and using sophisticated predictive analytics, Amadori is able to track and visualize what is said about their brand and products on social networks, blogs and forums- in real time- uncovering trends and opinions. Amadori uses this information to identify and predict consumer buying preferences, refine their digital marketing campaigns to generate more sales, and use the information to develop new products.
The results are on target! The solution boosted their ability to monitor and learn about their brand, improve their social media presence by 100% (45k Facebook fans in less than one year), build direct channels with new segments and respond 40% faster with new web sites.
Social Learning rocks our Monday Social Business Coffee Break! #ls12 #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #social
One of my favorite areas that social impacts is Social Learning. I am a very visual learner and love to learn from others. It fits me very well, and fits most companies need to train their #1 resource: Their People!
Take a listen and let me know your thoughts!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAeV_M1Jfjc&feature=youtu.be]