Social Business and Bayer! #ibmsocialbiz #ls12 #socbiz #ibm

I was just in Germany at the #JamCamp!  I met up with one of the earliest adopters of Social -- Bayer!

I wanted to share their storyas  told to the audience by Kurt De Ruwe, the visionary CIO who began this social collaboration revolution inside the company. (See Kurt and I below after our lunch together discussing next steps!)

With over 111k employees, Kurt and team had several challenges. They had several teams working on the same problem across the world with duplication of effort and no real sharing of the solutions.   With an aging population,  Kurt had  35% of the people with thorough process and tool knowledge that were going to retire in the next 7 to 10 years.

So he set out to help Bayer become more competitive.  With a primary Social question in mind, he drove to create a culture where sharing is seen as normal and to stimulate the innovation process.

He piloted a set of communities in R&D (for innovation) and O&I (for social knowledge management of  best practices).  His progress and viral usage was amazing.

The pilot he started in the Materials Areas is now set to be ssed throughout his company. The R&D team focused on innovation, communities to spark the spirit of the team, and to facilitate crowdsourcing of ideas.  For O&I, he wisely worked on setting up places of sharing, communities to drive better practices, and to reach the teams at all levels.   

The success of his innovation stimulation and best practice sharing was built on a set of simple principles:

•Keeping it simple and standard makes a big difference
•Start small.  Kurt started with R&D and O&I.   Then he focused on glogging, and then micro blogging teaching and sharing along the way.
•His focus is on participation at all levels of the organization.  He is a great role model and example, having his own blog. •Focus and training are a must.
•Users default behavior is not to share, once you change this the rest is easy!
 
For his choice of Social Business Platform, he selected IBM Connections.    This choise was based on:
•A tool that was easy to use without the need of training
•A tool that would promote open sharing of information
•A tool that would allow to limit access to certain pieces of information if this would be required
•A tool that was easy scalable
•A tool with a low running and maintenance costs
•Users had to be able to use it without the help of It or of specialists
 

Social Business Coffee Break! Thank God its Monday! Social Enabling your Sales Team! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

Team: 

Thanks for the overwhelming notes and comments on the Coffee Breaks !  I am so happy they are adding value and helping you in your company.

Please send me other topics that you'd like to see!

This week's Social Business Coffee Break is about Social Enablement for Sales.  It is an IBM example of our use social enablement!

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJNSKZH_Juw]


Social Business: Quick 3 trends I noticed in the UK #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #socbiz

I was in London all day on Friday and discovered some great trends here in UK!

  • Only 55% of UK businesses build online communities and 21% of those who do have a Social Community, depend on IT to drive it.  Those who leverage Social Communities are having great success but typically it is a joint IT/Business driven venture.   I would encourage your focus to remain on the IT / Business partnership.
  • Channel management came up consistently in the UK.   Discussions on approach are crucial:  for instance, you could target 100 new facebook fans a week, 20 online discussions on forums, etc.  OR UK companies are reviewing the Tipper view:  get 5 influential bloggers to talk about your product or company and then have them reach the masses.   This is a very sophisticated approach to the thought process.
  • Investment discussions were around Training of employees and Social listening.  Again, 2 of the key areas to drive results.  Very good direction from the UKI clients.

I didn't have any UK companies provide me with permission yet to tell their stories -- but soon!


Social Business Case Studies! Dutch Government Agency! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

While I was at the Leadership Alliance event, I met with a Dutch Govternment Agency. 

Dutch social networking usage has grown more than 70 percent since last year, and the Netherlands ranks first worldwide in Twitter and LinkedIn market penetration, according to a new social media survey. comScore Inc. (Reston, VA), a digital measurement and research firm, recently released the study, which showed that while Dutch social networking site Hyves continues to be the most popular social media venue in the Netherlands, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are extending their reach in the Dutch marketplace.

This Dutch Government Agency has deployed IBM Connections -- a social networking tool - like Facebook and Twitter on Steroids for internal use.  So far they have over 5300 people leveraging the community in 2 weeks with over 200 communities.   The communities are around areas of interest like IT Support, Digital Workplace, and Emergency Response communities.   So far over 30K connections have been made and the team I met with , said the culture has already started a change based on the ability to share information so quickly!

We are hoping for more on this great story at our 2012 Social Business Forum in January in Orlando!

 


CMO Study Reveals Social is a Struggle for Some #CMOs #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm

Our IBM CMO study found that while 82 percent of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years, only 26 percent are currently tracking blogs, 42 percent are tracking third party reviews and 48 percent are tracking consumer reviews to help shape their marketing strategies

 

 

 Marketers who underestimate the impact of social media are like those who were slow to view the Internet as a new and powerful platform for commerce. Like the rise of e-business more than a decade ago, the radical embrace of social media by all customer demographic categories represents an opportunity for marketers to drive increased revenue, brand value and to reinvent the nature of the relationship between enterprises and the buyers of their offerings. Marketers who establish a culture receptive to deriving insight from social media will be far better prepared to anticipate future shifts in markets and technology. 

While they identify customer intimacy as a top priority, and recognize the impact of real-time data supplementing traditional methods of channel marketing and gathering market feedback, most CMOs say they remain mired in 20th century approaches. Eighty-percent or more of the CMOs surveyed are still focusing primarily on traditional sources of information such as market research and competitive benchmarking, and 68 percent rely on sales campaign analysis to make strategic decisions.


Social Business Agenda and Get Bold in Forbes!

All:  I was very humbled and honored by this great article in Forbes on IBM's award winning approach to Social Business.

I'd like to share it here! Click this one!


Social Business Coffee Break! Know your Tippers, Opinion Leaders #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm

It's Thank God its Monday cause we have our next Social Business Coffee Break! 

This one is one of my favorites.  It links to Social Analytics that we had discussed as well as gaining trust in the marketplace.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ShR3bOE-M]


The Social Business Team in Portugal and Spain! GET BOLD! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz

We had a great Social Business Breakfast in Portugal!   At the end, the IBM team in Portugal brought out their Get Bold books!

Here is their picture!


Social Business Analytics -- Continuing Analytics GET BOLD Focus! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

Keeping on the path of the Social Analytics is the NEW Black .. here is a great case study from our IBM Press Book entitled Get Bold! 

Seton Hall University (SHU) is a major Catholic university located in South Orange, New Jersey. In a diverse and collaborative environment, it focuses on academic and ethical development.

As a private educational institution, Seton Hall University relies on tuition as its primary source of revenue. Prospective students consider degree programs, reputation, location, and many other factors as they “shop” for a college. But a college education encompasses more than tangible product characteristics such as these. Much of the college experience is about the relationships students build once they arrive on campus[md]in the classroom, in the dorm, and through participation in on-campus events and organizations.

Seton Hall decided to try to increase their revenue by focusing on the relationship aspect of their university and decided to use Facebook as their relationship space. Seton Hall marketers used the capabilities of social analytics in an initiative to increase enrollment for the upcoming academic year. The project involved the launch of the Class of 2014 Facebook page. The goal is to extend the core one-to-one brand attributes of Seton Hall to prospective students, including a sense of community, feeling of home, diversity of experience, and, sometimes, simply fun.

The staff tagged custom Class of 2014 tabs making it possible to identify any www.shu.edu visitors who had also interacted with Facebook. Using social analytics and reporting, marketers could then examine the behavior of these visitors. In addition, the Seton Hall staff began responding to prospective students’ requests for help, from orientation, to deposit status, to placement tests, to housing. Soon, “declarations” (posts where prospective students announce a decision such as major, orientation date, or interest in a club or sport) had risen to 47% of all posts. The data showed that visitors who interacted heavily with the Class of 2014 pages demonstrated a high level of engagement with the university website as well. For example, they were more likely to request information and fill out applications than other visitors. The data collected revealed that Facebook was not only important to Seton Hall but critical.

Prospective students used the Facebook pages to connect with current and prospective students, self-forming groups based on majors, common interests, geographical location, and even residence-hall room number. The “Facebook effect” was unanticipated, but it fit naturally with SHU’s historical strengths and proved to be a tangible influence in the decision process. In effect, fence sitters were convinced to attend Seton Hall by other incoming freshmen.

By midsummer (two months before classes were to begin), tuition deposits for the class of 2014 were 25% higher than the previous year at the same time. Moreover, enrollment was tracking at 13% ahead of the previous year’s class. By the end of the enrollment period, Seton Hall had its largest freshmen class in 30 years, accounting for an 18% increase in net present revenue of $29 million (USD). These results were particularly staggering given the prevailing trend of lower enrollment for many institutes of higher education. By enabling Seton Hall to capture data on the Facebook interactions and perform a deep level of analysis, social analytics is enabling the university to make more informed decisions regarding their marketing investment.

The overall initiative has eliminated any remaining skepticism about the value of Facebook. The university has embraced Facebook as a vitally important recruitment channel. Seton Hall is now looking at new ways to exploit the power of this new channel. To that end, the online marketing staff regularly shares information on Facebook usage and influence with key stakeholders, including admissions and housing. Together they are working to develop an infrastructure to deal with implications of the changing way today’s students expect (and even demand) to interact with the university.


Social Analytics Case Study: Egypt #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ls12 #ibmpartners

One of our top partners, DeepMile Corporation, talked to me about Social Analytics and listening!  I am here in DC and working on the Social announcement of IBM's new Smart Cloud for Government, one that is FIPS and FISM compliant.  I thought this story was particularly relevant on Social Analytics!

 Who's listening on Social ? An important aspect of an effective government social strategy is measuring its effectiveness with constituents and businesses.  New Social Analytics are emerging to measure an individual’s effectiveness to influence others in social network domains.  Here are the results of an Arab Spring Case Study to see who was really responsible for mobilizing the crowds in Egypt during Arab Spring. 

Social Tipper Metrics measures an individual’s social effectiveness by comparing the number of their followers and the number of reactions generated when that individual sent out a social message.  For example, Wael Ghonim was thought to be the biggest influencer in mobilizing Egypt’s constituents during Arab Spring.  While he had 86,000 followers on Twitter, his twitter messages created 3,291 reactions within his social networks.  The real influencer of mobilizing the masses were Weddady.  While he 6,900 followers, when he sent out messages, 1,281 reacted in some fashion to his messages.  Weddady had a much higher metric *186) on his ability to influence other people’s behavior through social. 

By measuring a “Tippers” effectiveness, government agencies can focus their marketing campaigns more effectively on constituents who influence the masses.  Justin Bieber sent out a few tweets reference Egypt and Arab Spring, there were not many reactions to his input. 

 Background:

  • DeepMile analyzed 25,000,000 relevant tweets over one week
  •  Identified communities, sub-communities and mass influencers related to events in Egypt
  •  Analyzed “who” actively influenced discussions causing messages to cascade – or go viral
  •  Correlated activity to events in the physical (offline) world 

The importance of Analytics is key!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3l9eF3zWOs]