Congrats to IBM! Per NAFE, top company for female executives(15 years in a row!!) Proud to be an IBMer!
I was truly honored to accept the NAFE award today on behalf of IBM and its women executives worldwide, recognizing that IBM as a top company for female executives for 15 years in a row!
I would personally like to thank Ginni Rometty for her leadership of IBM. We have been improving the % of female executives for a while, but 2013 was the largest increase in our history.
IBM's view of diversity is that having a diverse executive base ignites innovation!
On behalf of IBM and women everywhere, thank you for the NAFE focus on women's leadership and on this honor!
A conversation with Mark Schaefer on social influence
I recently had a Twitter exchange with Mark Schaefer, Author and Blogging Consultant around the claim that Klout represents the new SAT Score. At SXSW we had a chance to get more into the discussion and talk about the wider discussion of the growing importance of influence on public social networks and within enterprises.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr7glyHw7eY]
Read more on influence on Mark's blog
Continuous Customer Engagement!
I was reading last night about engagement. In my book "Get Bold" we defined engagement as the emotional connection with your client or employee, usually created by exceptional experiences that are integrated, interactive, and identifying.
A Social Business connects people to expertise. It connects individuals whether customers, partners, or employees as networks of people to generate new sources of innovation, foster creativity, and establish greater reach and exposure to new business opportunities. It establishes a foundational level of trust across these business networks and thus a willingness to openly share information, developing a deeper sense of loyalty among customers and employees. It empowers these networks with the collaborative, gaming, and analytical tools needed to engage each other and creatively solve business challenges.
Enagement is a great goal but Continuous Customer Engagement is the next turn of the crank. It is about systematically interpreting and evolving a comprehensive understanding of an individual in order to engage that individual in a productive manner in any brand interaction.
The word “productive” is used very intentionally. As marketers extend their focus into customer experience and engagement, that idea of service is critical.
An offer may indeed be the right action in some cases. However, in other situations, the customer may be seeking information or struggling to accomplish a task. Marketing organizations in the leading companies that we’ve evaluated are differentiating themselves with their ability to interpret the customer’s need and determine the best possible action to take at any point in time and at any stage in the customer lifecycle.
Continuous Customer Engagement Rules:
Those companies that practice continuous customer engagement have a set of rules.
- First, they break the typical silos and barriers to that get in the way of being customer focused and treating customers more holistically. The expand the traditional aperture of marketing and think about how they will serve best serve the customer.
- Second, they are beyond using “omni-channel” as a hype term. They are focused on building and creating a system of engagement that integrates and enables the the channels with rich, contextual customer insight and decisioning capabilities that enable them to listen and interact with customers much more effectively and dynamically.
- Third, they foster a customer-centric and authentic culture that focuses on establishing a win:win with the customer. These marketers focus on helping the rest of the company understand and empathize with the customer. They also work to ensure that the company has a clearly establish set of core values and then lives by those values in every way that it operates.
Does your company practice continuous customer engagement.
What are the attributes of a Social Advocate?
Yesterday I spoke to my team on how to be more of a Social Advocate. This Advocate role is very important to companies because studies show that more people listen to word of mouth vs brand content.
Since I had this as our #1 question, I decided to do a quick blog entry on it as well to share more broadly!
A Social Advocate is a person who is passionate about your brand and references you in the normal course of business. The recent Global Web Index, found that exclusive content motivates 21% to become a advocate brand.
Their characteristics are those of a Trust-builder, an Idea challenger, and a client advocate. They specialize in the art of the conversation, asking questions, listening, and sharing a point of view. They become the Go-to Person, …not just present in Social Media, they position themselves as credible and influential sources in customer networks.
Are you an Advocate?
Meet Generation C! Connection, in Control, and Co Creators!
Happy Monday!
Welcome to our Social Business Coffee Break -- a real fun one but important as well!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtNsJRfB1xc&feature=youtu.be]
Close Encounters of the Mobile Kind! What's coolest mobile app?
Thank you being part of India's Largest Technology Contest for Students. The last date for project submission for The Great Mind Challenge - Mobility Contest is 31st March 2014. What's the coolest mobile app you have made ? Hurry submit your projects now. Submission details on www.facebook.com/thegreatmindchallenge