Answering some of your WATSON questions! Summary of Watson Announcements
Happy Monday! Yes I am at NRF today but see the breadth of questions coming in from IBM's announcements last week on Watson so I would like to summarize in a blog post!
With the introduction of the new Watson group comes a host of supporting activity including a new headquarters in Silicon Alley section of New York, over 2500 professionals staffing and over a Billion dollars in funding.
1. The IBM Watson Discovery Advisor will discover connections within Big Data to help organizations speed up research and bring new innovations to market.
2. IBM Watson Analytics will revolutionize how business users—from C-level to front-line—discover, visualize and share Big Data insights.
In honor: My brief encounter with Mandela lasted a lifetime
I have met many "famous" people but none that have touched me like Mandela.
It was just a fleeting moment really --- I was with a key group that had traveled to South Africa. Since I was supporting a very important person from the US that was scheduled to meet with Mandela, I was told to stay in the background during the meeting. I was allowed to go into the room to learn and listen.
But I was pleasantly surprised when he didn't let me stay in the background but shook my hand and asked me some questions! His smile and demeanor made you feel like you mattered.
In that short instance, I realized what greatness really meant. Making everyone feel like they matter, listening, and leading.
He touched my life in 5 minutes or less. Whose life have you touched? Nelson Mandela once said, "It always seems impossible until it is done."
You can make a difference! Do the impossible!
Social and your personality test!
You have to watch this one! This behavior way of blending recommendations will have a major impact on the market!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MONyLgrnPP8&feature=youtu.be]
Socialytics! Ready, Set, Social Business Agenda!
Top 5 Questions on Social!
I was just looking at the Top 5 questions companies have about Social Media and in the Top 5 is "How do I create a social strategy?" In fact 83% say this is THE most important question to answer.
Companies around the world are now focused on becoming Social Businesses, estimated to be a $100B market by 2015. In the past, Social Media was top of mind for marketing and PR executives, with the focus on leveraging social tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and communities as a new form of media. As these social techniques have advanced, businesses are now applying their value to more than just marketing and public relations but to all processes in a business – including Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Supply Chain and more. A Social Business is one that uses these social techniques in all of its business processes.
It's GLOBAL!
As I have traveled around the globe to over 78 countries, this trend is a global one. According to the GlobalWebIndex Survey of over 51K web users, use of social tools is now mainstream in all countries but Japan having over 50% of their population using the tools. Communities are the number social tool being used, with Facebook is the dominating communities, except in Russia, Netherlands, Japan and China where local brands dominate. So with this major focus, how does your company start the journey?
So how do you do it?
Based on working with thousands of clients, below is a way to create your personalized Social Business Agenda.
A - Align your goals and culture to be ready to become more engaging and transparent. Do not underestimate the task ahead of you. Culture eats strategy for lunch. Take a look at IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines as a way to get started!
G – Gain Social Trust focuses on finding your fans, friends and followers, and forming best friends from your tippers or most influential clients or outside parties. It dives into what social trust is all about and how you instill it.
E – Engage through experiences focuses on how a company can engage its clients and employees and dives into gaming, virtual gifting, location based, mobile, or other stellar experiences to drive that engagement.
N – “Social” Network your processes. Since this is about business, figuring out how to add social technqiues to your processes is critical. Think about customer service — adding in Twitter to address your customer’s concerns. Or Crowdsourcing for product innovation, or Communities for incrementing your marketing processes around Loyalty!
D – Design for Reputation and Risk Management! This is the #1 areas of focus for the C level — managing the risk of having your brand online, your employees being your brand advocates, and even your clients becoming your marketing department! I think the value outweighs the risk .. but see how to develop a Disaster Recovery plan as you plan for the worst, and expect the best!
A – Analyze your data! Social analytics are the new black! You need to see the patterns of sentiment, who your tippers are, and listen daily !
Friday Tip: Always on listening
My mom used to tell me that God gave me two ears and one mouth because I was to listen more than talk. In Social Media, listening acts as a guide, through the magical and interesting world of the blogosphere.
Listening should be a passion and an ongoing process that is necessary to keeping your strategy fresh and competitive. It enables you to find opportunities, potential new stakeholders and enables you to proactively manage Social Trust.
The value of listening is that it assists you in understanding your prospects, clients, and of course, your competitors. It leads to action and awareness of conversations which will compel your company to respond.
Since your URL isn’t just your website anymore, but everywhere you are on the web, listening is important to your digital presence. You are building a brand through images and test, and your head is on the "guillotine" everyday if you just rest and don't stay totally tuned in a systemic approach. Business, corporation related and societal events and basically everything is simply interconnected and needs dedicated listening all at the same time.
How do you listen? I use IBM Connections internally, and IBM Analytics externally and also set google alerts, Hootsuite and check Tumblr for trending topics. What do you use?
9 Levers of Differentiation in Big Data (Social creates alot of data!)
What is big data anyway? It is the flood of information that is available today. Did you know that every day, 2.5 billion gigabytes of data are created in a variety of forms, such as social
media posts, information gathered in sensors
and medical devices, videos and transaction records? Why .. that's Big!
Why is Big Data important? Being able to capitalize of that data gives you better insight and makes you more competitive.
IBM's Institute of Business Value just published a study on the 9 Levers of Differentiation for Big Data. The research makes it clear there are specific activities that can help organizations accelerate value creation and simplify analytics implementation.
Those 9 levers are:
1. Know the Source of Value. Focus on actions and decisions that generate value. Organizations realizing value from analytics solutions are those that can readily measure their impact.
2. Culture. Those cultures that support the availability and use of data and analytics see higher value from analytics and data.
3. Executive Support and involvement. Infusing the use of analytics into an organization’s culture typically requires advocacy and action from the most senior levels of
the organization.
4. Measurements. Evaluating impact on business outcomes.
5. Trusted data and data management practices. Decision makers must have confidence in the data before they will use it to guide their actions.
6. Disicplined approach. Leaders use a financial rigor in analytics funding process.
7. A great software platform. You need integrated capabilities delivered by software tools to take advantage of big data.
8. Organizational confidence in the data and the skills.
9. Focus on Skills. Development and access to skills and capabilities. There is a huge analytics skills gap. Those leaders focus on training a great team.
Download the full report: www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/ninelevers/
The Digital Fishbowl
I overheard today someone discussing not wanting to live their life in a "fishbowl". And then I thought about our social world. We actually do everything in a Digital Fishbowl. The new generation (we call them generation C - connected and in control!) grew up this way and so it feels natural.
But what really are the benefits and the concerns to this new world?
Benefits:
- Sharing of information. Social networking enables sharing helpful information. Did you know that 52% of bloggers are parents who are seeking information to help their family in some way. And there are social support groups for illnesses, and technical support. I love this aspect about sharing in the fishbowl!
- Think global act Social. Social networking allows us the ability to communicate globally. I loved the fact that over 500 friends around the world supported me in my broken leg through Facebook, and twitter. For businesses, this implies that the global view can be learned.
- Social is the ultimate personality test. The digital fishbowl allows us to discover through social analytics the intrinsic traits that include what motivates you, what you believe, and your fundamental needs. Computers can derive people’s traits from linguistic footprints. That hasn’t been widely applicable before, because where do you get those linguistic footprints? Now, you can do that with social media and digital communications we have the big data we need!
- Efficiency. The digital fishbowl enables us to be more efficient. For businesses, they can crowdsource their next product or strategy. Sales can reach more contacts. Video makes our visits more social and less time consuming.
Some Cons:
- Lack of personal touch. The digital fishbowl can be addicting and many I know communicate now mostly through text, tweets, and facebook. You lose something in doing that.
- Anything that you do can leak out. And maybe before you want it to! There is a risk to being social ! (I think the risk of not being social is greater however!)
- You cannot keep negativity at bay -- and digital amplifies it! We see this in schools with cyberbullying and even with some companies. The biggest question that I get asked by small companies is how do I handled untrue remarks.
What do you think? Do you like living in a digital fishbowl?
More followers? Just ask! Follow me! sandy_carter
So I was reading this weekend -- with my broken leg, there is not a lot to do! I learned some interesting things about how to drive more from Twitter --- quite simple actually -- just ask.
In an analysis by Twitter, they found that 4 core ways to get great results from your Tweets are:
1 Ask for a download. Explicitly asking people to download accompanied by a link increases URL clicks by an average of 13%.
2 Ask for a Retweet. Explicitly asking people to retweet increases retweets by an average of 311%.
3 Ask for a follow. Explicitly asking for a follow increases followers by an average of 258%.
4 Ask for a reply. Explicitly asking for a reply increased replies by an average of 334%
So would you guys please follow me on Twitter at sandy_carter and subscribe to my BLOG! Pretty Please!
Talking Social Business with Airlines in Prague with a new Social Study for Airlines
The GLOBAL AIrline Summit.
On September 9, I’ll be talking with senior airline executives from around the world at the IBM Airline Summit in Prague, Czech Republic. The theme of the summit is “Smarter travelers expect smarter airlines: Delivering an exceptional customer experience while optimizing operations.”
Today’s travelers really do expect more from airlines than ever before. Yes, we expect smooth operations, a pleasant flight and good value.
But more and more we expect personalized customer service while we are shopping for a trip and during each step of the journey, delivered consistently through all the devices we use.
The NEW Socially Connected Airlines.
Today, meeting those expectations depends on using the latest social business tools to help the airline workforce keep the planes on schedule and to create exceptional customer experiences.
I recently read a related article in Business Travel News that might interest you by Paul Campion, an IBM colleague in the UK.
The SUMMIT. A Breakthrough Event!
At the summit, airline executives will share their own experiences and hear speakers from other airlines, industry analysts, a leading international airport, Coca-Cola marketing, Netflix, and from IBM.
We’ll be launching some exciting new social business research sponsored by IBM with PhoCusWright - “Social media in travel: mayhem, myths, mobile and money.” The study will provide clear quantitative insights around what travel companies need to manage, mobilize, and monetize their social strategy.
Of course, the Summit won’t be all work and no play. I hear that we’ll take a tram ride and walking tour through Prague’s beautiful old town. Then we’ll share a meal in one of the city’s great restaurants. I’m looking forward to it. Watch this space for my blog post after the event.