The Scottish Qualifications Authority goes Social! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibmconnect
The Scottish Qualifications Authority- the body which creates and manages exams for Scotland's schools and further afield - have become a social business with the rollout of the first part of their Staff Social Portal - IBM Connections. Using Connections they are better able to communicate, collaborate and share information across their 800-strong workforce. Even before going live there were nearly 400 initial users, and 138 communities set up, dealing with work and socially-focused activities (like their ever-popular jogging club).
As I discussed with Rob Gibson, he commented " This has been a thoroughly enjoyable project from start to finish. We spent a lot of time researching how to best sell this type of solution to the organisation and then setting up an "Early Adopters" community to test the set up and iron out any issues before we opened up to everyone else.
The other main task for the Early Adopters was to populate the system and get the conversation going ahead of general opening. This created a substantial amount of momentum which we have carried on past the launch day. We started with around 15 Early Adopters and grew to nearly 400 in around three months (approximately half of the organisation).
The system is in full swing with all manner of conversations and networks being built. I am delighted with the overall response so far but we have some ideas about how we can reinvigorate the system should it require a helping hand in a few months time. We also have a planned upgrade to a future version of Connections later in the year. This will give users a great uplift and help to keep the interest levels high."
Twitter: fastest growing social platform +40% Q2 to Q4 2012 #socbiz #ibmconnect
Check out the new infographic from my favorite Global Webindex.
New "Thumb" for #socbiz Collective Intelligence! #ibmsocialbiz
Thumb is based on the concept of crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is tapping the collective Intelligence which leverages the wisdom of the crowd to generate new ideas and to refine ideas that exist, as well as vote on the “best” idea.
Thumb uses personal crowdsourcing. For example, my daughter doesn’t know what to match with her new skinny jeans. She can upload a pic to Thumb and then use collective intelligence to source the best match.
It appears like even simple questions typically generate hundreds of thumbs up or thumbs down, plus comments, sometimes within minutes.
The site has very high engagement of its users with 4 hours a month of use by its members, which is second only to Facebook!
Have you tried it? Your kids?!
Diving in Bonaire: 5 lessons of the coral reef & the Social Ecosystem! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz
Last week I was on vacation and finally got to dive in Bonaire! We went with Bob from http://vipdiving.com! They were great. Even though I had a back injury, they helped me tremendously to dive safe and took us to 2 amazing dive sites!!! I'd highly recommend them to you!!!!
So what did we see on these dives? I saw tons of turtles, eels, barracuda, flounder, and colorful coral reef. But my favorite was a first for my dives ... I saw my first seahorse there! He was a bit red, cool, and incredible. Though I didn't get a pic, here's one from a pro that looks just like my sea horse!!!
YEA!!!!
But while I was diving I was thinking about the social ecosystem!! (Folks like Dachis, Jeremiah Owyang in the past have done the same!!!)
A few of my thoughts:
- What I saw: Seahorses hanging on for dear life like ... many companies struggling with Social. They cling to the past. We need to see that social is now a part of the business system. I'd love to help you embrace it!
- What I saw: Schools of fish being chased like...consumers banding together in communities, being chased by companies!
- What I saw: My guide searching for fish we had not seen like... companies approaching social in a focused way. Adding value, searching not for the masses but those consumers that matter to their business.
- What I saw: Tons of turtles having fun in the sea but working hard too. (Did you know that that marine turtles actively, and intentionally, remove algae from coral reefs) like: a great social analytics engine to remove the "stuff" that doesn't matter, and helps you identify what does!
- What I saw: Lots of color and coral formed overtime like a great community platform (IBM Connections!) that enables the different social networks to form! These tools are important and the security they provide enhances results!
Yes, I know many of you ask "do I ever stop thinking about Social?" Ummmmm....no!!!
IBM's Partnerworld is TODAY! Why should small businesses care about #socbiz?! #ibmsocialbiz
Today I am in Las Vegas with a group of great partners and will be involved in a Social Business Boot camp for and all there!
Here are some interesting reasons why I am so passionate about helping my partners with social!
- Did you know that 90% of small businesses are on Facebook, and roughly two-thirds post more than once per week? Yet, only a quarter of all U.S. small businesses (20-99 employees) and a third of midsized companies say they use social media “to engage with customers and prospects in a strategic and structured way.” Another 20% of both groups say they use social media, but in an ad hoc manner. (eMarketer)
- More than 80% of small to midsized businesses (SMBs) plan to increase their use of social media in 2013. Not suprising, considering that 87% of SMBs say that social media has helped them either somewhat or a great deal in th past year. Of those using this channel, social media accounts for 32% of SMB marketing activities. (Marketing Charts)
- Still, not every small business should be using social media—or at least not using it as they are currently. 79% of small business owners on Twitter post just once per day or even less frequently, yet one out of three want to spend less time on social media. These business owners would be best advised to either spend their time on other tactics or hire someone who knows and enjoys social media to interact on their businesses’ behalf. No deposit, no return. (Leaders West)
- Meanwhile, 55% of small businesses have a blog. (Leaders West)
- Despite the growing popularity of local mobile search and social activity, only 3% of U.S. small businesses use geolocation services. (eMarketer)
- Mobile marketing is “becoming mainstream” for small to midsized businesses (SMBs). 18% said they were “very likely” and 31% “somewhat likely” to incorporate mobile elements in their advertising and marketing efforts to reach potential customers in the coming year. Meanwhile, 7 in 10 plan to either maintain or increase spending in this area (Marketing Charts)
We will share our best practices on all of these areas So MoLo
- Mobile
- Social
- Geolocation
Interested in this coming to you! Let me know!
Social Business Coffee Break! Adoption BP #5 Social leadership! #socbiz
Happy Monday!
Welcome to our Social Business Coffee Break on one of my favorites! The importance of key leadership is crucial for great Adoption!
Tell me what you think!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st3cgXVKDtw&feature=youtu.be]
Social and BIG Data! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #bigdata #socialbusiness
I love the concept of systems of engagement and systems of record. These systems of engagement have a need for a diverse range of information from traditional systems of record to new sources such as social media, machine data and enterprise content.
How does Big Data enable this shift?
The new era of computing is built on a foundation of big data, where:
- All data is harnessed for its full potential to power new insights, policies and actions across the organization – both internally and externally.
Analytics helps you understand and anticipate, giving you the conviction to act
- Descriptive data describes ‘who” the customer is and typically refers to information such as age, billing address, preferred contact method etc, and often use geo-demographic information as well
- Behavioral data describes what a customer has acquired and refers to the raw transactions that the customer executes including orders, payments, usage etc, and how they use products and services. This also includes Sensor data from instrumented devices and systems, for example, your cellphone.
- Interaction data describes “how” the customer interacts through all the touch points including email, chat and the notes from contact centers – this typically includes a high proportion of unstructured data (enterprise content)
- Attitudinal data describes how customers think and feel - gives insight into the “Why” (i.e. motivation) – social media is a rich source of attitudinal data along with other sources such as surveys
To turn the mass of global conversations in social media into Useable Insights can improve results in marketing, sales, customer care, product development, and more
What is a Smart Workforce? Social is the difference. #ibmsocialbiz #kenexa #socbiz
One of the emerging trends my clients are telling me about -- as they adopt social business and really embed social in their business processes -- is the idea of a "Smarter Workforce."
One attribute of an organization with a Smarter Workforce is the way they build their teams.
The way we recruit people has certainly changed. It wasn't that long ago that the Sunday newspaper came thick with job want ads, since recruiting in those days meant lots of expensive advertising and endless rounds of interviews. The advent of online job postings streamlined that process for sure, and saved a lot of trees, but there's an even newer trend we're seeing, as social business works its way into the business processes of leading organizations.
Especially at one end of the job market -- when you're after recent graduates and people in the earlier stages of their careers -- newspaper ads won't reach them, and even online job postings are just "meh."
My most successful customers tell us they need to attract talent, not recruit it, and there's a big difference. I think social is that difference. Do you agree?
Attracting top candidates is more than just awareness -- sure they know you're hiring, but now what?
The trick is to attract the right candidates, who have the strengths, career aspirations and personalities your org needs to succeed -- and them match them with the right roles, the right parts of your org, and the right place in your organization's culture.
What do you do at your company? How do you find the right candidates? How do you use social to match the people you attract with jobs you and they want?
Happy Valentine's Day! Social-ize it!
Happy Valentine's Day! Some of my favs for this special day!
1) Make a Valentine's Day card by hand for your kids! Write a special note on how much you love them!
2) Send a note of appreciation to those special. Join the Note Project. http://noteproject.com/
3) Tweet today your love to brands that care. and people that you care for!
4) Send an ecard to your parents. Did you know that the largest growing group on Facebook is AARP!!
5) Don't forget your spouse. Family is so important -- how about a Pinerest Project as a "book of memories" around special moments.
We can show our love for another in so many ways on February 14th.
Please consider making your love count by doing some social good this Valentine`s Day.
Last year, I loved that many contributed ideas for giving a gift that changes the world on Valentine`s Day
The Marble Effect! Build an Intentional Social Business Ecosystem! #ibmsocialbiz #socialbusiness #socbiz
The Marbles have 300% more surface area!! So what does this have to do with Social?
Your voice gets magnified the more people in your network. Your POV and listening impacts the best solution.
Take a look at this picture where you have a tiered Marble impact. The upper tiers have impact and have direct linkage and work with a Social Business Manager. The term “brand ambassador” has been a round for ages, but do we really want to create brand ambassadors? The analogy isn’t quite right. Nor do we want to put pressure on people to mindlessly share content on their personal networks. So you need a bit more of a nuanced approach. An intentional social enablement system!
IBM has been working on a bunch of different enablement tiers that create an ecosystem of social enablement for IBMers. Starting with a foundation of guidelines and policy – see our Social Business Coffee Break from yesterday blog post! – and moving up to general education about social media, cybersecurity and reputation for all IBMers in the Digital IBMer hub. From that tier, IBMers can move into the Forward Thinker Program which enables them to be surfaced on ibm.com and other external experiences – and also to be identified for the IBM Select program, which is a small group of high-tough, bespoke plan enablement for the top tier. All of this is managed by people from many different areas within IBM – the social business managers…we’re not suggesting that we create a whole department of social business managers, but this is definitely an emerging set of skills that people need!
I'd love your thoughts on this approach!!!