Almost 50% of companies are investing MORE in Social Business! Get started now! #ibmconnect #ibm #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz
IBM surveyed 1,160 business and IT professionals to understand the state of social business adoption to take a pulse on how organizations are tapping the power of social technologies to advance business objectives.
The entire study from IBM's Institute of Business Value report is superb! Check it out here!
Our research found the value of social business increasing within an organization. As a result, 46% of the companies surveyed increased their social business investments in 2012. Companies that are emerging as social business leaders are applying the technologies to drive customer-facing activities such as lead generation, sales and post-sales service.
Don't be left behind! Have you started?!
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Only 22% embed social into "Daily" Professional Life - how to go higher! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibmconnect
IBM surveyed 1,160 business and IT professionals to understand the state of social business adoption to take a pulse on how organizations are tapping the power of social technologies to advance business objectives. There were lots of interesting data that was discovered but one that I wanted to focus on here was that only 22% of people embed social into their daily lives, despite having supported the initiative in the first place!
1. Embed Social into your daily business process. Unless you make social a part of the way your teams work, they won't use it! So embed social into your patent process, customer service, sales, recruiting, and more.
2. Social should fit the way you work! For instance, our leader in Australia loves video so we enabled him to do video for his communications in an easy way. You shouldn't have to change the way you work for social, social should enhance the way you work!
3. Follow the leader! A great way to get this embedded is when senior leaders leverage and set the example for the team! The team then follows and embeds the new way of working. For instance , in client service, having the sr leader leverage twitter gets others to try it too@!
I could go on and I would love to help you and your company in this endeavor!
CIO and CMO Partners in Social Business #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #ls12 #marketing
As many of you know, I have been a "CMO" for a few of IBM divisions during my career. A secret success factor has always been the partnerships -- and today, one of the core partnerships for CMOs needs to the CIO! IBM's 2011 CMO Study which reveals that CMOs are struggling with how to better reach and engage with customers. The report reveals that CMOs are using social platforms to communicate with their customers, 56 percent view is as a key communication channel.
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CMOs today recognize a critical and permanent shift occurring in the way they engage with customers. According to the 2011 IBM CMO Study, 82 percent of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years. The need to deliver a seamless mobile experience has also become increasingly critical to CMOs. According to Yankee Group, global online commerce is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2014 and mobile commerce $200 billion by 2015. Because of this, it's critical for CMOs to not only be aware of and monitor the social conversation, but to truly understand the sentiment and interact one-on-one with that customer. Taking it one step further would be to integrate these conversations directly into the organization's web site, providing one place to both network and shop.
We know today's consumer has unlimited access to information and can instantly share it with the world. This immediacy has raised consumers expectations for 100 percent personalized communications and top-notch service.
Here are a few examples of organization who are successfully forging relationships between the CMO and CIO and are using web experience technology to better reach and engage with their audiences.
- Wimbledon has transformed its web presence to meet the needs of the anticipated 16 million people that will tune in online to the annual tennis championships; by visiting www.wimbledon.com, fans can share information, interact with and connect to The Championships as though they were actually there.
- Cars.com is embracing web experience technology to provide a 360-degree view of its entire business operations, enabling dealers to examine current inventory, change pricing and manage photos, among many other business activities -- ultimately providing better services to their customers. Today, Cars.com has scaled to support 200 million unique visitors a year, an increase of 145 million visits since 2007.
- Gruppo Amadori, a wholesale distributor of quality foods in Italy, has improved its online presence, enabling the company to communicate more directly with younger consumers and increase consumer loyalty. The organization can create new mini-sites up to 40% faster, saving time and costs. Amadori has also created an up-to-date database of consumer details, helping them better understand the needs of their customers.
Thoughts? How do you partner?
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!
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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!
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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!
