Social Business in the UK
I am here in London! The internet in UK is worth 100B pounds! It is projected to grow to 20% by 2015 of GDP.
I saw Salvation Army's use of Social Business with a group of youth that were brought from 80+ countries to get together to brainstorm in person and continued the discussion socially through communities.
I met with City University and saw University Professors and staff collaborating online for innovation.
I checked out Moshi Monster based on London. 1 in 3 kids in the UK have adopted a Moshi Monster. It is the faster growing community for kids!
In the globally connected index, UK sits at #6.
London is the top Twitter city in the world.
Have you seen this one on the Connected UK?
I cannot wait to come back and host a Social Business Breakfast in 2Q!!!
Let me hear your UK Social Business Stories!!!
Sandy
Social Business Culture -- What does your Business Card Say?
I am at IBM's PartnerWorld conference in Orlando. Of course, I was handing out business cards. I was surprised how including my "social media" contacts caused such surprise.
I led the Social Business evangelism and sales at IBM -- so shouldn't I be on twitter, blogging, using IBM Connections inside of IBM? Of course!!!!
So I challenge you! Is your business a Social Business? If so, does your card show it?
Social Busines Jam -- Jamming Away!
For the 3 days we have been jamming -- or brainstorming -- on how to become a Social Business.
Over 3500 people, from over 80 countries, commented over 1800 time! Some highlights day by day are below and more will be coming. I'd love your biggest take aways.
Some highlights of the most active conversations taking place on Day 1:
Sandy Carter, Vice President, IBM Social Business, Collaboration, and Lotus Sales and EvangelismEvery business needs a Social Business "GM" - This discussion gets to the importance of leadership and commitment to this new way of working
John Woodworth, Manager, 3M Lab CollaborationHow can the retired employee still contribute? - A fascinating discussion about the value of alumni participation in your business
Day 2:
Lauren Walker, IBM employeeCan you measure the ROI of social media? - An interesting debate on 'return on investment vs return on engagement'
Scott Smith, IBMerFor the 75% who don't post -- Automated Expertise? - Is this a key enabler for social adoption?
Keith Yamashita, Chairman, SYPartners"Seeing" - It's literally becoming harder to "see into the eyes" of customers. What does this mean for social businesses?
Sarah Siegal, IBMer
Your Anxiety Is My Serenity and Vice Versa - Oversharing vs. the "unconcerned"
Day 3:
Philip Streck, IBM Business Partner'How to create culture in remote companies.' - How can we leverage social technology to build culture within an organization who's employees never meet?
Larry Hawes, Analyst'Middle Management's Role in Social Business' - How will their role evolve and are they really 'in the middle?'
Jon Iwata, SVP, Marketing & Communications, IBM'The "second funnel' - How social media has put into the hands of everyone the tools of information production. Individuals have a printing press, a broadcast studio, the means to run ad campaigns, host events, organize and rally. In short, everyone has their own funnel.
What were your key take aways? Sandy
Location based usage at Lotusphere! Check it out. Gowalla #ls11
At Lotusphere this year, we are leveraging Location Based services to attract more emphasis on our offerings, have fun, and showcase the social business aspects that we are highlighting here in Orlando!
IBM has teamed with Gowalla to make the most out of Lotusphere!!! It lets you connect with your friends and business colleagues. and checkin throughout the hotels and sites here in Orlando to let others know where you are, find out where
others are meeting and plan trips to your favorite sessions like mine I hope on Wed from 10-11 in the Swan 5. (shameless plug there!)
There are a whole set of fun incentives like badges for our partners, most sessions, and most eaten!! These On-site fun incentives will create an awareness of location based services and create experimentation ... one of the best ways to get started as a social business!
If you are here with us, here's how you get going!!!
Here’s how to get started:
1. Install Gowalla on your mobile device. (See http://gowalla.com/apps)
2. Sign up and connect with your friends and colleagues.
3. Bookmark Lotusphere on Location trips for a selection of must-see spots while at the conference. There are 9 Lotusphere trips you can complete to earn pins.
4. Then, as you visit each of these spots, check in to show where you are. You’ll earn custom pins as you complete trips and visit more and more spots.
5. Add your photos so others can see what you are up to.
6. When you complete 3 trips, stop by one of the Social Cafes and show us and you can collect Gowalla Items IRL too! (while supplies last)
Have fun in the world of Social Business. I'll post results after the conference!!! And learned!
IBM IS a Premier Social Business!
IBM is a Social Business!
A social business is one that leverages social techniques as tools for organizational productivity and culture change, for engaging with diverse constituencies of clients and experts, and for spurring revenue growth and innovation for our global workforce. IBM is leading social business on all fronts - technology, policy and practice.
Let me give you some examples of how IBM is living its vision!
First,as a company, IBM takes social networking seriously -- to develop products and services, to enable sellers to find and stay connected with clients, to train the next generation of leaders, and to build awareness of Smarter Planet among clients, influencers and other communities.
Second, IBM has embedded Social into its culture. Its employees are brand ambassadors
* 1 million daily page views of internal wikis, internal information storing websites
* 70,000 employees profiles in SocialBlue, IBM's initial social networking initiative before the adoption of Connections
* 15,000,000 downloads of employee-generated videos/podcasts
Third, we created the Social Computing Guidelines first as Blogging Guidelines in 2005, and as Social in 2008!
Fourth, we have changed our processes to be more engaging:
*IBM has conducted 50 Jams over the past 10 years. For example, IBM's ValuesJam was used to develop IBM Values in 2003, IBM's InnovationJam 2006 identified business opportunities that preceded Smarter Planet agenda. IBM Legal conducted LawJam in 2007 in support of global functional transformation.
*Human Resources utilizes social media for tech-enabled recruiting, employee education, sales training and leadership development. For example, IBM relies on social media for leadership development from an employee's first day on the job. IBM's Succeeding@IBM makes new hires part of a social group for 6-12 months so they can get up to speed more quickly with other new hires, they network and acclimate more quickly
Global Collaboration and Development processes leverage social!
* Generation Open -- Built around social business tools, processes and management systems, GenO creates instant communities of global teams to collaborate on projects and products.
* Today, more than 130 communities of IBM professionals around the globe are collaborating virtually. This has reduced the time it would have taken to complete projects by 30%, increased re-use of "software assets" by 50%, and cut component costs by 33%.
Crowdsourcing is prevalent:* We have many other examples, such as IBM's TAP program (Technology Adoption Program), a company-wide "open beta" where products are developed through crowdsourcing, and we've created some of IBM's best-selling software products.
Gaming is used in many different innovative ways. From INNOV8, that I started a few years ago, to City One, and onboarding game, Social Gaming enables us to educate faster and funner!
IBM is a great example of Social Business. How about your company?!! You will hear about some other social businesses as we move through the week!!
Today -- A New Cooler Virtual Event That Evokes Social Trust
Today, we hosted a new Virtual Event on a set of announcements we were making.
This is our Second Annunal Event -- our first one won a MarComm Platinum Award! YEA!
Insights and lessons learned:
1. Hybrid works best. We ran the virtual event with 30+ in person events around the world -- Vietnam, Texas, Nordics, London, and the list goes on. The group watched the event today and "played" with the features but then personally got to network with others.
2. Engagement matters most. Last year, the time spent in our event was 84 minutes per attendee -- pretty good, but this year, we will be double that. Why? We focused on content, responsiveness, subject matter expertise live, etc. Last year, we found this engagement resulted in big wins for us.
3. Word of mouth. This year, we had more client and bp references and speakers. It is always better having others speak on your behalf! The feedback and sat is off the chat on these great references!
4. It takes a Village. To pull off a virtual events, takes all the things that a 'live" event takes: communications, drive to, organization, messaging, great content, planning, and the list goes on. Many of my clients think that virutal events are just easier. I beg to differ. The best are as well planned out as a big live show. (And of course, I think my IBM team is the best of the best!)
5. Content is king. Great content makes all the difference. Have meaty speakers, and great new things to talk about! It's what its all about!
Tell me what you think we could do even better!!!
Super Women and Nerdy Girls -- Join us for a Great Reception at Social Business Forum and LS11!
IBM Super Women's Group invites you to a special reception at IBM's Social Business Forum and Lotusphere 2011
Join myself and Kristen Lauria, Vice President, Marketing and Channels
The event is: Tuesday, February 1, at 6:15 pm – 8:00 pm
Great networking, drinks, and appetizers
Location:Americas Seminar, Dolphin Hotel
Are you coming? Let us know!!! Sandy
#ls11
Social media-ites -- Try out our Social Media Aggregator!
Here's a great example of aggregation and listening at a major event!
Sign up and see how this could help your business move into becoming a Social Business!
http://www-949.ibm.com/social/lotusphere/reg/LoadRegistration
What do you think? How could we improve it?
Sandy
#ls11
IBM's Social Business Forum! C levels come and join us!
I am so excited about IBM's Social Business Industries Symposium. It is January 31st and February 1st in Orlando Florida.
It will be focused on how organizations are investing in social strategies to drive greater profits and revenues.
We will focus on a roadmap of entry points to get started in your transformation.
The topics will help C level executives focus in on:
1. Leveraging social for business value
2. Re-engineering business processes in order to become much more effective social business - what does that mean?
3. Organizational change and transformation to become social business: from hierarchic to more distributed leadership and management
Plus there will be a ton of success stories around repeatable patterns in: Sales, Marketing, Customer Service/Support, Product Development, HR, and Operations.
If you are interested in coming, please email me at scarter@us.ibm.com!
It is Truly a MUST ATTEND EVENT! #ls11
We Won a Platinum Marcom away for our Social Perpertual Campaign!!
Wow! We won a Platinum MarCom award!!
We, IBM, created a comprehensive marketing strategy designed to energize thousands of IBM Software Business Partners worldwide and drive double digit software revenue growth by leveraging social media.
The Perpetual Campaign. Based on feedback from our Business Partners through blogs, tweets, calls, and classic surveys, we developed a Business Partner strategy that would leverage social media and traditional tactics to deliver greater client value while driving software revenue growth for IBM and its Business Partners, and allowing for continual feedback from the Business Partner community on new requirements.
One cycle of our perpetual campaign centered around our January 25 virtual event at which 20 core announcements were unveiled. Using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube videos with a blend of traditional marketing tactics such as emails, newsletters, and web postings, IBM invited the entire ecosystem of Business Partners, Analysts, Press, Value Added Distributors, and IBM colleagues to the virtual event.
An innovative virtual invite on YouTube was created and sent to all Business Partners. In addition,virtual communities were leveraged to send invitations on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Pre-briefings with analysts and others resulted in an active stream of tweets directing Business Partners to the virtual event.
The IBM Virtual Event. The virtual event itself, on January 25, 2010, combined avatars, virtual chatting, keynote and breakout sessions plus an online exhibit hall and press center. Key Business Partner enablement offerings included certifications on cloud computing architecture, industry summits with the availability of industry sales mastery tests across 17 industries, and a Green ROI tool to address clients’ demand for green solutions. More than 7,000 Business Partners worldwide participated in the virtual event, with more than 10,000 immediate downloads of IBM assets and over 9,000 keynote and webcast views. To personalize the virtual experience, participants were invited to create avatars and network with peers and specialists at the Expert Pavilion. A key indicator of the initial success of the virtual event showed that attendees stayed at the event twice as long on average compared to other virtual events.
The Results While the January 25 virtual event was successful, reaching 7x the number of participants compared to a single face to face event at 50% of the cost, it was not the end game. We then expanded our deployment in terms of scope, reach and results. Business Partners, who previously would provide a quote for a campaign, were encouraged to utilize social media to drive the message. More than 50 Business Partners issued their own press releases indicating how the new IBM announcements would help them level their business. Others, such as Software Information Systems (SIS) reached out to their customers with a YouTube video talking about the impact of the announcements on their business and how it would help their customers. Other Business Partners, such as Prolifics, accessed our virtual event center and hosted their own client virtual event that included custom virtual briefing centers with on demand access to IBM assets, live sessions, chats, and videos. Still others utilized Facebook and Twitter to communicate with their customers and others about the value of the announcements.
The Momentum Continued The momentum and energy of the virtual event continued and led to a second wave of our compaign, centered on cloud computing architecture. Utilizing analyst recommendations via blogs and face to face events with Business Partners, IBM introduced IBM Cool Cloud Cash Workshops, and offered education – both online and face to face – to prepare Business Partners for cloud computing architecture certification, allowing our Business Partners to differentiate themselves in the market. Cloud-certified Business Partners, such as CloudOne, are utilizing social media to take their skills, solutions and services to their clients to drive more revenue.
Summary. The Business Partner strategy that showcased our Virtual Event has allowed IBM to continue the perpetual campaign, listening and responding to Business Partners requirements to address their skills, solutions, offerings and revenue needs through a variety of social media tactics and face to face offerings, including the latest IBM offering of social media education on how to leverage multi-channel strategies for Business Partner success. From the IBM Virtual Summit an energized community of Business Partners has emerged, contributing great crowdsourcing ideas for new offerings and who assist each other to grow their business.
Tactic Results IBM is a leader in leveraging social media and traditional tactics to create a campaign to drive revenue and grow the business.
Results of the IBM integrated campaign, led by the social media experience and Virtual Summit are:
Influenced IBM software business results to realize 4 quarters of double digit Business Partner software revenue growth
7,000 Business Partners worldwide participated in the Virtual Event
7x as many participants as compared to a single face to face event, at 50% lower cost
Attendees stayed at the event twice as long as on average compared to other virtual events
An energized, connected worldwide community of Business Partners enabled to leverage social media and the virtual event to drive their business results