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!!!

Bonaire-CJE-2011-13603-Seahorse

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:

  1. 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!
  2. What I saw:    Schools of fish being chased like...consumers banding together in communities, being chased by companies!
  3. 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.
  4. 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!
  5. 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!!!


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?


The Marble Effect! Build an Intentional Social Business Ecosystem! #ibmsocialbiz #socialbusiness #socbiz

 

 

marbles

 

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!

multiply your impact

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!!!

 


Japan Releases Get Bold with Social Business in Japanese! #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #socialbusiness #ibmconnect

At IBM Connect 2013, the Japan Team released the Get Bold in Japanese!

A group of 50 clients and business partners showed up for our book reading and session!

Take a peek!

japan book signing 2


Social Business Coffee Breaks: Adoption Best Practice 1 #socbiz #ibmconnect #ibmsocialbiz

We at IBM have a great set of Adoption Best Practices for companies both who are early adoptors and more advanced!

I will do a series of 10 of these each Monday!  My goal is to help you with your adoption!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBaKXHEX9gE]


New Year Resolution: Social Leadership #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #socbiz #ibmconnect

Have you set your New Year's Resolutions yet?  I am still working mine but today as I sat down with one of our clients, and his New Year's resolution was social leadership.

What does a Social Leader look like?  Act like?

Here's what we agreed were the top 10 attributes (thoughts?)

  1. Transparent
  2. Non believer in silos
  3. Authentic
  4. Likeable
  5. Collaborative
  6. Comfortable with fast decision making
  7. Explorer of new tools
  8. Active in both internal and external networking
  9. Actively looks for new ideas from employees and clients
  10. Passionate about engagement and dialogure

Would this challenge to be a great social leader in 2013 be a New Year Resolution for you?

How can I help you?!


2/3 not sure they understand the benefits of Social - Do you?! #ibm #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz #ibv

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. From the IBV survey, 2/3  of respondents were not sure they sufficiently understood the impact that social technologies would have on their organizations over the next three years.  Check it out here!

I really want to help all companies on this one.  This POV is from working with 1000s of clients.  I'd love to know if this helps you!

A social business transforms itself by activating networks of people. Whether through online communities and meetings,
team spaces, blogs, wikis, profiles or other social tools, people can explore new ways to build and leverage their networks
beyond those dictated by traditional organizational structures or means of communication. Information also becomes more
transparent and accessible, opening up new wells of knowledge and expertise. As a result, people can be more efficient in their
tasks and more responsive, authentic and familiar in their interactions. In turn, the organization as a whole becomes
increasingly nimble, engaged and creative.
The key to implementing social software is to set clear, realistic objectives for your social business initiatives and to embed
social tools into existing role-based processes.

The end point for your organization includes the following:
• Enable an effective workforce: Operations, human resources and other departments can increase overall employee
productivity and job satisfaction through improved knowledge capture, expertise location, and collaboration. Travel, training
and teleconferencing expenses also can be reduced.
• Accelerate innovation: Product research and development teams can quicken internal idea sharing and discovery, as well
as transform how they generate ideas, share strategies and gather feedback from key customers and partners.
• Deepen customer relationships: With more immediate access to content and expertise, customer service representatives can
work more efficiently and provide higher-quality service. Marketing and sales teams can have more time to spend with
customers and to dedicate to customer-focused initiatives.

From the McKinsey Study, there are measureable results.


Serious Gaming Examples for this Social Business Coffee Break! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #gaming #ls12

I am in Malaysia and was surprised by the number of Asian companies already using Gaming as a part of their Social Business Strategy!

Social gaming adds competitiveness!   Take a listen!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZGdJLgkwPg&feature=youtu.be]