The Social Caveman
I just watched the Croods with my kids! It was such a great movie.
It was funny to watch the Crood Family move from Cavemen to being transparent and living out in the open!
The same is true for people who are hiding from Social! They are cavemen and woman!
Here's some incentives to move out of the cave!
* Determine what your brand stands for and what you want it to stand for. Search yourself on: Google, Technorati, Twitter
* Come up with your own tagline and ensure that you have the tagline (your brand) on all your social tools. Make it short and sweet like: John: Scholar, Nice Guy, Sales leader or Sally: Highly recognized Corporate executive with Top Tier MBA
* Remember every interaction and experience is a nonneutral brand experience. Make each one count!
*Engage your core community of enthusiasts, customers & employees where they spend their time -- pick the tools you leverage based on who you are targetting
* Build/engaging with a loyal “brand army” of enthusiasts that make your success their cause. Social is about forming a relationship. This is not about marketing. Acknowledge and harness their goodwill to generate insight and return on your investment
* Increase your engagement in important conversations. Have a POV (point of view). State it and add value!
* Remember, it is not JUST about social. It must be supported with real-world events and experiences (F2F is still the most meaningful interaction!)
Move out of the cave and get started! Reach out if you need help!
Mixed Audiences into today's Social Business World
Today, I was chatting with a client who proclaimed that he wished everyone was using social! The world would be so simple!
Yes, it would but we don't live in that world --- and won't for a few years.
Today, I see us having 3 types of people.
- Digital Natives. These are people who grew up online and in social networks. They work in a collaborative fashion -- they grew up this way. They do not do email or even answer phones. (Note: The post-millennial "digital native" was a term coined by U.S. author Marc Prensky.
- Digital Immigrants. These are people who have not grown up digitally but have taken to the new social world and use the tools like a native. They have a foot in each world... being able to leverage email, and traditional forms of collaboration, with the new world.
- Non Digitals or affectionately called The Analogs. Yes we all know they and they are in very significant places of influence today. They email, they dictate, and they don't use Facebook. These are some of your best clients, so you cannot leave them behind.
Yes, and today there are digital outcasts. These are folks who would grow up digitally but globally have not been blessed with the resources to do so. Many companies are working on these issues which I believe must be fixed before we do see people across the globe plugged into the "AORTA," which is Always On RealTime Access, a term coined by Mark Anderson, the chief of the Strategic News Service.
What do you see? How long before the Natives overtake enough influential positions?
SXSW: Key decision makers around the globe are influenced by social networks: GlobalWebIndex research SXSW session
As part of my SXSW speaking proposal on 'How to Avoid Being a Social Zombie in a Global World', I recently caught up with Tom Smith at GlobalWebIndex who shared some fascinating insights from their unique and far-reaching study of the patterns of key decision makers: a theme we'll be exploring further in our session.
The findings are a must-read for anyone who does business globally!
Take, for instance, the GlobalWebIndex finding that those decision makers who interact most on social networks are from emerging markets such as Thailand, Turkey and Mexico. If you are looking to do business in the emerging markets, don't ignore the local social networks!
Also, when asked what they consider the most influential marketing channel, decision makers overwhelmingly picked 'Conversations with people from the company/organization on a social network'. Your employees are a more trusted source than than your webinars, sales presentations or events. This is in line with our push here at IBM to become a social business: we have a strong emphasis on employee enablement.
Now, another fascinating finding is that these decision makers make heavy use of mobile technologies to access social networks, whether that be a smartphone or a tablet. Business happens around the clock and these folks are always on. Are you?
You'll find more even more insights in this 8 minute webinar I recorded with Tom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8pKQB1gk0E
We will be diving deeper into this topic during the proposed session http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/23204 at SXSW. Want to hear more? Don't forget to also see my other session: Socialytics Bootcamp! Social + Big Data + Analytic http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/23035
I look forward to seeing you at SXSW 2014!
Are you Engaged?
This week so far I have been asked a dozen times to define engagement. Here's what I came up with .....
When you look closely, you see that engagement isn’t mostly resulting in better marketing. People are not clamoring for more of that. What’s happening instead is that marketing is being replaced by engagement, by useful assets, by value. In exchange for their data – who they are, what they’re looking for, even where they are standing or driving at this moment – they expect some kind of benefit in return… whether as customers, or patients, or students, or citizens.
Engagement. ]Your emotional connection with your client or employee, usually created by exceptional experiences that are integrated, interactive, and identifying. A Social Business connects people to expertise. It connects individuals whether customers, partners, or employeesas networks of people to generate new sources of innovation, foster creativity, and establish greater reach and exposure to new business opportunities. It establishes a foundational level of trust across these business networks and thus a willingness to openly share information, developing a deeper sense of loyalty among customers and employees. It empowers these networks with the collaborative, gaming, and analytical tools needed to engage each other and creatively solve business challenges.
Engaged Clients. Clients who are attentive, interested, and active in their support for your brand, product, or company. The depth of their conversations online showcases their knowledge and care. They recommend and passionately advocate on your behalf in the blogosphere.
Engaged Employees. Those who know the company’s values and are empowered to leverage those values with their partners and clients. They know their role and understand how to reach out to the right expert. These new social employees are about commitment and success.
Skills gaps are creating huge challenges in Social, Mobile,
The IBM Tech Trends report is based on a survey of more than 1,200 professionals who make technology decisions for their organizations (22 percent IT managers, 53 percent IT practitioners, and 25 percent business professionals). Our respondents come from 16 different industries and 13 countries, spanning both major and growth markets.
I was surprised that mobile is the largest gap, followed by Cloud. While there is a gap in Social, of the Big 4, it is the best one.
Thoughts? Any surprises to you?!
You are never too old to boogie board -- or to social network!
In my summer vacation series, here's my next lesson from the beach!
I got to use my boogie board to surf the waves and the wave pool! What I learned is that you are never too old to boogie!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roQxFb0B9Pw]
Just like you are never too old or too high in a company to use social networking. The fastest growing group on Facebook are those over the age of 55! Did you know that 32% of top CEOs have at least one account on a social network! The % of CIOs who say that social is important to their business has more than doubled in the last year per the MIT Sloan Management Review.
What are you waiting for? Catch the wave and boogie!
You can't feed just one seagull (a series on Social and Vacation!)
This past week I was at the beach -- with a very relaxing time in the sun. The whole time I was there I saw social in so many different ways.
Once when my daughters tried to feed one seagull , they ended up with a whole flock. You can't just feed one ! Or can you?
In Social, you should respond to comments in a way that showcases that your brand really cares and engages around client concerns. Responding is an important part of interacting and engaging with your audience, while also humanizing your brand, improving brand loyalty and creating brand ambassadors.
But you don't have to respond to all negative comments. Have a well thought out plan and know what "level" of comment that you want to respond too. In some cases, have other clients speak on your behalf. Unlike at the beach, you don't have to feed all the seagulls.
Thank God it's Monday! Social Business Trend 2
Everyone always celebrates Friday so I thought today we'd celebrate Monday with a great Social Business coffee Break.
Today we are focused on the 2nd core trend in Socialytics: Marketing not just to a demographic but to the power of 1. (Reminder; trend 1 was the power of information sharing and that driving a need socially to recognize expertise and trust!)
As always tell me what you think!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP4ebWmGHos&feature=youtu.be]
Sweet tea and screen doors. Social Businesses could learn alot from them!
Yes, I am southern pure as they come! I love my sweet ice tea, grits with butter, screen doors, and Kudzu.
In the summer, the screen door is an essential element of everyone's home. The screen door's entire point is that it's not a barrier. Its job is to open easily. It is a welcome to all visitor's and friends that approach it.
Is your social media site like that screen door? Does it open and welcome others in?
Tips to make your site as welcoming as that Southern Door!
- Do you make people type in that "code" to enter? Don't!
- Is your site mobile friendly and usable?
- Do you have stellar content ? Content is Queen!
- Is Video part of your strategy? Video is the highest trusted media! Use it wisely!
- Do you have a Twitter Widget on your Home page to engage your audience? (Check out my blog on IBM Voices!)
- Can you feature other guests on your site?
- How do you listen? All relationships listen first!
- Are your employees empowered to really represent the brand on your site?
- Have you chosen the right social tools that welcome your audience? For instance, if you are selling to men, Pinerest may not be the best first choice.
- Do you constantly review the feedback and make changes to adapt and change?
Socialytics!
Did you know that CEO’s & CIO’s identified “Insight & Intelligence” as the number #1 focus over the next 3-5 years? Doing Social without Analytics really doesn't make much sense in today's world.
According to IBM's CEO Study, C-level executives are worried about enhancing customer loyalty and better understanding what customers want.
We are calling this Socialytics -- a way that companies can simply collect big data across the social spectrum, and within seconds conduct complex analytics functions that show what your customers are saying and buying. What your competitors are saying and doing. And what is happening in the markets in real time.
It is the combo of Social + Analytics + Big Data!
Essentially we are providing valuable insights and intelligence to business executives so they can make more informed business decisions.
I think this is core to Social -- being able to combine the analytics with the social data.
