3 Core Social Business Learnings and Aha moments!
Last night I was at a holiday party, and my colleague asked me "what are you going to blog on tomorrow?" So I told him I didn't know but as the night went on, and he asked me questions, he received a lot of value from a few simple learnings so I thought I'd share with you and hope I deliver value to you as well!
1. #IWillRideWithYou The tragedy that occurred in Sydney Australia broke my heart. But one thing that came out was a powerful and positive use of social media. After the tragedy, there were some women from certain faiths that were fearful about the repercussions to them. So a group started the hashtag that assured that "I will ride with you!" to support them. This use of social was a reinforcement that social is a positive force!
2. Social Selling. I was struck this week by 2 phrases that I heard from major Fortune 100 companies and start-ups. The first was that ABC is now not Always Be Selling but now it is Always be connecting. The second was your Networth is your Network. Powerful Tidbits!
3. Images are currency. Images have surpassed text as the currency of choice in social conversations. This week alone in numerous conversations I heard about how companies are using emojis, emoticons, and stickers as integral parts of their social media conversations. Have you heard of the Unicode Consortium ? I just learned about them and found over 200 new symbols. And from my techy meetings, I learned that emojis are "code", not images, so metrics can be driven through textual tools.
What were your AHAs this week? Please share!
Video Blog: Teaching binary to Toddlers! Is it important for all to Code?
Why are fewer people graduating with a technical degree (12% today vs 37% in 1984)? Why should you care?
Listen to this video blog to see how people are starting to train their kids earlier on how to code because of the upcoming importance to ALL on the power of coding!
I'd love to hear your thoughts!!!
As a social tool, LinkedIn is growing in Influence
I love the research from the Global Web Index and today's aha moment was around LinkedIn. As outlined in our GWI Social report, LinkedIn’s active user figure has increased by 50% in the las6 months.
Did you know that 30% of online 16-64s have an account on LinkedIn? And 1 in 8 have said they have actively used LinkedIn within the last month.
In fact, 1 in 10 online 45-64s are active on LinkedIn – making it the second oldest network in terms of its age profile and giving it a user base which is similar to Facebook’s.
What’s more, a quarter of LinkedIn’s active users are in the top income quartile, while almost half say they tend to buy brands they see advertised. In both cases, this puts LinkedIn ahead of Facebook – giving some indication as to why the social networking giant is after a bigger slice of this premium audience.
The 3-D Ultrasound Medical Scanner That Runs On Your Smartphone
Imagine that every doctor’s office – perhaps even every pharmacy – had a low cost imaging device running on a smartphone. The scanner would be able to provide instant, real-time pictures inside damaged limbs and inside other parts of the body, significantly reducing the time taken for diagnosis.
No referrals, no hospital visits and faster treatments.
Several low-cost medical imaging devices driven by smartphones are now arriving. One of the most interesting approaches is from the Butterfly Network which proposes to make a small ultrasound scanner able to run on a variety of smartphones.
One issue with low-cost portable scanners is that family doctors and pharmacists will need training to interpret scan results. But scanner makers are also likely to offer a real-time on-line interpretation service to assist. And for a fee. Compliments of Ray Hammond -- a true futrologist!
Social Business Is Growing and Morphing !
I was re reading the recent ibm.biz/SocStudy on social business impact! If you haven't read it, please take the time to comb through it!
Some things that struck me!
First, enterprises are rapidly adopting, investing in and achieving business outcomes from social. In fact, Pacesetters, those who are exceeding in the market, are 4x more likely to embed social into both their internal and external processes! 43% of the best embed social into their processes but we need more to think this way! Social is not a channel, but a more effective and efficient ways to transform business processes!
But how do they approach social? Organizations tend to deploy clusters of capabilities together, each aimed at achieving a specific goal. Most are driving both internal and external collaboration but the #1 social entry point for most organizations deploying is on a client engagement mobile app.
To ensure success, these organizations are building, educating and protecting the workforce. 82% of these companies also recruit their employees via social networks.
However, most of these organizations are using social analytics to support their decisions, not for making decisions. For instance, 70% of those who are deploying social analytics still DO NOT USE THEM to influence marketing decisions - still rely on gut feel!!!!
Employees are critical in the battle for mindshare and relationships online! 43% of those deploying rely on employee evangelists to spread the word
Visit ibm.biz/SocStudy to read the full study and start driving your social business impact!
Awards season for IBM Business Partners - Apply now!!!
It's awards season!!! No, I'm not talking about the Oscars or the Golden Globes - I'm talking about the IBM Beacon Awards!! Business Partners, it's up to you to nominate yourselves for these prestigious annual awards!
I hope to see all of our IBMPartnerWorld members and Business Partners nominate themselves for the fantastic solutions they've created using IBM products and services! It's so easy to nominate yourself and the outcome is well worth the time it takes to fill out the nomination form.
Finalists and winners of the 2015 IBM Beacon Awards will gain great exposure to IBM clients and the industry, it's a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors, and ultimately it will help you sell, sell, sell! Awards will be presented at the PartnerWorld Leadership Conference.
Finalists and winners will receive one complimentary registration to the conference as well as promotion at the conference and on our PartnerWorld website.
Nominations close November 21, 2014 at 11:59 PM EST so get started on the application ASAP!
I think this is better than a Golden Globe, don't you?
Get started here! http://ibm.biz/EcoDBeacon