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!


Digital tip of the week – #TwitterAcademy webinars

If you are interested in learning more about Twitter for Business?

#TwitterAcademy offers free webinars on topics such as how to increase your follower base. You can register here: https://twitter.twimg.com/TwitterAcademy.

Each session lasts around 30 minutes and it ends with a live Q&A session.


Digital tip of the week – How to change your Twitter handle

Digital tip of the week  – How to change your Twitter handle

Yes, you created your Twitter handle a few years ago, without knowing so well what you were doing. And now you want to change it to a more professional looking name. You can do it easily by going to Settings and then “Username.” If your new name is available, you can change it, and instantly you will be @NewName, without losing a single follower.

All your Twitter posts, both new and old, will be rebranded with the new name. But any tweet or retweet you were mentioned in will still be under your old name, and will no longer be linked to your account, so think twice before you change your handle, because there is no step back once you do that.


Digital tip of the week – How to write a perfect LinkedIn summary

The summary section on your LinkedIn profile is your presentation letter to the world and the way you can encourage people to read on. Simplicity is key to have a good summary that will reflect and summarize the rest of your profile. Here are some recommendations:

  • It should be detailed, but concise. But try to use the 2,000 characters available leveraging key words and phrases related to the role and the business.
  • Be organized: try to not have your summary look too cluttered, instead break it up with Subheads and make it easy to read.
  • Include your contact information. Make it easy for people to find you.

Digital tip of the week – How to Import your email contacts as connections in LinkedIn

Digital tip of the week  – How to Import your email contacts as connections in LinkedIn

You can connect with most people you’ve done business through your email. LinkedIn allows you to search through your email contacts to find anyone who might have slipped your mind or works in a different industry now.

To import your address book:

  • Click the Add Connections icon in the top right of your LinkedIn homepage.
  • Click the button for the email provider you use. If you don't see your provider, click the Any Email button.
  • Enter your information.

Digital Tip of the Week: Who’s talking about you or your company in Social Networks? Measure it!

Digital tip of the week  – Are you aware of who’s talking about you or your company in Social Networks? Measure it!

There are several free tools that can help you track the mentions of you or your brand in Social Networks. One of them is Social Mention, a social media search and analysis platform that allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time.

The tool tracks the strength of your brand (likelihood that your brand is discussed in social media), sentiment (ratio of mentions that are positive to those that are negative), passion (likelihood that individuals talking about your brand will do so repeatedly) and reach (measure of the range of influence.

 


Wharton and IBM Announce a First of a Kind Exec Program for CMO and CCOs!

Wow!

Did you see the CMO announcement from IBM and Wharton?   Wharton Executive Ed and IBM announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind executive program to help Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Customer Officers (CCOs) prepare for and capitalize on the current explosion of customer data.

The course is 2 weeks long and is titled “The CMO Advantage: Evolving Beyond the Digital Revolution.”  It will explore the increasing importance of the CMO in leading customer engagement innovations in the C-Suite.

What does the course look like?

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the transformative impact of the connected consumer on enterprise value propositions and marketing practices;
  • Enhance the role and influence of the CMO and Chief Customer Officer in the C-suite, including rallying and orchestrating the wider organization to align in support of the brand promise;
  • Achieve personal transformation and challenge mental models by applying lessons through live simulations and rapid feedback;
  • Improve the performance of the marketing organization, including nimble organizational design, marketing return measurement, partner ecosystems, and winning the talent war; and
    Join a collaborative network of executive peers for continuous learning.

I believe strongly that the CMO needs to have credibility and authority to influence customer interactions across the organization, not just within the marketing department.

But our facts show something different -- the IBM Global CMO Study of more than 500 CMOs around the world showed that 82% of CMOs say their organizations are underprepared to capitalize with advanced analytics on the explosion of customer data.

Since most CMOs believe the complexity of data-driven marketing will accelerate over the next five years, less than half feel prepared for that (and, their confidence is eroding ... 70% reportedly felt they were prepared just three years earlier).

Clearly, the time to develop the acumen required to harvest insights and apply them to reinventing brand engagement is now!


As you finish up homework -- loved these points! What **really** matters!

Last night I was reading an article on "Harvard and kids" .... and it focused on what's really important that we teach our kids.

What does this have to do with social?

Well, read below and you will see that being a person focused on relationships and others is what really matters -- just as it does in social media!   What are you teaching your kids?

 

  • Does your child have a healthy dose of intellectual curiosity?
  • Is your child resourceful and independent?
  • Is your child happy with who she is?
  • Can your child creatively problem-solve?
  • Is your child passionate about anything?
  • Can your child sit with himself and enjoy his own company?

"By embracing what makes THEM happy, and by seeing them as the creative beings that they are, we can stop competing with each other, and they can enjoy, flourish and even love this one life they have."

 


IBM Design Team Dishes on the creation of BLUEMIX!!!

I caught up with a number of young rockstars from our Austin design studio at SXSW, and asked them to explain the process for the design of IBM Bluemix. We had quite a discussion!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6PPszabJI0?rel=0]

More on IBM Bluemix

More on IBM Design