Collaboratory
The Collaboratory is our Social Business collaborative lab where we engage and explore an ongoing discussion, share thoughts, opinions, and ideas on Social Business.
Moving from Social Media Monitoring to Social Business Intelligence
Blog PostI have been thinking more and more about the various strands to Social Business Intelligence, which is a major area of focus for us here at Dachis Group in 2011. At our London summit earlier this year, I spoke about the way open data inside and outside organisations can uncover new sources of value and help drive performance improvement. Yesterday, at the lovely Social Media Influence Conference, I spoke about how the field of Social Media Monitoring will become more real-time, operational and valuable as it moves towards Social Business Intelligence. In summary, I think social media monitoring will evolve towards real-time data-driven business improvement based on socialising customer insight within the firm as a whole, not just within marketing and outbound communications.
The Double Pyramid of a Successful Social Business
Blog PostAny good social business is built on two carefully balanced pyramids, which mirror two different approaches that are required to coexist in a business that wants to thrive in a world where its customers are highly connected.
QR Codes of Today and Tomorrow
Blog PostQuick response (or QR codes) are 2D barcodes that allow the consumer to decode text, a hyperlink, photo, video, or other data using a scanning application on their mobile device. It is a form of pull marketing, rather than push, which allows the consumer to request more information. However, nobody wants more information. Matter of fact, the consumer wants as little information as necessary; they want more value. So when experimenting with QR codes, as with any form of subscriber-model marketing (much of the social space), ensure that you're providing added value, not just a URL with more information. Over the past few years, there has been a mixed reaction to leveraging QR codes as a marketing tactic.
Elements of The Social Business
Blog PostIn the almost two years I've been with Dachis Group there is one question that I've been asked over and over again. "What is social business?" I'm sure my colleagues have had the same experience. The challenge I have is that social business is comprehensive in nature, and therefore defies trite explanations. My dilemma would be made simpler if "social business" were just another name for something you already know, like "social media marketing" or "enterprise 2.0" or (god forbid) "knowledge management." But it's not. It's a term for something new and different, and our journey is so early that I don't think any company would declare victory on being a social business in 2011. Many of our clients are definitely taking the right steps, however.
Building a Business Case for Customer Community
Blog PostOne of the biggest issues we see today with branded customer communities in the enterprise is the creation of digital islands failing to foster an engaged community. We often find this issue is due to lack of careful planning that accurately illustrates the level of commitment required to build and sustain the community. Many companies dive right into building a community before realizing just how time- and budget-consuming such an initiative will be. Building a branded community ain't cheap, ain't easy and ain't fast. Take the time to plan for success and build a detailed business case for community.
Marketing : IT :: Dogs : Cats
Blog Post“Big data, cheap processing, and social media, are changing the advertising and marketing landscape. IT has been quietly hammering away on advanced analytics systems and platforms to aggregate and filter data, while sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can provide exactly the detailed demographic data that marketers say they need. Put it all together and
Moving Beyond Systems of Record to Systems of Engagement
Blog PostWhen we look back at the first decade of the 21st century, it will be obvious that a few momentous changes in the business and computing landscape occurred. Of these, one of the most profound has been a decreasing emphasis on systems of record and the move towards what are called systems of engagement. Over the last 30 years, information technology has transformed the business landscape by capturing, structuring, and automated a growing percentage of the information that our businesses require to operate. This has offered a multitude of benefits to the organizations that have heavily invested in IT, not the least that information technology has been the one area where world class companies typically invest more than average performers. This is in contrast to finance, HR, or procurement, where the best companies usually spend far less than middle-of-the-road companies.
How to get the most from a social media audit
Blog PostAs Peter Kim notes, we are in a period of transition where social business is becoming part of business as usual. As this happens, we need to implement practices that are repeatable and scalable. Social media audits are one of those practices that should be baked into that ongoing model. However, as we “operationalise” social business it is important that we avoid confusing management activities with actual engagement or the process of designing engagement. It is too easy to get caught up with gathering data, examining statistics and creating graphs – this social intelligence is only useful when it is used to actually help with forward planning or to review progress.
New dogs and old tricks
Blog PostIn case you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a war for talent.
The impact of social media on IT
Blog PostYesterday I explored in detail on ZDNet some of the issues that businesses are encountering as social media moves into the enterprise space in a truly strategic way this year. Not only is there a proliferation of new applications for external and internal social media, but traditional business applications are often getting social media capabilities