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.
Reading the conversation cloud
Blog PostFor centuries, we've been using data to make sense of what's going on around us. Understanding social business would be simple, similar to understanding how weather works, if we only had the data...
Introducing the Public Launch of the Social Business Index
Blog PostMany of you may recall the launch of the Social Business Index in June. We were all excited about it and it generated some interesting conversations in the market. Unfortunately, unless you were a social media practitioner, brand owner, or social strategy owner in one of the companies covered by the Index, there wasn't much to see. Today we are excited to open up a portion of the Social Business Index to the public as a resource on social business adoption and performance and as part of our ongoing conversation about what it means to be a high performing social business.
I Am An Optimist
Blog PostI'm an optimist. Almost 27 years ago, I moved to New York City, hungry to make my way in the city that never sleeps. The energy, people, and opportunities New York City provided seemed endless at the time and I was determined to make that city my city. I was young, dumb and lucky enough to think that the world was going to change right there, right in front of me and think that I could have an impact on that change. Turned out, the world did change in front of me...
Gen Y for Social Business
Blog PostSlightly adapting Gandhi’s famous words, I would assert, Gen Y will fuel the change we are in the world; particularly in the world of business. I’m not alone in my feeling – 82% of Gen Y worldwide believe “[Our] generation has the power to change the world” (EURO RSCG). Such optimism, I understand, is characteristic of many generations before us, and their contributions to the world of business should not be underestimated. However, now it is Gen Y’s time to shine and we are introducing new expectations and skills to the workplace. Our general drive to learn, rejection of the status quo, and desire to connect, if enthusiastically embraced by businesses, will fuel the cultural and systematic changes fundamental for businesses to become more social businesses.
Brand Marketing Programs made Social By Design
Blog PostIn recent months Facebook has focused the conversation between developers, brand marketers and agencies around Social Design. As Facebook puts it, “Social Design is a way of thinking about product design that puts social experiences at the core.” This blog post will focus around my interpretation and extension of this concept to the conception and
Converging on the Social Enterprise
Blog PostI was in San Francisco last week for Dreamforce, the yearly confab for Salesforce that has had a major focus on social business the last couple of years. There's little doubt that Marc Benioff clearly sees the very near future of business, and it's something he calls the social enterprise. While you can read my blow-by-blow of the opening presentation, which was one of the most impressive cases for becoming a social enterprise yet made in my opinion, the process of social business transformation is a complex one and isn't going to be made so explicitly by many firms.
A Lesson from Parkour for Social Business
Blog PostAfter watching a Red Bull video featuring Parkour practitioner Ryan Doyle catapulting over buildings and rooftops in Mardin, Turkey, I was struck by how we can take a lesson from this sport and art in our approach to social business. Drive forward, never backwards. Use mental resolve to face obstacles with grace, strength and originality.
5 Hard-Earned Lessons in Social Media Listening and Response
Blog PostWe recently undertook a rapid (and non-exhaustive) review of the social media listening and response tool landscape for a client. Like many of you, our eyes began to glaze over after we reviewed video demos and read marketing materials. It seemed like every tool was exactly the same. On the surface there was almost no differentiation among tools, but as we began our detailed briefings we learned that things were not quite what they seemed.
Toward a theory of information relativity
Blog PostPeople often ask me how to visualize information. They ask things like “How can I visualize my industry ecosystem?” or “How can I visualize how my product works.” Getting the question right is the most important component in information design, and it’s the most common point where information design goes wrong.
Social Business Intelligence: Positioning a Strategic Lens on Opportunity
Blog PostRecently I've been tracking the growth of social analytics and the means of delivering well on it. Connecting it to the needs of the business is the next step beyond basics of collating, aggregating, and identifying patterns in what the world is doing that affects your organization. On ZDNet recently, I explored the rapidly growing trend of big data. Collectively, big data represents a set of highly innovative new ways that companies are developing to distill value from the sheer scale, richness, and complexity of today's vast networks of people and their data, of which the Internet is just the biggest example. It is social media in particular, however, where big data and business value intersect.