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.
Using service design to envision socially integrated services and products
Blog PostWhat if the technologies of Web 2.0 and the social networks it has enabled were part of the customer’s full experience of a service or product, rather than simply a channel used for promotion or customer service? A lot of time is spent thinking about how brands interact or engage with customers through social media, but less time is spent thinking about making social media and networks a core and essential part of the services and products behind those brands. I’m not talking about clever online marketing or promotional social media gimmicks – I mean real services and products, that are intrinsically integrated with social software.
How social networks grow
Blog PostIf user adoption of G+ follows what I remember from MySpace and Twitter, it may play out something like this.
Google+ and the Enterprise
Blog PostWhen new social networks pop up, normally one doesn't invest too much time in taking a deep-dive into functionality until there is significant adoption, suggesting that it is more than just a flash in the pan, and that it may have an impact on the social and digital space. With the release of Google+, we have just that; it has already hit 10 million users, has pinpointed and addressed some of the glaring "weaknesses" of Facebook, and has taken an active stance in the incorporation of business tools from the outset.
The Social Business Stack: The Elements
Blog PostTrying to stay up-to-date with the many moving parts of social business can be a full time job today. The technologies, trends, and techniques of social media as applied to business is evolving constantly and moving so quickly that it can be difficult to understand how all the pieces currently fit together. In information technology, we have long used the stack model to break down the description of a complex system into sets of related functions. It's not perfect in that it's a static view, and social business is very dynamic, but it's a good start and lets us achieve some useful intellectual control over the elements of social business and how they relate to each other.
Creating Facebook for the Enterprise
Blog PostWhen we first started to become aware of the potential for the deliberate use of social software inside organisations, public social networks like Facebook were already firmly established. A few entrepreneurial businesses proposed back then that Facebook could in fact replace intranets altogether. Luckily, in my opinion, this idea never took hold, although there are many examples of shadow intranets being created in public social networking sites like Facebook. Some enterprise software vendors have even turned the momentum of such latent demand into successful freemium sales models, where employees can create staff networks just as easily as they can create a Facebook or LinkedIn group.
Thinking strategically about RFPs
Blog PostRFPs can be used as an effective tool to assist purchasing decisions. But they're often not used as part of a strategic approach.
Bridging the physical barrier: QR Codes, NFC & AR
Blog PostQR Codes, Semacodes and other similar technologies are a very tricky topic to address, they're also subject to quite intense waves of hype that repeat themselves every few years. The hype in this case isn't completely unfounded, because creating the connection between the physical and digital worlds is something everyone is aiming for, and something that will be able to trigger huge changes in the manipulation, usage and interaction with services and people.
Social Media’s Growing Impact on the Top Global Brands
Blog PostDue to the downturn in the economy and the rippling shifts in consumer priorities, companies must be more aware of the multiple primary forces that influence a brand’s power. Business is rapidly changing, but the principles of powerful brands still stay the same. Interbrand is the world’s largest brand consultancy that annually ranks brands according to the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role of brand in the purchase decision process, and the strength of the brand. Interbrand’s brand strength components have undergone an update for 2010 to better reflect the factors that are reshaping the marketplace. These factors now include proliferation of social media, which underlines the growth of social media over the last couple years.
Forward With Ford
Blog Post, The Connected CompanyI spent a couple of days last week with Ford in Dearborn as part of an event for the social press/media. In hindsight, it's difficult to imagine another company that could pull off what Ford did.
Twitter profile optimization: How the most fortunate brands stack up
Blog PostHave you looked at your Twitter profile lately? How’s it looking? Good? Bad? Ugly? If you’re feeling good about your profile, great! If you fall more in the bad or ugly camp: have you covered the basics? You see, the beauty of Twitter is its simplicity. There’s not a lot of room to make mistakes in terms of optimizing your profile. If you’re having trouble getting started, the following to-do list should get you well on your way to establishing the essentials.
