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.
Lord of the Likes: Taming the Feral Community
Blog PostWhile working on a recent project, I was asked to step in to a branded Facebook community that already had a very active following. Problem was, the brand presence up to that point was minimal and the community resembled something from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Due to the lack of an official brand voice, a group of extremely engaged advocates rose to power. Though their participation and assistance was appreciated, there was a clear need for an official presence in the community.
A framework for building advocacy
Blog PostBuild business value by creating culture, compelling communication, uniting around ideas, and activating advocates.
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.
The Path to Co-Creating a Social Business: The Early Adoption Phase
Blog PostThe figures vary but in the last several years a major change has begun in organizations around the world. Sometimes the efforts are small and unsanctioned, sometimes they are big and bold, but increasingly businesses are employing social media strategically to engage deeply with both their workers and customers. We see this all the time
Connecting Digital Strategy with Social Business and Next-Gen Mobility
Blog PostHow do the overarching digital strategies of today's 21st century enterprise relate to social business and smart mobility? It's a question I've been asked more and more frequently as these two major new trends become primary areas of focus in organizations around the world. The reality is today that large organizations continue to struggle with how they are organizing around digital strategy in general. In this context I'm referring primarily to Web strategy -- including the various aspects of a business it touches -- since that's almost entirely where digital is headed as a whole. One of the aspects that stands out the most when I've worked with companies recently is that most traditional businesses often have a dramatically lower level of maturity around digital delivery of their capabilities than native Web firms. This despite it being almost twenty years since the Web arrived. It's clear there is significant impedance between the way digital business works and the way many companies still operate.
What Basic Friendship Rules Can Teach You about Community Management
Blog PostWhen called upon to explain what it takes to be a good community manager, I often feel like I’m writing a children’s book on how to be a good friend. Truly, good community management is not difficult to figure out, but many people are intimidated by the new avenues of communication in social media and
Today Your Community Manager is King
Blog PostThe relatively new role of community manager has become business critical in today’s dynamic business environment. Those who have begun to establish best practices for interacting daily across an expanse of forums and issues deserve a resounding “thank you” today as we celebrate the second annual Community Manager Appreciation Day.
Blinded By Automated Dashboards
Blog PostCommunity managers should build measurement plans in tandem with community strategy, not in reaction to metrics generated by community dashboards. This blog post offers guidance for how to approach community measurement to capture a holistic picture of health and progress.
The Biggest From > To in a Generation
Blog PostYesterday wrapped up Austin City Limits, an incredible 3-day multi-stage music festival in Austin, Texas. The event seems to be marked by the weather each year. There was the dust bowl year of 2005, and of course last year was the Dillo Dirt (and rain) year. This year will go down as the perfect weather year, I think. One great thing about all outdoor music festivals in general, is that they are great equalizers. It doesn't matter what your social or economic status may be, we're all just hanging out on the grass trying to get a good view of the next band. In my case, I find myself sitting next to high school kids who have never known a day without internet access. It brought home a little bit of Tony Zingale's keynote speech at Jiveworld 2010 about how we're in the middle of the biggest From > To in a generation.
Six Social Business Trends To Watch
Blog PostIt will come as little surprise to readers here that businesses this year have been getting increasingly serious about social media as they find that their customers are spending a rapidly growing amount of time there. The most recent numbers show that Americans are spending nearly a quarter of their online time in social networks, far ahead of other forms of Internet activity. The numbers worldwide aren't much different and implications for businesses are many and varied. I've explored these extensively before and it goes well beyond such ideas like "Facebooking" the enterprise. Yet due to the top-down way most organizations operate, businesses continue to fall behind what's happening in the marketplace today. Unfortunately, the underpowered, non-scalable, expensive, and fundamentally limited value creation techniques of yesteryear won't begin to suffice in today's rapidly emerging Social Business landscape.