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.
Facebook is giving users means, motive, and opportunity. What are you going to do next?
Blog PostIt wasn’t that long ago I was presenting an introduction to social media and warned people that Facebook wasn’t something you could approach with a one off strategy for their organisation. Not just because a Facebook presence requires constant gardening (and like any social channel it does), but because Facebook is a constantly evolving entity. However, the current wave of changes announced at Facebook’s F8 conference are something significant and quite exciting.
The Social Business Index is open
Blog PostThe Social Business Index tracks the performance of the most socially engaged global businesses, providing real-time ranking, analysis and benchmarking. It covers companies’ social business initiatives on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, message boards, forums and other platforms, tracking behaviours that can provide evidence for real business KPIs, and ultimately ROI. Currently, it tracks over 26,000 brands from over 20,000 companies, including over 100 million social accounts worldwide, but this is growing all the time.
Why should I follow or like you?
Blog PostEven now, some organisations are still making their first tentative steps into online engagement with their customers using social media and through social networks. They are easy to spot – look for the pleading calls to action, asking you to follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook or subscribe to their YouTube channel. But what exactly is in it for me? Why exactly should I follow or like you?
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.
Releasing innovation by involving your customers
Blog PostIt is slowly becoming a given that a collaborative and cooperative mindset and culture are essential to team performance and organisational creativity. Perhaps counter-intuitively, even at such places as the investment bank Goldman Sachs where one might expect cut-throat competition to rule. It is reported that while they compete to recruit the most talented people, the emphasis on the cooperative mindset is so crucial to their value-creating dynamics, they now aggressively screen out those whose tendency is to be individualistic, highly-competitive ‘superstars’.
Turning Social Handraisers into Social Sales
Blog PostHere at Dachis Group we frequently field requests from current and potential clients on how best to establish and implement a social servicing process. It's really not that surprising. Widely publicized successes like ComcastCares combined with fiascos like Dave Carrol's "United Breaks Guitars" have forcibly made companies understand the value of a rock-solid social servicing process. What is surprising to me is how infrequently the conversation turns to wringing additional incremental sales out of social media by focusing on social handraisers.
Data vs. Insight: Make Meaning from What Matters
Blog PostToday's guest post is from Debi Kleiman, the Vice President of Product Marketing at Communispace, who will be speaking at Social Business Edge. A leader in generating insights via private online customer communities, Communispace has created more than 350 customer communities for industry leaders such as Kraft, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Hallmark, Best Buy, Microsoft, MTV, GlaxoSmithKline, and Hilton Hotels Corporation.
Social Software Doesn’t Really Matter
Blog Post"Clients usually ask us how they can drill that hole in the wall. As consultants we are obsessed with finding the best drill that does it in the fastest and most cost-effective way. Sadly, we often forget to ask the client why he or she needs that hole in the first place." (coaching advice from a VP in my previous company)
Do You Want to Succeed or Survive?
Blog PostSeveral shark species need to keep on swimming, otherwise they die. Does this hold true for companies as well? If you "stop swimming" will it cause the death of a company, as it will do for a shark?