5 posts tagged People

Next time you’re out running some errands, give this simple experiment a try. Visit a national company that you know has a strong social media presence, and then ask an employee or two about some social tools. Is the clerk at the register familiar with any incentives for Foursquare check-ins? Can the teller help you with your iPhone app? Does the waiter know what Yelpers think? Does the sales woman know about the discount you just saw tweeted?

Social business requires a shift in culture and structure to allow for transparency and democratization of processes. This shift does not happen overnight. It’s easy for people to get discouraged and resist change when the transformation process takes time and doesn’t come easy. Hence, social business evangelists have emerged to help sustain the momentum and promote cultural changes required for social business. This post outlines five key characteristics of a successful social business evangelist.

So, your business wants to be more “socially calibrated.” You bought the tools, but no one is using them. You have a Twitter account, but no one is responding to tweets. You are confused because when you said, “Let’s do social,” everyone said “YES!” So, what now? You must address corporate culture, which means you need to examine internal behaviors.

Adding fuel to our growing Social Business Design practice, I’m pleased to announce that we have added several new consultants and associates to our North American team led by Managing Director Peter Kim. We are lucky to welcome Caroline Dangson, Cynthia Pflaum, Tom Cummings, Bryan Kotlyar, Kate Rush Sheehy and Amanda Johnson all who bring exceptional analytical, research, and programatic development skills to our consulting and operations teams and come to us from respected firms including: Forrester Research, IDC, and Yankee Group. These additions enable us to better service our expanding client base enabling them to move forward to become more socially calibrated, collaborative, connected organizations.

Several 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?