BIZTECHBUZZ in the world of social, cognitive, IoT and startups

Month: August 2011 (Page 1 of 2)

Social Business Learnings from HURRICANE Irene! #ls11 #getsocial11 #socialbiz #ibm #ibmpartner

As I was in Hurricane Irene this weekend, I thought of the similarities of a Hurricane and Social Media!
1. The EYE.   A Hurricane makes motion around its Eye, the center of the storm.   A Social Business should make motion around its value add..  It should focus on sharing expertise and ways to listen, more than just pushing its message into the blogosphere. 

2.  Hurricanes have no fronts.   Social Businesses are the same.  They are transparent.  There are no fronts to them. They are open, and honest. They share information freely across all parties.

3.   None are immune to Hurricanes.  As we learned with Irene, all can be touched by one of the triple forces of  the winds, rains, and waves.   Just as none are immune to Social.  You cannot “opt out” of being Social.     Your company can choose to embrace it for deepening relationships with your clients, or ignore it at your own peril, not realizing what is being said about you.

4.  You need to watch the direction and progress of a Hurricane.   With Irene, we watched the signs of when it might hit, and where it might hit. Social Businesses need to listen to their clients, and influencers.    Without seeing what the comments and feedback is, you cannot be prepared and grow as a company. 

5.  Be prepared.   While seeing the Hurricane approach us in NY, we got prepared with flashlights, water, and food.    As a Social Business, you need to be prepared to arm your employees with the right tools in the market.   I loved this quote from a site in NC:  . It is not if a hurricane will hit but when.  With this in mind, knowledge and preparation are essential.  I believe the same is true with Social.  Social is the 5th transformational IT trend that is impacting the way we work.
 

 

Social Business In Real Life! #socialbiz #getsocialbiz #ls11 #ibm #wrightsville #wilmington

Today I was seeing how Social Business is impacting everyday life, not just work!

Hybrid media is now becoming common. As I am watching the weather on the hurricane, I saw the “traditional ” media mixed with social.  Check it out!

 

ThenI went to Chick Filet — one of my favorites!  And going through the drive in for the Ice Tea, I saw this one!

 

And then in Willmington, NC where I vacationed, I saw this with the caption:   100 years ago, the people of Wilmington used to meet, enjoy picnics, and socialize in an area known as “3rd Street Plaza”, so it goes today but in a social network!

I ‘d love to see what you see that is now showcasing that Social is now our 5th transformational trend today!

Social Business: SXSW Panel Votes! Need your help! #getsocial11 #ls11 #gitomer #socialbiz #ibm #ibmpartners

All:  I love SXSW and the conference in Austin! It has the best forward looking views on Social!

For some reason, my entry this year on the site is having a title issue so that no one can find it to search on it. I still your votes!! Can you please help me?!

While SXSW is working on it, the only way to vote for my session is to go direct.

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/8873

Use of Social in Lead Passing ! Part 2 of Social Selling – #getsocial11 #sales #gitomer #ls11

A few days ago, I posted on how we are using Twitter to get leads into our system.

I received several comments and questions about lead passing.   Let me share with you a few examples of how we use social to pass leads!  Afterall, we do not want to throw those new leads away!

A potential customer from “Endicott College” is navigating IBM’s solutions for Higher Education and online collaboration for virtual students. As they explore the site, an ibm.com representative is notified and asks the customer if they want to chat via instant messaging.

After a couple conversation, connecting on LinkedIN, and additional information is provided, the customer wants to see how the product works and talk with other customers.

The ibm.com representative checks the Social CRM system at IBM as well as searches for product experts and local representatives close to Endicott College campus. The ibm.com representative also posts his/her micro-blogging status internally about the interest in online collaboration from Endicott College.

Within hours, multiple people inside IBM comment on his/her status. Some comments are from peers working with other customers in Higher Ed and wanting to get ideas for solutions. Some comments are from local resources at IBM that are familiar or alumni at Endicott College and want to make sure they get connected with the right IBM resource.

It even caught my attention as I was going out to meet with another University in the fall. The power of internal micro-blogging is not necessarily about the mass followers and tippers as it is in the consumer space like Twitter and YouTube. The power is in the more granular details provided in a secure manor while still leveraging the tippers inside your organization firewalls.

All IBMers had access to this micro-blogging status and unlike Twitter, he/she was able to post the customers name. IBM guidelines prevent employes from specifically sharing customer names unless authorized. Had it not been for he/she stating she was working with “Endicott College”, the thread would not have generated local responses and the details that followed.

Social Business: Selling with my fav Twitter! An IBM example! #socbiz #ls11 #ibm #ibmpartner

Yes, you all know I love Twitter!  But did you know that it is a powerful business tool? 

In IBM, our ibm.com team must attract a high volume of leads from a new set of customers.  Since Social has become a tool for getting information on products and services, we wanted to explore how to leverage word of mouth.   For instance, after a Twitter search or deeper conversation in a LinkedIn group or forum, potential buyers might ask companies for more information, but they also often turn to their peers, other clients and trusted advisors.

So our ibm.com team decided to go social.  Our inside sellers drove prospects to their Rep Pages –- personalized ibm.com pages that play a “virtual business card” role for inside sellers. These pages have relevant information to clients, enhance the relationship, and give clients one-click access to interact with their reps.

After training on how to engage and nurture potential clients, the ibm.com team built Twitter profiles to establish a presence in the social networking world. The ultimate objective of this pilot was for sellers to use social media to add value to conversations and build a pipeline of leads.

We (IBM) also worked with an outside firm to identify the most prominent influencers in the our space, so sellers could then follow them and comment on or retweet their posts and learn and connect.  We developed a unique engagement strategy for each influencer, based on their activity and what they were saying.

To make it easy to maintain their Twitter presence, sellers also have a social message calendar, accessible via the feed reader function within Lotus Notes. The calendar features time-sensitive messages reps can tweet, with enough content for three tweets a day.

Over a 7 month period, these ibm.com teamates increased their Twitter followers by 5X  

In the first two weeks of this effort, sellers’ Rep Page visits rose by 106 percent –thanks to a systematic pattern of Twitter mentions. The sellers reached 1.9 million contacts.

As we move ahead, social selling success will be reflected by the rep’s Klout score, that we discussed on yesterday’s blog post.   which gauges influence in the social world, an increase in the number of direct Twitter followers, and relationships developed with key influencers.

Many thanks to Kelly Meade and Diane Karsch for their work here at IBM on this Social Selling Initiative!!!

Social Business: What do you think about Klout? #socbiz #ls11 #ibm #ibmpartner

There are huge debates on the value of Klout.  (Don’t know what it is ?  Go to Klout.com and check it out!) Klout currently tracks a user’s Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Foursquare activity. It is reportedly looking at Google+ integration!!

My Klout score to date is 61. 

I have been reading about it for a while.  

From the Klout blog: “We think you are influential. Klout isn’t about figuring out who is on the ‘A-list.’ We believe that every person who creates content has influence. Our mission is to help every individual understand and leverage their influence.”

Do you use Klout?  I have noticed some putting their Klout score on their business card (which is interesting as it changes weekly for me!)

Let me hear from you!   Sandy

Social Business: CEOs in Social Media; #getsocial11 #ibmpartner #blogher

At Blogher, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepisco, spoke to 3500 women at Blogher on Saturday. She really set the pace saying that the future of Pepisco is Digital!

Why don’t more CEOs leverage Social?  Or do they?   

A majority 64 percent of CEOs are not using social media to engage with the public and other stakeholders, according to a new study from PR firm Weber Shandwick.

Here’s the facts that I gathered on CEOs using Social.

  1.   George Colony, the CEO of Forrester, had an interesting view on CEOs  This is taken from his interview withBarb Dybwad .   “I polled the audience and asked, “How many people in this audience have a CEO who they think could be social?” And I would say it was about 10%. Yeah. So that’s today — five years from now you put the numbers out. Maybe 20%? And maybe 10 years from now — I think it’s going to be 50% in 10 years. I think boards are going to be looking for people who can be social. Now in crisis, look at Toyota. The CEO of Toyota had a blog, but it was in Japanese. And it was about driving. So, he sells most of his cars to in English-speaking countries, and no one could understand it. That would have been a very good tool for him to use during this crisis, I think, to hear from the CEO in the CEO’s voice. He came and testified in front of U.S. Congress, so he could have preceded it with some talking about it socially, and that would have helped their cause I think.”
  2. On LinkedIn, there are 1.3M people who are listed as CEOs.   Many of them are firms that market to CEOs, but I would estimate about 1M CEOs are on linkedIn.  I could not tell how active they are. 
  3. From PR firm Weber ShandwickThe study also found that the most admired CEOs had a greater online presence (41 percent) than those who were less admired (28 percent). CEOs with more years on the job tended to be heavier social networkers. And CEOs running American companies proved more socially active online than those in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), Asia Pacific, and Latin America.Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20019465-93.html#ixzz1UYBtOVore
  4. Great case examples. I love Bill Marriott’s blog,  It is sassy, informative, and transparent  http://www.blogs.marriott.com/  On Twitter, I love Zappos’s Tony’s tweets, and on LinkedIn Gary Kelly, the CEO of Southwest Airlines, and his use of Answers.   I’d love to know your FAVORITE CEO bloggers, twitters, etc!

  5. Indra Nooyi Sets Pace at Blogher.  I found that Indra set the pace for other CEOs at Blogher on Saturday by recognizing that her company’s future is tied to digital!   

What do you think?   Should CEOs be Social ?   Or not?

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