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

Month: December 2011 (Page 1 of 2)

Hanukkah Goes Social too! Check it out! Fun! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ls12 #connect12

I love the feedback on our Holiday Series on cool use of Social for the Holidays!

1.  Overall Social on Hanukkah- interesting that people are tracking it and where it is popular!

2.  Video:

Here’s a new one from my friends celebrating Hanukkah!   The Maccabeats sing ‘Hanukkah’—a festive parody of Taio Cruz’s ‘Dynamite’.  The video went viral last Hanukkah and has been viewed over 6.3 million times so far. 

 “I flip my latkes in the air sometimes, singing Ayy-ohhhhh, spin the Dreidel!”

More kids tracked Santa with NORAD through Social media! #socbiz #ls12 #connect12 #ibmsocialbiz #lewebibm

NORAD tracks Santa each year.    But this year, in addition to the record breaking 102K calls coming (we were one of those too! since Michelle Obama was answering some calls from Hawaii!), Social Media, including the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/noradsanta?ref=ts&sk=wall of almost 1M likes helped to make it the best ever!

NORAD volunteers also answered children’s questions via Twitter and Facebook.By Christmas Day, the Facebook page had more than 999,000 likes – up from 700,000 last year.

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Another one! The Social Christmas Tree in Singapore! #ls12 #connect12 #ibmsocialbiz #socbiz

The Christmas series continues!  My friends from Singapore sent me this Social Christmas Tree .. like the one in Canada!  Is this a trend?

What’s the deal here?  Well, you create your own “personal” tree in this facebook app  http://apps.facebook.com/heinekensocialtree/ and then your “personal” tree will be activated on the 11 meter high digital installation between the 17th-26th of December at Clarke Quay in Singapore!

Amazing Social Christmas Tree in Canada – You have to see this! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibmpartner #ls12

A friend, Robert Dowling, just shared this with me!  HOW cool!

This tree is in Toronto’s Union Station and its lights are powered by taking “positive Christmas comments from social networks like Twitter and Facebook and using the data to spark 30,000 LED lights.”

Sheldon Levine of Sysomos, the Toronto-based analytics company behind the project, explains:

“Each color of light represents Christmas spirit coming from a different social channel. White lights represent social networks like Twitter and public Facebook statuses, red for blog and forum posts, green for online news and blue lights for messages sent through text [directly to] ChristmasSpiritTree.ca. The more social media spirit that comes in at one time the brighter the tree shines.”

canadiantire

The Social Floating Christmas Tree! #ibmsocialbiz #ls12 #connect12 #ibm #socbiz

 

My friends from Brazil sent me this picture of the Christmas tree that floats around in the Harbor!

What a great analogy with Social!!

 Having the flexibility to float into workgroups with Social Tools, and have teams spring up around a topic or project.   I believe that this is the new way of working and this tree visually showcases the freedom and flexibility that this approach brings to the table!

Merry Christams!  

Friday Social Tips!

Social tips that I found in my work and personal wanderings that I found this week!

  1. “Top Terms make a difference”.   Looking through why certain YouTube videos there were the normal “content” “Music” “funny” but I found that one interesting analysis was the use of “most searched words”.   So I am testing this in my title.  According to YouTube:   “the weekly spikes are even more pronounced for the word “Friday,” which is a term that’s seeing more searches now than it ever has on YouTube.”    And I quote….
    “The video, which has been seen approximately 90 million times, will likely have another bump today as our data shows that — just like searches for the song — views of the video also increase every Friday. Interesting aside: even though “Friday” blew up the week of the 13th,”
  2. Focus for your target audience.   My daughers and all her friends are watching this video.  Harry Potter in 99 Seconds.     The lesson is to target your focused Social work toward your specific group by age, likes, location, etc
  3. Have a POV (Point of View):   People like comments, postings, community comments that have a perspective.   They may or may note agree with you but they like to debate the points.   Develop your expertise and your POV to add value to the conversation!

Is Bigger better? Small / Medium Businesses see what Social can do for you! #ibmpartner #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ls12

Yesterday a very small tree shed a very big leaf!   Take a look!  My biggest tree has the smallest leaves and my little tree produced this HUGE leave!

This leaf caused me to think about small and medium businesses and the value of social to them.  (Does everything remind me of Social?  Well, kind of!!)

Social is the great equalizer.  Social can be the great equalizer.   If used appropriately, a small company can produce the biggest leaf!

How do you do that?

  • Share your expertise using Twitter.   A small dry cleaner is active on twitter sharing their expertise on geting stains out.  They are attracting the most new clients in their local area by their updates and value.
  • Reach new audiences with Facebook or LinkedIn.  My local salon no longer does advertising to drive new clients.  They only use social means to drive new word of mouth clients through Facebook, Foursquare and other tools.  Richard Scott Salon and Day Spa is even doing social polling to understand better what is required to be even better.
  • Grow your brand.   Russell Convenience Stores uses social tools in the cloud to collaborate in their growth.  They use IBM connections to collaborate with their builders, architects, etc while crafting their new store expansion!

Social is a great equalizer!  Just like my little tree!

Christmas Cookie Coma! (Same true for Social?!) Including Sandy’s Fav Recipes! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibm

I baked tons of cookies this weekend and ended up in a Cookie Coma!

What does a cookie coma look like?

  • Over indulging on sweets by eating more than needed
  • Obsessing to try each and every type of cookie
  • Focusing on making the cookie look great, not as much on taste great

So why did I raise this in a Social Business Blog?

Well, as I see companies, I think they are in a Social Coma!

  • Over indulging on social.  I see a lot of companies that seem to think that more is more.  They tweet and blog on everything and anything and broadcast too much!   Advice:  Think through your strategy on how you communicate in the market. While you cannot plan everything, you can ensure you are sharp and clear in our you communicate.   I advise companies to lay out their strategy by week.  For instance, each Monday post a video.  Each Tuesday respond on the following top 3 blogs.  Every Wed, Tweet the following, etc.  This strategy provides a way to be consistent and to let your “fans” know what to expect!  Surprising them also is good too but not everyday!
  • Obsessing to try each and every type of social tool.   I see a lot of companies that cannot decide the tools that they need to use.  So each new tool they adopt immediately without thinking about the goal, or how it fits.   Advice:   Carefully select the tools based on the goals.   For instance, if you are already using Twitter, Foursquare, and LinkedIn, do you need Google Plus or Gowalla?  You’d be surprised at how  many companies try too many tools.
  • Focusing on making it look great, not as much on content!  Social is about content.  Not just cool gadgets, and gizmos.   Many companies spend too much time on making their facebook page look great, but don’t focus on the content.  Content is king or queen.   Make sure you have a content activation strategy or curation strategy is more important than the icing!

Here’s one of my fav cookie recipe !!  It is from my grandmother who was from Lithuania.

A cool ball shape and has nuts and powered sugar….yes, some people call this a Russian or Greek Wedding Cake.  But not us!  It is the Lithuania Ball!

1 cup softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
additional powdered sugar

In a large bowl combine first 6 ingredients on low speed of mixer about 1 minute. Blend well. Gradually add flour at low speed until just combined; stir in nuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls; place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes until firm to the touch but not brown. Do not overbake. While warm, roll in additional powdered sugar. Cool; re-roll in powdered sugar before serving.

And one more for good measure!  Not cookies, but we are on the sweet roll!

Pumpkin Gingerbread Pie

Great way to jazz up classic pumpkin pie, yet keep it simple!

  •  Nonstick cooking spray
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • ½ cup sugar or splenda for baking
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or (1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon ground allspice, and 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg.)
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • ½ cup half-and-half or light whipping cream
  • 1 14.5 oz package gingerbread mix
  • Sugar free cool whip

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Coat a 10-inch deep-dish pie plate or an 8x8x2-inch baking dish with cooking spray.  In a small bowl combine pumpkin, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice.  Add egg, beat lightly with fork just until combined, and gradually stir in half-and-half, mix well.  Set aside.

Prepare gingerbread mix according to package directions.  Pour batter into prepared pie plate.  Lightly spoon pumpkin mixture over gingerbread batter; swirl gently using a table knife.  Bake about 50 minutes for a pie plate or about 60 minutes for a baking dish.  Cool slightly on wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature with cool whip or whipped cream.

I always make this over the Holidays for my family and friends and they loved it.  This was the first dessert that was empty in minutes.

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