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

Month: March 2012 (Page 1 of 2)

Social Business in the (Smart) Cloud! #cloud #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ls12

 

I have been doing a lot of work with mid size businesses lately wanted to become Social Businesses.   There is a great way to get started with a SmartCloud for Social Business!  Check it out!

We (IBM) just launched a new, streamlined web site http://ibmcloud.com/social where anyone can learn more about IBM SmartCloud for Social Business.

What’s especially exciting is that you can now purchase IBM SmartCloud offerings directly through this web site, from 25 countries across the globe, 24 hours a day. With just a few simple steps and a credit card,companies of all sizes can get up and running with our award-winning email, web meeting, and online collaboration tools. IBM’s e-commerce tool provides flexible billing options to meet your needs, and you can add more accounts and services as you need them. It’s never been easier to do business with IBM.

Click here to see our packages and “Buy Online” http://ibmcloud.com/social

The New Frontier – Legal Implications of Social! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ls12

On Saturday, I had a great opportunity to meet Alaine Dollan and gain insight from her session on The Legal Implications of Social!

Some of the key points that I thought we all could learn from:

Policy for Visitors to your site:

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer about links
  • Intellectual Property Policy

Policies to think for your employees!

  • Employee Handbook should include .. intellectual property policy, social media policy, and privacy policy (Do you have these? )
  • The Social Media Policy (see IBM’s at http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html)
  • Should define your company’s attidue toward social networking
  • State employee’s access to social network sites while at work
  • State whether employees can identify themselves as reps of the company
  • Explain what disclaimers must be used
  • Lists types of employees covered by the policy

Social Media Insurance:

  • Does your general liability, product liability, professional liability, and commerical property liability cover Social Media incidents?
  • Does your social media insurance cover First party, Third party and Personal Injury Claims?

Intellectual Property Infringement:

  • The internet is viewed as a lawless zone!  However there are rules that should be followed!
  • Trademark infringement could happen from uploading designs, trademarks or logos (ask permission for these!)
  • Purchase domain names so that you do not “cybersquat”
  • Copyright infringement — is your work protected?  Is the Use Considered Fair use? 
  • Do you invite others to post materials on your social media page?   Are they protected by copyright?

HINT:  Review the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  And the Online Infringement Liability limitation act!

This work that was presented was very very helpful to me!  I hope it is helpful to you!  The second part of her session was on keywords and linking!   Watch for that summary tomororw!

Timing is EVERYTHING in Social Engagement! #socbiz #sxsw #ibmsocialbiz #ibm #infographic

A Social Business engages its client constantly … participating in the dialogue!  In order to do that, you have to leveraging the social tactics when your client is online! 

I loved the below infographic (complements of Argyle Social) that shows many companies are off on their engagement timing!   Are you one of those?!

 When are we posting?  Timing needs to be strategic
 
Engagement varies by B2B or B2C:
 
Weekdays vs Weekends:  Do you have the team at the right time?!

Top 5 Impactful thoughts from #SXSW! #sxswibm #ls12 #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #transmedia

My theme here is about Social Content.

Loved SXSW!  Make sure you go next year!

1.  “If  it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.”    Designing from the beginning with the right goal is crucial and if you want your content to go viral, you need to design it with those goals in mind.  With that said, it is doesn’t go viral, then learn, relook and move forward.

2.  “Content is the fire – social media is the gasoline”.    I highly recommend a Social Content Curator as part of any Social Business rollout.    Content is queen so make sure you don’t think that just because you have Twitter or a community you are golden.  You need strong content to add value!

3.  “Transmedia can be used in big business”.  Transmedia is storytelling across multiple forms of media, with each element making distinctive contributions to a user’s understanding of the story. It involves reuse of content in all channels like TV, Social, Kiosk, etc.  It is a powerful topic that I am going to really dive deep on.  It was everywhere at SXSW!

4.  “Authenticity has become a marketing term. people are ‘performing’ authenticity rather than ‘doing’ authenticity”.   I agree with this and it is something to think through.   I saw many authenticate speakers at SXSW and wow, they impacted my life. And then some who were performing.  There is a big difference.  Think about it.

5.   “How much content do you read each day that you don’t share?”  Great question.   It was interesting on the amount of content I read and share.  But I starting thinking through this — what me share some things and not others.  And what analytics could we use to really drive the intelligence in producing content for sharing.  Do you do this? 

You are your (Social) Network and other TOP 5 Thoughts From #SXSW Friday and Saturday! #socbiz

Live from SXSW!  I tried to collect some of the top thoughts that I believe will be value add for me from SXSW!

1.  “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around.  You are your (Social) Network.”  Social networking is fun, but also important.  Do you know the top 5 people that you spend time with in the “real” world. and the top 10 people you read in the blogsphere?

2.  Rappers are more engaging on social because, unlike brands, their presence isn’t micromanaged or designed in a boardroom.  Their brands emerge and are basically crowdsourced.   How am I using crowdsourcing at work and personally?   Something to think about! Reputation building has become democratized and small cos can punch above weight in it.

3.  Don’t just take things out — Don’t confuse subtraction with simplification.  With so much information, your message needs to be simple to understand.  However, simplicity isn’t just taking what you have and taking stuff out.  It needs to be rethought.   Mark Twain said ” I would have written a shorter book if I had had more time.”

4.  Digital isn’t a medium, it’s the age we’re in!   I agree.  So how does that change the way we think, work, and function.  I still see too many people keeping social over to the side, and not embedding it into their workflow.  How can I help more people see this point of view?!

5.  Transmedia needs to be a part of your strategy.  (new term for me!)  TV Show Top Chef used transmedia to redefine online engagement…lots of lessons. Pull, push, engage and get all media working together.  Amen!   All media is crucial for success.  Just one won’t work in our attention deficit society!

More later but I wanted to share as I went!

 

I don’t want to be a Manager. 75%? Really? Can Social Help? #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #mobile #cloud

I was reading an article by Paul Kix where he looked at the research done by OfficeTeam, a California company that focuses on job placement. The research showed that 76% of employees had no interest in becoming a manager. The issue? The X generation wants to have a great job but also have time for family.

In order to do this, these Generation Xers need flexibility. According to Neil Howe, an expert on generational differences, these Gen Xers need and want a new way of working. Technology plays a role for sure. Mobile devices and access at home help but is there another play?

Is Social a player in this new way of working? The payoffs of working smarter and overcoming these deficiencies are tremendous.  Think about the opportunities before us if we can work smarter delivering flexibility. To work smarter, we need smarter organizations – enhancing and benefiting from their people’s expertise, enterprise and creativity, rather than inhibiting them. We need to change the where and how decisions are made.

One compliant is that today’s organization are: “20th century relics, reliant on a regimented routine in a centralized location.”

Social changes the mix.

Social is about connectedness. Tapping into the knowledge of people we know and don’t know to extend expertise. And we can do this in a way that optimizes cost for our organizations. It is not in a centralized location — it is everywhere. Bringing the right people together from anywhere at any time to increase people’s productivity.

 

Social is about leveraging relationships. It is not about being isolated but about being people centric.

 

And it is all about Agility. It is about transparency that drives information sharing in all different ways, top down, bottom up, and everyway you can imagine. It is about the corporate lattice as Deloitte entitles it. Technologies like mobile and cloud give you that flexibility.

 

 How do you see Social Impacting the way you work?!

 

Happy International Women’s Day! Become a Super Social Woman – Start Today in 5 Easy Steps! #ibmpartner #witi #catalyst #socbiz

 Happy International Women’s day!

To all .. yes, because whoever you are this day applies as you have a wife, mother, daughter or are a Super Women yourself!

In celebration, I wanted to focus on Social Media and Women!

First, A few observations:

  • Large Numbers. There is a huge audience of women on social networks. There are a huge number of contributors in Social by women.   From BlogHer, Inc.,and Nielson, * one of my favorite groups and conferences, interesting stats are below with over 80M women using social monthly!
  • Differences.  There are differences in how women use the tools. On Twitter for instance, women comment on things, men reference things. And Men are followed and re tweeted more than women.
  • Age does not matter. Women over 50 are one of the fastest growing groups online. Women under 30 are embracing!  Are you?
  • Social brings power to women. Depending on where you are in the world, it brings business to a woman’s world, it provides a voice, and it enables impact. 
  • Women lead.  Woman are leading in many areas. For instance, Lady Gaga has the most followers on Twitter!

How do you become a Super Social Woman?

Beginner?

  1. Set your goals!  It is personal?  Business?   Developing a new subject matter expertise?   If you have no destination, any road will get you there!  Make sure you know your direction!
  2. Get Started! Get a Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn id. Set up a common picture, profile, and information that will become your personal brand.
  3. Listen and follow to decide your “network”. Use tools like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Klout to find out who to listen to. This will depend on your goals for going social!
  4. Contribute. Comment on areas in your area of expertise. Yes, we all have one! I know you do too! Tweet me at sandy_carter if you can’t find yours and I bet I can help!
  5. Get educated.   Go to a lunch and learn, ask your nephew to teach you come to the WITI event in June and I’ll walk you through a workshop!  Don’t just sit there!

Advanced:

  1. Measure your contribution and influence.  Use Klout for your personally, or engagement DB for companies or Dachis Groups metric.  But know the impact of your social efforts.
  2. Contribute.  Make sure you are sharing your knowledge and expertise.   Sharing your expertise is the best way to drive trust!.
  3. Drive valuable women’s content.  As an advanced user, help other women.   The research shows that more people retweet men, not women!   Teach a class, adopt a newbie, help out!
  4. Set a goal to drive up your influence and reach.   Be purposeful Set a goal and work toward it!
  5. Experiment with new tools and techniques.   Share your experiences.

The Stats for Fun! From BlogHer, Inc.,and Nielson, * one of my favorite groups see above! * Source: Social Media Matters 2011, BlogHer Inc., Nielsen US Total Online Population sample, N = 1,771; Weekly or more Social Media Activity; Total online raw numbers based on Nielsen Online @Plan

From SheSays, we find that 86% women use social networking. Women over 50, grew from 31% to 70%. Women under 30, have a 96% participation rate on social networks!

And from the Harvard study

“…there are more women on Twitter than men, women tweet about the same rate as men, but men’s tweets are followed by both sexes much more than expected by chance.“

*  women create fewer links in their tweets than men.”  “Women actually say things, guys give references to other things.“
But even accounting for these differences, the researchers still saw differences between how men and women are followed, perhaps pointing to a fundamental representation of the role of men and women in society.

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