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

Year: 2013 (Page 18 of 24)

Social Tip for FRIDAY! Create a Tribe !

 A tribe is a group of people connected to an idea, connected to a leader and connected to each other.  Being a member of a tribe not only changes the way you perceive the world — you see members of the group as insiders and nonmembers as outsiders — it changes your affiliation with the team.  You are no longer just a fan but you’re part of the family!

When you form a relationship with someone, your brain thinks of that person as being part of you.  This is called self-expansion.  With you use social engagement you form a self-expanding relationship with your clients.  This explains alot of the emotion you feel.   The companies successes and failures feel like your own.

Social Business Tip of the Day! LinkedIn Mentions

Social Media Tip of the Day!

Did you know that LinkedIn just announced a new function – mentions – which makes it easier to engage with your network by mentioning connections and companies in conversations on LinkedIn. Just start typing the name of a connection or a company in your status update box or a comment field and select the person from the list that appears in the drop-down.

The person or company you mentioned will receive a notification that they have been mentioned. Mentions will be rolled out to English-speaking members first.

Very cool Social tool for Women in Businesses – the Women’s ToolBox !

I have been fortunate to meet an incredible group of women through my professional and organizational roles, and one person who shares my passion for expanding opportunities would like to encourage more women to connect with each other and access great resources through her organization, The Women’s Toolbox. Janet Powers, the Chief Executive Connector, will — in her own words — help you FIND Your Voice, SHARPEN Your Skills, SHARE Your Expertise and EXPAND Your Network. Its tagline (“Practical Advice for Busy Business Women”) illustrates its mission is to empower, educate, and entertain women.

I had the opportunity to talk with Janet at a lunch I hosted for female executives during our recent global customer event IBM Connect, and she suggested we work together in our support of women’s empowerment. As part of her commitment, I am excited to share that if you become a new member of The Women’s Toolbox, for a limited time you will receive a copy of my book, Get Bold: Using Social Media to Create a New Type of Social Business. I hope you will learn more about the resources available from Janet’s organization, and that you will share the opportunity to participate with the women in your networks as well.

Join online at

http://womenstoolbox.com/join-today/.

Does Social Require you lose control (of your brand?!)

Is losing control of your brand a good thing or a bad thing?

We are used to operating with the idea that we have to protect the brand.   How do we lose control of our brand so that our customers have a role in shaping our brand as much as we do?

Well, we know that your brand is not what you say it is, but what everyone else decides.  Social enables you to influence your brand and engage where and how others want to talk.   You can identify and engage influencers and unleash your employees as a “digital army” by building  with customers and convert them to brand ambassadors

If you use Social Analytics to identify needs in the marketplace for specific products, features, or process enhancements by listening and this could allow you to tweak your brand value prop.   Leveraging crowdsourcing to engage employees, partners, and even customers in innovation discussions increases the number and sources of new ideas; but also enables the best ideas to become more visible and mature through collaboration.

I LOVE having brands be leveraged by clients is great — and I don’t think that it is anything new.   Companies now orchestrate and can shape the brand not based on what we are selling but on their character, their interactions, their experiences.

Check out our IBM CMO Jon Iwata!

Social in Insurance — Overhyped or unused?

With over 66% of top financially performing companies leverage social in their processes and over 80% positive impact on trust for CEOs who openly communicate on social,  social can mean power to some and hype to others.

In the next 3-5 years the use of social media by Insurers will increase from 4% to 51% as one of the most important mechanisms to engage customers according to IBM CEO study.

Is this because of hype?   I don’t think so.   Financial Services has always been a “social” industry – we are now just shifting from F2F and phone to more online interaction; mirroring the shift of our customers and employees.  The leading FSS companies are using social to explain changes to the financial environment and to provide increased clarity around specific products – partially due to changing regulatory requirements, but also to build trust.

Financial Services as a sector suffers from a major trust gap – social is a powerful capability for building trust

Financial Advisors are using social to engage clients and prospects – using social compliance capabilities to provide support for suitability and records retention.  Many financial companies have embraced external social media for brand promotion, engagement, and marketing. Leading financial companies have also brought social capabilities inside the firewall.  Regulatory requirements necessitate active social compliance monitoring and reporting

Complex, expert-oriented activities (e.g. commercial or specialty underwriting) can be faster (social collaboration) and more accurate (engaging the right people).  Networking social capabilities into traditional core insurance and financial services business processes and legacy systems can create dramatic value while leveraging investments you have already made.

Today I am at Prudential for their Technology Leadership Conference and we will discuss these topics and more!  I’d love your thoughts – especially if you are in the industry!

Clash of Civilizations – email in a Social World!

Global E-mail Patterns Reveal “Clash of Civilizations”

The global pattern of e-mail communication reflects the cultural fault lines of thought to determine future conflict, say computational social scientists.

Researchers analyzed a global database of e-mail messages, and their locations, sent by  more than 10 million people over the space of a year. The results suggest that the pattern of connections between these people, clearly reflects the host civilizations. In other words, the way we send e-mails is a reflection of the mesh of civilizations that is an important driver of future conflict.

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