I am in the Phillipines this week at the Social Business Asian Tour! And TRUE the Phillipines is a TOP Social Media Country! They have not applied all the work to Business yet…but wow — their personal use is truly amazing!
According to comScore Media Metrix, January – April 2011, the Phillipines is the #1 country of Facebook penetration with 93% participation from online users! And they have the highest % of time on Social Networking worldwide. And they are #9 in the world on their usage of Twitter!
At present, the Philippines continues to hold the top spot for Facebook penetration and also ranks highest in share of time spent on social networking properties across the world, making it the most social media-addicted market globally. Of the total time spent online in April 2011 by the Philippines’ online audience, 41.3 percent was spent on social networking sites.
I am here this week with the MAP group speaking with the CEO of MySpace about Social! Did you know that the FIRST IBM product here was a Clock and the retired IBMer who made it still maintains it for free?!
Team: I wanted to share this best practice with you on Social Selling!
Since Aug 15, IBM sellers can compete for over 40 merit badges, used to recognize and promote identified social accomplishments and behaviors.
For example, we have a badge that sellers can “win” if they join Twitter, or exceed a certain threshold for followers, or install the latest version of software on their own personal workstation.
That way we know our sellers are living social, and also we are sure that they are using and demonstrating the latest/appropriate versions of our software.
This strategy is a gaming type strategy to motivate the sellers to have the highest skills possible!
Stats at a glance:
Individuals from thirty-two countries have received 1,000 badges
60% of badges go to people outside the US.
51% of applicants receive the most popular badge.
71% of applicants receive more than one badge.
22% receive more than 10.
The program has been open for business for four weeks.
First two weeks it was word of mouth; resulting in about 200 badges. We purposely has a “soft opening” so we could build a groundswell or early adopters who would microblog about it.
Such a ‘soft launch” is a best practice for launching any kind of new social program — give yourself some time to build a tipper network for it.
In week three, I formally announced it via email, and badge requests have quadrupled & exploded, to exceed 1,000.
I was delayed last night traveling and read about a study in Psychology Today while waiting for transportation.
According to this study, 302 is the optimal number of Facebook friends. Why? Psychologically, people with over 302 friends are viewed as being too focused on the “number” of friends vs relationships.
Social networking has had a profound effect on society. Couple this with the explosion of mobile devices makes this the right time to move from the hands of teens to business!
Consider these facts:
– There are more than one billion mobile users
– 86 percent of business people now use social media to help them make business decisions, according to a recent report from the Renegade firm.
– Sales of smartphones and tablets have surpassed PCs;
– 72 percent of firms surveyed by Aberdeen Group say they allow employees to use their own smartphones or tablets for work;
– A recent IDC survey said that 95 percent of workers have used technology they purchased for themselves for work;
– Global mobile data traffic is projected to grow 26 times over the next five years, according to a Kleiner-Perkins slideshare presentation.
Due to this Mobile Explosion, I thought I’d share the recent Social Business press release on this topic!
Get Bold! Use Social To Drive Up Your Sales Results!
Social media is changing everything. I don’t have to tell you (or Jeff Gitomer who wrote Social Boom!) that Social media will change the way we live and work. It is the 5th business transformation that will impact every aspect of business.
On 9/15/2011, Get Bold! will be released on Amazon.com. It is filled with over 70 case studies, and a framework to help your business create their own Social Business Agenda. Order it here!
It shares advice from a business leader who has leveraged Social Media to drive ROI in her businesses.
It has an actionable framework to help you do something, not just read something. The Social Business Agenda has been used in over 64 countries for business success!
The story is told with over 70 case studies from companies in B2B, B2C, small, medium, and large, and every industry and country.
It is about real ROI. Did you know that on average adding Social into your sales process increases your sales by 15% according to a McKinsey Study?
It recognizes that transformation takes more than luck, technology or prayer. It takes a culture. Afterall, Culture eats strategy for Lunch!
Adding social to your sales process makes you more competitive.
As an example of what you will learn in the book, read this real case study!
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 teammates 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, which gauges influence in the social world, an increase in the number of direct Twitter followers, and relationships developed with key influencers.
I’d love your comments and feedback on “Draw Up Your AGENDA,” provides a showcase of complete Social Business AGENDA case studies with a summary on each workstream your company will need to complete. Here are my top 10 tips for your Social Journey!
Many thanks to Jeff Gitomer for his mentorship on writing this book!! He is SUPER!
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.
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!
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.
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.
