Social Business Sandy

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

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

April 5, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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/.

Clash of Civilizations – email in a Social World!

March 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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.

Social Business Governance: Relationship over Rules

March 27, 2013 / / 0 Comments
I have been meeting with a lot of clients and see a lot of discussion around governance and structure required.   In a survey done in 1Q 2013, we see 2.7X the focus on developing social business governance. 
 
Because there is no natural organizational owner of “social,” an effective governance structure must balance  responsiveness and inclusiveness. 

Being inclusive means engaging stakeholders early and broadly to build shared understandings and expectations.  Responsiveness provides for clear accountability and speed in decision making.  The  challenge is to build governance structures and processes that accomplish both.

Having a relationship with your employees not just rules makes a huge difference in how successful you are!

Achieving the transformative value of becoming a Social Business involves connecting all parts of the organization (including channels, partners and customers) in new ways.  It often requires quite new ways of managing people, flatter organizations, and significant cultural change.  While becoming social provides individual flexibility, it’s important that the change achieves the unifying value for the company  of the new goals and culture. 

A strong governance program facilitates coordinated change.  The governance is led by two complementary leadership groups who’s members include the major “organizational structures” (e.g., LOBs, Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Channel Management,  …). 

The first, the Executive Sponsor Group, defines the strategic linkage and goals   of becoming a social business.  Members are leaders across the organization.  The second is a Digital Council.  These are executives who are responsible for the organization-wide, execution creation of the Social Business plan.  The representatives are often the social business leaders in their respective LOBs and functional areas, which ensures focus on the vertical and horizontal needs.

governance

The Digital Council focuses on the key areas of a social program:

  • Community Management – Provides a common approach to drive change and adoption at and across the LOB and functional level.  It includes actions like community management, Content Management, community analytics, and best practices.  While the focus is value at the  LOB / functional level, the governance processes has a Center of Excellent that shares best practices to create a common social voice and approach across and outside the organization. 
  • Metrics and Measurement –  Covers all elements of data and measurement.  Starts with analytics / listening to guide the where and how to engage socially.  This includes internal analytics of social networks, expertise, and projects, as well as the external listening and analytics.  This group also is responsible for creating and automating the overall program measurements to track success, progress on the plan, and social return.
  • Reputation and Risk Management – Focuses on 3 main areas:  1. regulatory risk and compliance(if relevant),  social record retention for general discovery, and other legal and financial risks;    2. policies, guidelines and processes for the organization and associates to participate in social media (for example, IBM’s Social Computing Guidelines); and    3. proactively managing the organization’s reputation and having a defined plan to respond to various levels of negative media or emergencies.
  • Standards – This group focuses on process and technical standards for a social business.  While LOBs, major business functions, etc. require the freedom to build their social programs tailored to their needs, the Standards group ensures that the overall company can be nimble in connecting across boundaries in ways not always anticipated.  Standards for brand and ways of connecting with partners, channels, clients, etc. ensure that the company is viewed as coordinated and focused on needs vs. a “collection of parts.”   On the technical side, a common social business framework enables the new ways of working.

 

 

 

Big Data & Social Analytics are a powerful multiplier in predicting & preventing acts of violence

March 13, 2013 / / 1 Comment

In the US, we have experienced some acts of violence. As President Obama stated shortly after a recent tragedy, “We won’t be able to stop every violent act, but if there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try.”

What if there was a new emerging technology that has proven that some of these violent acts can be detected and prevented before they occur? 

Over the past eight weeks, several violent acts on school campuses throughout the United States & Canada have been successfully stopped through the use of “Social-Network-Intelligence-Policing”.  For example, last week at City University New York in Staten Island, a student was arrested after threatening to shoot and kill students at the CUNY campus in Brooklyn, New York.[i]  No students or faculty were injured.  On February 8th, 2013 in Kerns, Utah a high school student was arrested after he threatened to blow up his high school.  School police checking out the threat found a photo of explosives and put the school on lock down.[ii]  No students or faculty were injured.  On February 5th, 2013 in Murrieta, California a high school student threatened to kill his teacher.  The student was arrested before he could carry out his planned attack.[iii]

Research data shows that individuals, or groups of individuals who plan to conduct violent acts, most likely will post their intentions or a manifesto on public (non-private) social network sites just prior (8 – 72 hours) to initiating these violent acts or attacks. A small window of time exists where law enforcement and school faculty can legally monitor, detect and interdict these events before they occur.

In all three of these recent cases, the GEOCOP System (www.geocop.com) alerted law enforcement or school faculty to these emerging violent acts before they occurred.  GEOCOP stands for Geospatial-Common-Operations-Picture and it fuses social network monitoring and analytics services with geospatial data to give law enforcement predictive insights into emerging threats and events.

The recent emergence of “Big Social Network Data Monitoring, Analytics and Collaboration” technologies provide law enforcement and government agencies a powerful and legal force multiplier in predicting and preventing acts of violence on our school campuses.  Several State Police agencies across the United States use this system.  The GEOCOP system is another fantastic example where innovation and enterprise social network technologies are making a real difference in protecting our children and school campuses.

[i] http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cuny_slay_threats_nZzeA3eQZCSORE3tZuKdBL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Local

[ii] http://www.nbc11news.com/news/nationalnews/headlines/Police-Student-to-face-felony-for-Twitter-threat-190389291.html

[iii] http://murrieta.patch.com/articles/student-arrested-for-alleged-online-threat-against-vista-murrieta-high-schoolteacher#comments_list

Note – The GEOCOP Solution is owned by Global Technologies Solutions (GTS Corporation) and is exclusively sold by HMS TECHNOLOGIES CORP.  The GEOCOP and TACTrend Solutions are built on IBM’s Social Business Software Technologies which include WebSphere Portal, SameTime, IBM Connections and IBM Analytics Technologies.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cuny_slay_threats_nZzeA3eQZCSORE3tZuKdBL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Local

[1] http://www.nbc11news.com/news/nationalnews/headlines/Police-Student-to-face-felony-for-Twitter-threat-190389291.html

[1] http://murrieta.patch.com/articles/student-arrested-for-alleged-online-threat-against-vista-murrieta-high-schoolteacher#comments_list

Note – The GEOCOP Solution is owned by Global Technologies Solutions (GTS Corporation) and is exclusively sold by HMS TECHNOLOGIES CORP.  The GEOCOP and TACTrend Solutions are built on IBM’s Social Business Software Technologies which include WebSphere Portal, SameTime, IBM Connections and IBM Analytics Technologies.

IBM @ #SXSW!! Join us! #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz #ibmconnect

March 8, 2013 / / 0 Comments

South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX, starts on Friday, March 8! If you’re not familiar with this event, or if you want to test your trivia knowledge, then check out this interesting infographic from Rocksauce Studios, which Guy Kawasaki shared earlier this week.

There are so many exciting sessions and speakers that it’s hard to choose which to attend. Even if you’re not attending SXSW, you can follow along on Twitter by searching #sxsw. You’ll be able to join the conversation and share what you see with your followers.

One session that looks incredible is Tina Roth Eisenberg’s keynote on March 10. She’ll be talking about social’s impact on design.

As the mother of a tween daughter, two other sessions have caught me eye:

Digital Drama: Growing Up in the Age of Facebook With Bill Keller, Danah Boyd, Emily Bazelon and Jason Rzekpa.

Is Women’s Media Too Girly? With Anna Holmes, Deborah Schoeneman, Margaret Johnson, Rebecca Fernandez

IBM will be involved in several SXSW speaking sessions:

I Know Where You’re Going: Location as Biometric With Jeff Jonas, IBM Fellow & Chief Scientist, and Jennifer Lynch from Electronic Frontier Foundation

The Large Enterprise of Social Media – Meet Up Hosted by Noah Kuttler, Market Segment Manager, IBM Enterprise Content Management

Mentor Session With Rawn Shah, Social Business Strategist, IBM

Engaging Government for Fun, Profit & Meaning With Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Innovation & Social Media Director – IBM Center for the Business of Government, Amanda Eamich from USDA, Mary Krakowiak from National Archives & Records Administration,  and Tammi Marcoullier from US General Services Administration

Making Accessible Transportation Modern & Cool

With  Bill Curtis Davidson, Accessible Transportation Solutions & Business Development Lead, IBM , James Pol from US DOT, Kamiar Kordari from TRX Systems, and Mohammed Yousuf from DOT.

I will be participating on a panel that is not on the SXSW schedule but will be fun and informative:

Just Add Followers – The Key Ingredient to Telling Your Brand Story and Getting Results

– Panel Discussion with Shoutlet, Bare Escentuals & IBM, Moderated by TechCrunch       

Gone are the days when brands used a brochure or static website to tell their story. Today, social media provides a platform where brands can communicate their story through the way they engage and interact with followers. And often, those interactions shape the brand in new ways, too. Join TechCrunch, IBM, Bare Escentuals and Shoutlet as we take a look at social storytelling and provide practical tips and tools for the job. You’ll hear a robust discussion on how to effectively manage online communities, listen to fans and impact buyer behaviors and preferences. More details here.

When:             Saturday, March 9 from 2:00 – 4:30 pm

Where:            Lambert’s Downtown BBQ

IBM is planning an extensive presence at SXSW. Please stop by and say hello!

Mix at 6 Happy Hour

Date:               Saturday, March 9, 6-8pm

Location:        Haven Bar

5th Annual SXSW Interactive Accelerator

Date:               Monday, March 11 and Tuesday, March 12

Location:        Hilton Austin

What: New technologies and start ups presented at SXSW. IBM is sponsoring Social Technologies track

SXSW Trade Show

Date:               Sunday, March 10 through Wednesday, March 13

Location:        Austin Convention Center, Exhibit Halls 3 & 4

What: IBM booth will showcase solutions for Social Business, the Mobile Enterprise, Digital Marketing & Analytics, and Global Entrepreneurs

Last but not least, the famous Grumpy Cat from Twitter and Facebook will be doing meet & greets and “signing” autographs. That’s just the type of event that you expect at SXSW!

See you in Austin!   Sandy

Sandy’s #SXSW Social Dining Picks – #socbiz #ibmsocialbiz

March 7, 2013 / / 4 Comments

Sandy’s SXSW Social Dining Picks.

As many of you know, I am in the business of Social Business. There is nothing more social than face to face and breaking bread with a friend, a colleague, a customer or someone new.

While at SXSW, I know many of you will be getting social on a daily basis. With Austin exploding as a foodie town in its own right, there more places to choose from that any one person could fathom. People have dedicated books and blogs, tweets, time, tours and television shows to share the culinary experience that is Austin.

Here are my picks for places you might want to check out during SXSW.

BBQ. It should be considered the state food of Texas.

  • La Barbecue – South First BBQ trailer. They have free beer and live music. Try the pork ribs and sausage. They are some of the best in the city.  @la_Barbecue
  • Live Oak Barbecue & Beer – This one year old, great east side location, is a hidden gem. They smoke all their meats, even the sausage. You will find yourself wanting to return the next day.  @liveoakbbq
  • Rudy’s – Get some gasoline and BBQ in one visit. Serves up no-nonsense good oak smoked BBQ on butcher paper with their own “Sause.” Try the ribs! Great place for the whole family.  @rudysbbq

Breakfast tacos. It’s breakfast! It’s a taco! What more could you want? An Austin tradition.

  • Juan in a Million – The owner, Juan, greets you with a handshake as if you are a regular (even on your first visit). The Don Juan El Taco Grande for $3.80 comes with three tortillas and is enough to feed two people.  @DonJuanTaco
  • La Mexicana Bakery Panaderia – They have breakfast tacos starting at $1.30. Try the cactus and egg or the chorizo with egg and potato. They are open 24 hours and have a Mexican bakery case sure to tempt most sweets lover. @PanDulceee
  • mi Madre’s Restaurant – Serving up some of best breakfast tacos in Austin with healthy portions and prices that won’t break the bank. Eat them there or take them to go. Salsa is pretty spicy, so go easy until you know how hot is too hot for you.  @mimadres

Burgers. We all love them. You can find them everywhere, but no two burgers are created equal.

  • Counter Café – One of the last of the great American diners. They do local and organic from scratch cooking. The Counter Burger was ranked #2 on the Texas Monthly’s 50 Greatest Hamburgers in Texas. The beef is perfectly seasoned and the burger is perfection. P.S., try their scratch made biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  #CounterCafe
  • Mighty Fine Burgers, Fries & Shakes – They source their meat from certified small ranchers and grind it fresh daily at the restaurant. It’s a no nonsense burger. Wash it down with one of their hand dipped shakes or a hand-squeezed strawberry lemonade.  @mightyfinetx
  • Wholly Cow Burgers – This little gem has wholesome, all natural, grass fed beef and makes their burger to order with a whole list of toppings to choose from. They do as much organic as possible and cook up a heavenly burger that is well seasoned. Try it with the sweet potato fries.  @WhollyCowATX

Food trailers. You cannot truly experience Austin, without eating from a trailer. There are guides, books, festivals, Meetups and food tours dedicated to this culinary revolution. While I cannot do it justice, I have mentioned some in my other category picks. Below are a few notable trailers worth mentioning.

Also, be sure also to check out SouthBites, on the corner of Driskill and Rainey Street. This is a collection of food trailers selected by Paul Qui, winner of Top Chef Season 9. Be sure to follow #SouthBites to keep up to date with their lineup. Also, follow #SXSWtrailer for any changes on trailer hours, locations and events.

  • Hey… You Gonna Eat or What? – These are not your mama’s sandwiches. Try the Shiner Bock beer-battered Monte Cristo and prepare for angels singing. It is well worth the calories. You really cannot go wrong with anything on their menu. @UGonnaEatOrWhat
  • Kebabalicious – Fresh Turkish-style wraps made from scratch. Vegetarians and Meat eaters can coexist in harmony, as there are choices for all. The spicy items will pack a kick. Try the Meat/Lamb Kebab and be careful not to drip the sauce all over you. It is a messy and delicious dining adventure. @kebabalicious
  • Three Little Pigs – Located outside of East End Wines, you can have your pork and wine too. Pick up a bottle, walk outside and you have BYOB. Try the Pork Belly Sliders, Bacon Wrapped Craklin’ Meatloaf and the Brussels Sprouts. @3LittlPigs

Happy Hour. Being a university town, for some, Happy Hour is the most important meal of the day. Cheap food and beverages on a budget are the way many afford both their dinner and socializing. Happy Hours are mentioned throughout this list. Below are a few more worth checking out.

  • Contigo – Enjoy happy hour inside or on their spacious dog-friendly patio, Monday-Friday from 5-7pm. They offer reduced price bar snacks, $1 off draft beer/wine by the glass and a $6 selection of cocktails. All charcuterie and condiments are made from scratch. Try the pigs in a blanket and the white bean dip.  @contigoaustin
  • Salty Sow – They bill themselves has Swine + Wine + Beer, but you don’t have to be a pork lover to enjoy their fare. They have a $4 Happy Hour menu, 7 days a week, from 4:30-6:30pm. Try the Brussels sprouts and the deviled eggs. They are also known for their Truffle Duck Fat Fries.  @saltysow
  • Ten Oak – This Bourbon house has more than just bourbon. With a full bar and some great food, they have Happy Hour 7 days a week from 4-7pm. You can choose from $5 for specialty cocktails and select menu options including Pulled Pork Sliders and Chicken Pizzetta.  @TenOakAustin

Mexican food. Say Cheese… it’s Tex-Mex. Say Interior, it’s Mexican. No matter how you say it – we have it all.

  • Curra’s Grill –Avocado Margarita is a must try and if they are not too busy, ask for a sauce sampler so you can determine your favorite before ordering. More interior Mexican than Tex-Mex, they make their own corn tortillas. Try the red chili corn tortilla in your taco. Get some to-go.  @CurrasGrill
  • El Alma – Great rooftop patio to watch the sunset. The Queso Fundido is delicious and half price during Happy Hour. Try the Duck Enmoladas or the Duck Relleno… you won’t be disappointed.  @ElAlma_ATX
  • Maudie’s – Don’t wait for the cheese, get the Queso. Try it with some taco meat and pico de gallo (Diablo sol food). Wash it down with their regular house margarita for just $3.50 at Happy Hour (Monday 3pm-close, Tuesday – Friday 3-6:30pm).  @MaudiesTXMex

Off the beaten path, but worth the trek. These places will require transportation, but are definitely worth the trip

  • Jack Allen’s Kitchen – Locally sourced fare. Best Pimento Cheese (oh yes they do) in Austin. $15.99 Sunday brunch buffet. Happy hour, 7 days a week, starting at 3pm, with half price appetizers and assorted drink specials. Try the Bacon Wrapped Texas Quail appetizer.  @jackallens
  • The Oasis on Lake Travis – Definitely a big tourist draw but the perfect spot to watch the sunset with a margarita. They specialize in high volume, so order up some chips and salsa and wander next door to Soleil or another spot for your dinner. This way, you get the best of all worlds.  @OasisLakeTravis
  • Trattoria Lisina – This is Damian Mandola’s perfectly executed, little piece of Tuscany in the Texas hill country. Their authentic Italian food is complemented by the Duchman Family Winery next door which offers wine tasting and tours next door. Reservations are helpful. Enjoy live outdoor music with plenty of places to sit, relax and enjoy a bottle or glass of wine.  @TrattoriaLisina

Pizza. From thin crust, thick crust, cheese, pepperoni, all the toppings and the convenience of delivery, it is hard to get through a SXSW without indulging in a slice of Pizza.

  • Austin’s Pizza – With locations around Austin, gluten-free and thin crust options and delivery, they are sure to be a lifesaver for the hungry. Try the sausage pizza.  @AustinsPizza
  • Roppolo’s – New York-style pizza and a downtown Austin staple, they’ve been selling pizza in their trucks for years. Now you can enjoy a slice in their newer store front on E 6th or catch one of their food trucks about town. They sell it by the pizza or the slice. Try the Italian Mex or the Rosalie.  @roppolos
  • VIA 313 – Detroit-style pizza made in auto parts pans and baked to perfection, VIA 313 brings a little bit of Motown fare to the Live Music Capital. Try the Cadillac Pizza and enjoy the cheesy caramelized edges on every slice.  @Via313Pizza

Wine bars. The wine scene is alive and well in this town. With Austin being the home to well known Sommeliers, it is easy to find a wine bar with a creative affordable selection of solid wines.

  • Apothecary Café & Wine Bar – Their wine selection changes up, and is guaranteed to suit most any palate. Not into wine, they serve up a selection of Texas beers and have a full espresso bar. The menu is seasonal and inventive and includes a weekend Brunch menu. They have Happy Hour specials from 4-7pm every day and all day on Sundays & Mondays, including $10 off bottles.  @apothecaryatx
  • House Wine – Cozy and uniquely Austin. It is an actual house turned wine bar with perfect outdoor seating. On Sunday’s, all their open bottles sell by the glass for ½ price until they are gone. Curl up in any spot with a glass, and it feels like home.  @HouseWine
  • The Red Room Lounge – This speak easy ambiance is the perfect beginning or night cap to an evening in Austin. Texas’ Best Sommelier 2011, Bill Elsey, has artfully selected top notch yet affordable wines. Their list will satisfy the lover of the common to the obscure varietals. BYO Food is encouraged, as they only serve wine.  @RedRoomATX

Case Study: Create a great EVENT using Social! #ibmconnect #socbiz

March 5, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I love to share case studies and here is one from our superstar IBM team in Europe!   Mark Osborn’s (@mark_osborn) leadership was the driver to a very successful joint Sales and Technical Education event .

He leveraged Social to drive all the core and key elements in the event:  

  • Ideation:  Creation of the agenda based on the team’s  suggestions.  First requests for topics were collected in an Activity. Common themes were organised into tracks and relevant speakers identified.  Everyone voted for speakers and topics
  • Continuous Improvement.  The speakers could see the requirements from the team and posted draft agendas back to the Activity for comment, further honing their pitch.
  • Realtime Reaction.  During the event agendas and updates were made available via an event wiki.
  • Immediate Usage.  After the event speakers posted their presentations on Connections Files with the event tag, creating an event presentation feed.   Several of our speakers, were virtual and presented via LotusLive & Sametime Web Meetings
  • Best Social tools used!  Leveraged IBM Connections

The team in Europe created a ‘Ideation Blog’.   This is a blog set up for using the collective intelligence of an entire team to create ideas and build upon each others thoughts.   They took the suggested with the highest number of votes to create the agenda – there was a very high number of topics that were very popular!

And this was the Feedback from the team on this years event 97% satisfaction   This demonstrates that the social approach to planning the event was not only highly effective, but created a much stronger sense of ownership with the participants, encouraging them to feed-back.

europe ideation

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