11 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Google+ Believes In Memes For All
- The Social Media Premier League [Infographic]
- 6 Tips to Make an Awesome Impact with Social Media
- Easily Poll Your Readers And Fans Using Google Docs Forms
- New Google Search Feature: Integrating Google+ into Search Results
- 2012 Key Social Technology Predictions from Top Business and Marketing Strategists
- 18 Key Observations about the State of Blogging in 2011
- Recap of Facebook Updates
- Do You Know What Facebook Photos Are Doing to Your Personal Brand?
- Case Studies: Using the Social Web for New Product Development
- Social Media Influence
| Google+ Believes In Memes For All Posted: 17 Jan 2012 03:55 PM PST
I'm a big meme fan for some reason. They normally can always make me laugh… and if you've ever been on Reddit, you know that certain memes get quite popular, like business cat, college freshman, bad joke eel, socially awkward penguin, etc. I think it's hilarious how one photo can be turned into a thousand different memes. Now you easily create your own meme on Google+ by selecting the photo you want, dropping it into your "share" box, and adding your own text. Google+ explains, "Adding a few words can turn a silly photo into a ROFL, or draw attention to what you find most interesting. Today we’re rolling out a feature that makes it easier to add big, bold text on top of your photos." Google+ wants to see your meme masterpieces, so use the hashtags #funwithphotos and #googleplusupdate when you post them. We want to know: Will the new Google+ features, like their photo editing tool and now their meme-creating feature encourage you to use the social networking site more often?   |
| The Social Media Premier League [Infographic] Posted: 17 Jan 2012 02:35 PM PST Our lovely friends at FreeStyle Interactive have once again produced a fantastic infographic all about football. For our American readers that's EPL soccer, not NFL football. Sorry! Using traditional manual research methods for compilation, as well as the Brandwatch tool, it includes some amazing stats right off the bat. The premier league combined is now approaching 50 million likes across its twenty clubs, equivalent to over 80% of the UK population. Manchester United likers prove the 'everyone but Mancunians' stereotype by racking up almost half of that amount alone from across the globe. Sir Alex's men in red are still the only club in the UK's top division that are still yet to establish a Twitter account, leaving them rock bottom of the Twitter table. Stoke have been boosting their Klout score by a whopping 5 points over the past month, while struggling Blackburn have seen theirs drop by 2. Wolves are Twitter maniacs, sending out just shy of a thousand tweets in a single month, while again Blackburn pick up the pieces with just 26. West Brom have been growing their Twitter presence rapidly, whilst Wigan have leapfrogged Sunderland since December in the Facebook table. The most remarkable thing, perhaps, is the similarity between the current league positions (17/01/12) and the social media scoring. Bear this league in mind when looking at the infographic below:   |
| 6 Tips to Make an Awesome Impact with Social Media Posted: 17 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST If you've begun your pursuit of success and fame via social media you've probably found yourself spending a lot of time on your social network of choice. There is so much great information to read and so many connections to be made – where do you draw the line? Can you really make an impact without spending half of your day commenting, interacting, and retweeting? Very simply, yes. But, (there is always a but, isn't there?) you need to be efficient. Luckily, with the use of some easy methods, online tools, and a hint of discipline you can take less of your time and make a bigger impact. Interested? I thought you might be. Here are some tips to help your online voice resonate with your target audience. Tip 1. Researching your Audience.You need to ask yourself the 6 W's. 1. Who is your audience? 2. Where can you find them (what networks are they on)? 3. When are they most likely to engage in a conversation online? 4. Why should they connect with you online? 5. What do they want to know about? 6. How do they want information sent to them (Facebook page updates, an informal YouTube video, Twitter chat, etc.)? If you aren't sure where to start, Crowdbooster.com is a great resource to help you research your audience. Not only will you gain insight on how to make a bigger impact within your target audience, the tool will provide analytics so you can track how well you are doing. Crowdbooster DashboardTip 2. Establish a Plan and Stick to it.Based on what you discovered in step one, establish a schedule to meet your audience where they are and provide what they want, when they want it. Part of your plan should include a time allocation. If you have 15 minutes a day to allocate, how can you use what you learned in step one to make the biggest impact? If you are having trouble sticking to your time allocation, head over to the web store on Google Chrome and download StayFocusd (or LeechBlock for Firefox). This extension is a countdown timer for your Internet usage. Simply set how much time you want to allocate to a specific site and once the clock hits zero that site is blacklisted for the rest of the day. StayFocusd (for Chrome)Tip 3. Outline Specific GoalsDo you want to increase traffic to your website? Are you looking to increase the attendance at you next conference? Once the focus of your goal is set, establish key performance indicators to track how well you are doing in reaching your goals. If you want to increase traffic to your website, how many new visitors do you want to be directed via social media? If you are looking to boost attendance, how many more seats do you do want filled? Crowdbooster, Radian6, Viralheat, and Google Analytics are among the many tools that can help you track your progress. If you tend to fall down the rabbit hole, post something over your monitor to remind you of the goals you're working towards. Tip 4. Spend more Time Crafting your ContentWith the amount of content your audience sorts through on a daily basis it is important to publish a great message that captures their attention. A throwaway status update won't have the same impact as a well-crafted update. By focusing on quality over quantity your impact can grow exponentially. For example, if you have 5,000 followers on Twitter and you draft an average tweet you have the potential to reach 5,000 people. If you spend an extra few minutes to draft an excellent tweet you will be more likely to be retweeted by your followers (which exponentially expands the visibility of your tweet to all of their followers as well). Tip 5. MultitaskMultitasking isn't always the best way to be productive, but some activities lend themselves very well to multitasking. For example, using your mobile phone to interact with your audience while riding in cabs or waiting for appointments is a great use of your time. I've even been known to tweet from the treadmill. Tip 6. AdaptTechnology is changing at a faster pace than ever before. To not adapt to change is to fall by the wayside. Tweak your methods and your investment based on the progress you make towards your goals and what your audience is looking for. What other tried and true methods do you use to make an impact on your network without using your entire day? Any great social media tools that you couldn't live with out? Let us know! Image By Armitage77   |
| Easily Poll Your Readers And Fans Using Google Docs Forms Posted: 17 Jan 2012 12:15 PM PST
Whether you need an embedded form for your blog or a hosted form to share on Twitter or Facebook, Google Docs Forms have you covered! How to Set Up and Use Google Docs FormsAs you can see, Google Docs Forms offer a range of flexibility including emailed forms, embedded forms and even hosted forms all available for free! Simply visit Google Docs and click create and select form. Now give your form a name and description. Enter your questions one at a time and delete the sample question. Be sure to click save. Once you have entered your questions, click on "Theme: plain" to change the theme. Select a new theme and click apply. Save. Now you can (select) email, embed or copy the link location (from the bottom of the page) for use as needed. Easy-Peasy! This solves 98% of the poll/survey form needs most marketers will encounter. However, for advanced form needs (such as custom forms or forms with deep level WordPress integration) be sure to check out Gravity Forms (aff) & Formidable Pro (aff). Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Let me know in the box below!   |
| New Google Search Feature: Integrating Google+ into Search Results Posted: 17 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST In its next initiative to further personalize your search results, Google will begin incorporating Google+ into its network more than ever before. Starting in January, anyone signed in to Google will be able to search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph, according to mashable. With this update, Google+ circles, business pages, posts, Picasa pictures and more will be integrated into search, which Google calls "Search, plus Your World". Google+ members will be able to go beyond information publicly available on the web; instead, they will be able to search across information that is private and only shared with them. Google+ results will be blended in with the customary "authoritative results," but clearly annotated. A key part is that Google+ posts, images, etc. will only appear if they've been shared with the person performing the search or if the post is public. It's a major blurring of the line between the web as we know it and the web as you and your circles of friends know it. Google+ profiles will also become part of the search query box; when you perform a search, Google will try to conclude your search query with the most likely match of members from your circles who are signed in. As Google tells it, the point of this new search feature is to provide more relevant results, as this is the information and the people you choose to connect with in the first place. It should be noted that other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter will not be filtered into the results. Not surprisingly, Google is only integrating Google+ in hopes of boosting its own social platform. It will be interesting to see just how far Google will go with this latest initiative to propel Google+ past other social rivals.   |
| 2012 Key Social Technology Predictions from Top Business and Marketing Strategists Posted: 17 Jan 2012 09:20 AM PST 2011 was a year of increased adoption of social technologies within the enterprise, and that trend will continue into 2012. In their fifth annual survey of over 4,200 global executives, McKinsey concludes that when adopted at scale, "social technologies can boost a company's financial performance and market share." To help stay ahead of this wave of change, we connected with 34 top business and marketing strategies to get their take on the key technologies that will impact marketing and sales in 2012 for our free eBook 2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions. Here are some of their top predictions:
Toolset/ CRM Integration: 2012 is also touted as the year where we will see further integration of the social technology toolset. Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer and No Bullshit Social Media predicts monitoring platforms will be adding publishing and management solutions, while social platforms will evolve to include e-mail, mobile and website management. The social technology toolset will also see a tighter integration between social data and CRM and web analytics solutions. This tighter social CRM (sCRM) integration will allow brands to address the ROI question and measure the impact on bottom-line results. Errol Apostolopoulos at Optaros, Inc. adds that marketers can expect to see numbers that reflect revenue per fan along "with proven ways to tap into the interest graph", which will lead to "a lot more social success stories". Marc Meyer of the Digital Response Marketing Group votes for the integrated dashboard – bundling marketing, monitoring and management "to address multiple accounts and reduce multiple logins and processes." The Year of Mobile: 2012 is (yet again) proclaimed as the year of mobile. Smart phones are becoming the primary channel for users to interact with social networks. David Berkowitz shares 2012 will be the year Facebook will have more than half of its users accessing it from mobile devices. Debi Kleiman of MITX predicts that this mobile shift "will require brands to completely rethink how they connect and communicate with consumers." Jim Storer adds that mobile will become "an imperative, not just a nice-to-have." Jay Baer believes that we will see a more concerted efforts by companies to make their content mobile-friendly, while near-field communications (NFL) opportunities will drive relevancy, immediacy and tractions for the mobile-savvy brands. As Neil Glassman puts it, NFL will be about "real, real-time marketing." Mark Lazen of Social Media Today and The Customer Collective agrees that ultimately, mobile will open up marketing opportunities for relevancy. Trends to Watch For: Other key social technology developments likely to impact the enterprise this year include – video, Google +, Facebook Edgerank, open APIs, inbound marketing tools and interactive voice response. Access all 140+ predictions on what the experts agree would be the top social technology developments in 2012. Our free eBook 2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions also includes predictions on top social marketing developments, biggest challenges, and top news resources. To get the latest from the experts quoted in the 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions, you can follow them on Twitter. We welcome your thoughts, reactions, and feedback. Other social tech developments likely to impact us this year? Let’s continue the discussion in the comments below, on Twitter at hashtag #AwarenessSMM, Facebook at Social Media Marketing Best Practices, LinkedIn at the Social Media Marketing Mavens Group.   |
| 18 Key Observations about the State of Blogging in 2011 Posted: 17 Jan 2012 08:15 AM PST Blogging is a profession and a passion that has been transformational. The feedback has changed and informed me. I have written, travelled, presented and networked. It has allowed me to learn and to communicate with a global audience that has been enlightening, inspiring and empowering. It asks questions of you. Will people appreciate your thoughts and views? Will I be seen as funny, clever or just an impostor and interloper? It is a place for courageous people and those who have a thirst for learning. The Naked Blogger Blogging exposes you to a world wide audience that sees all your ideas, thoughts, spelling and grammar mistakes. The term the "Naked Blogger" has a certain truth. Brian Appleyard of the "London Times" says this about blogging. "The blogscape is not for the faint-hearted….There's a shocking disconnect between one fact — you sitting at your computer — and the next — what you just wrote being instantly visible to the entire world. Try to think of it as like stepping out of the toilet to find yourself standing on the centre spot at Wembley on cup-final day". But don't let that image stop you blogging! I have met the most awesome people that have reminded me of how connected we are and how lucky we are to live in a time of technology that provides us with boundless opportunities. What have I Learned about Blogging in 2011? It continues to surprise me as the social web continues to transform society and culture. So what some key observations for me in 2011?
What have you learned about blogging in 2011? The Bible of Blogging Survey Technorati is known within blogging circles as the "Bible of Blogging" and once a year it surveys the blogosphere to find out what directions and trends that are influencing bloggers and the state of blogging. Here are some key findings that I thought were worth sharing. 1. Bloggers are Influenced by other BlogsThe blogosphere is influencing itself – respondents say that the number one influence on the topics they blog about are other blogs they read, a huge jump from 2010. 2.What Content when Blogging about a Brand Produce the Most Positive Response?Among Hobbyists and Professionals working with brands, product reviews have elicited the most positive response. Among Corporate and Entrepreneur bloggers, the best response has come from advice or consultative content. 3. How Many Bloggers are Approached By Brands to Review ProductsBloggers are being actively courted. Nearly four out of 10 overall, 59% of Professional Part Timers, and 66% of Professional Full Timers have been approached to write about or review products. Pros are approached eight times per week on average. The most frequently approached Hobbyist, Professional Part Time, Professional Full Time, and Entrepreneur bloggers report being approached more than 200 times per week. 4. Is Blogging Being Taken More Seriously?More than two thirds believe their blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information, with 76% of Professional Full Timers agreeing. 5. Media Habits of Bloggers14% of bloggers spend at least 21 hours per week visiting social media sites. About two thirds spend less than an hour watching TV shows on their computer, tablet or smartphone or uploading photos to photo-sharing sites. 6. Blogs for Ideas, Inspiration and EntertainmentThis is the second year we surveyed consumers on their trust of and attitudes toward the media they consume. Compared with other media, blogs continue to outpace other social media and many traditional media in terms of trust and generating consumer recommendations and purchases. Facebook remains somewhat influential, but less so than blogs, and Twitter has seen a drop in influence over the past year. 7. Why Do Bloggers Blog?70% of all bloggers use their blog to share their expertise and experience with others. Professionals also use their blog as a way to make money or supplement their income. Corporate and Entrepreneur bloggers are looking to gain professional recognition, while also using their blog as a way to attract new clients to their business. 8.The Impact of Blogging on a Blogger's LifeOverall, respondents seem to feel that blogging has had a positive impact on their personal life. 54% of respondents agree that they have made friends through their blog, and the same number agree that they have become more involved with their passion areas as a result of blogging. More than 60% of Corporate and Entrepreneur bloggers have gained greater visibility in their industry through blogging. 9. Bloggers and Twitter82% of bloggers surveyed are using Twitter, with almost all Professional Full Timers (93%) and Professional Part Timers (91%) using Twitter and having on average over 1,000 followers. Those who use Twitter say they do so to promote their blog (77%), follow friends (60%), and bring interesting links to light (59%). Professional, Corporate, and Entrepreneur bloggers use Twitter to promote themselves professionally. 10. Bloggers and FacebookAlmost nine out of ten bloggers surveyed (89%) use Facebook. 50% of all bloggers have separate Facebook pages for their blog and for their personal account, a jump from only 34% last year. Among respondents who have only a personal Facebook page, 60% are not linking their page to their blog in any way. The Importance of a Facebook page for the Professional BloggerFacebook the Marketing NetworkAmong Facebook users, the most common reason for using the social network is to promote one's blog. 61% of Entrepreneur bloggers use Facebook to promote their business. 11. Bloggers and Google+More than six out of ten respondents use Google+. Of those who use this service only 13% have a separate account for their blog and personal use. 11. The Most Effective Social Media Marketing ToolsOther than Facebook and Twitter, the most popular social networking platforms among respondents are LinkedIn and YouTube. Not surprisingly, respondents found Facebook and Twitter to be the most effective social networking tools to market their blogs and drive traffic. 12. What do the Marketers Say about Blogging?Some quotes from the marketers. "We usually have the option to share an article and/or an entire custom unit on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Additionally, we are running a blogging placement that allows bloggers to engage, then blog about it amongst their peers." "Social media is the glue to the mass messages. We attempt to integrate all of our campaigns so the paid, owned and earned are all working together. We do this for all of our clients." "I would have to say blogging and how it is being used has been the biggest development in social media. Individuals trust bloggers, especially those who are seen as influential. Blogging can either have a positive or negative effect on a campaign, brand or product. Individuals will make decisions based on comments made by their peers or by someone they feel confident in." 13. The Top Blogging PlatformsWordPress is the most popular blog hosting service among all respondents, used by 51%. Blogger and Blogspot hosting services are also popular (21% and 14%). 14. The Top Blogging ToolsParticular blogging tools are very widespread among bloggers, especially built-in syndication (75%) and social sharing widgets (75%), as well as site search (58%). Among bloggers who use built-in syndication, the majority (76%) support full content. 15. Why Bloggers Don't have AdvertisingAmong those who do not have advertising on their blogs, 52% say they do not have advertising because they don't want their blogs to be cluttered with ads, while 38% said they don't have enough visitors to make it worthwhile. Another 36% are not interested in making money on their blog. 16. How do Bloggers Manage AdvertisingAmong those with advertising on their blog, 60% use self-serve tools, while 50% have affiliate advertising links on their site. 17. How Do Bloggers make Their Money?Most blog-related revenue is generated through giving speeches on blogging topics and advertising. 18. Professional Bloggers Get the Most TrafficProfessional bloggers receive the most views, with over half of the blogs viewed more than 10,000 times per month. What do think about the survey? Does anything surprise you? Image by Mr. Pierpy   |
| Posted: 17 Jan 2012 07:20 AM PST We interrupt our Inbound Marketing Series to provide a brief recap of the Facebook updates coming to personal profiles and Pages. In my opinion, these changes provide a cleaner look and more control of your content. Personal profile updates:The New Facebook Timeline
Facebook Business Page Updates:
Questions? Post them to the Masterful Marketing Facebook page and I'll be happy to answer them.   |
| Do You Know What Facebook Photos Are Doing to Your Personal Brand? Posted: 17 Jan 2012 04:50 AM PST
There was a picture of a — er — certain part of the female anatomy, shot at pretty close range, just… hanging out in my news feed. (In other news, I'm pretty sure this violates Facebook's TOS, but there it was anyway.) Okay, sure, there are probably some people who wouldn't call this a problem, but I didn't want to see that. I immediately looked to see who posted this and realized that it wasn't even one of my friends. It was a picture that someone else had posted and one of my friends had commented on. And then it hit me: that's kind of the catch with Facebook's current privacy policy where pictures are concerned. See, if you weren't aware, when you upload pictures with a certain privacy setting, "friends only," say, that's all well and good. Only your friends will see those pictures. But the minute you tag someone in them (or tag anything, for that matter), the privacy setting changes automatically to "Friends+." Friends+ means that all of that tagged person's friends can now see your picture and comment on it. You might have removed people from your friends list, but mutual friends can allow them to still see many of your photos. Oh, and remember that picture you took of your friend in some kind of lewd pose? Good news! When you tagged her, you just shared it with her whole family and everyone from the children's camp where she volunteers in the summer! This is why you've been seeing an abundance of tagged photos of your friends from people you've never even met. This is why people you don't know are commenting on your photos. And when one of your friends likes something or comments on it, that means it can potentially show up in your news feed. The person who happened to comment on this picture that I saw is a college student. Let's play the hypothetical game, shall we? You're a college student who just spent winter break in a really awesome internship. You even entertain hopes of working there in the summer to try to get your foot in the door for after graduation. You've added some of your colleagues or your supervisor on Facebook. Maybe you don't feel like taking the time to set up lists because, let's face it, a lot of people don't. A lot of people don't even know that much of their walls became open to public view in September and are still there for everyone to see if they haven't updated their privacy settings since then. But I digress. You go back to school and back to partying. Your best friend might have her photos of that raging kegger set to "Friends Only," but as soon as she tags you in them, those pictures are "Friends+". Not only can mom and dad see you wasted and pole-dancing at a frat house, but — surprise! — so can your supervisor from that internship. If you're not tagged but that picture is in a public album and you comment on it, chances are good that it's still going to show up in your friends' news feeds. Which is exactly how I came to see naked lady parts last night on Facebook. Now imagine what that would do to your odds of working with me if I were in a position to hire you. Gushing over a picture of someone's intimate piercings — or even just liking it, for that matter — makes me believe you aren't mature enough to come on board. You could be quite mature. It doesn't matter. I don't know you very well, and this is what you're choosing to show me about yourself. I'm a pretty advanced Facebook user and I still haven't been able to figure out how to avoid the whole "Friends+" picture issue. If you know, please feel free to tell me in the comments because it's been driving me crazy for months. Obviously I don't mind if my friends see my pictures, but, even though I don't have anything crazy, I still don't want all of their friends to see them. I don't know how trustworthy all of my friends' friends are. I don't know most of them. So I just don't tag anything anymore. Or I'll tag one photo to let my friends know there are pictures of them in my newest album. I don't really have anything to hide, but I still value privacy. Sure, I could go through and turn off photo settings for all of my friends, or even for some friends individually, but that would mean that I might miss pictures I do want to see. So what's the takeaway here? Do you need to constantly censor yourself? No, probably not. But you do need to educate yourself on where your pictures, comments, and likes are ending up. Make sure you know exactly who can see them and what image of yourself you're projecting to those people. That's your personal brand, and social media — yes, including Facebook — is shaping it more and more all the time. If it means you have to turn on the feature that allows you to approve any tagged content (which, by the way, won't prevent you from being tagged, but will just prevent it from showing up on your wall), so be it. What do you do to maintain a positive image in social media, particularly on Facebook? Do you find there's a lot of work involved? Is it something you even think about? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! Image Source: Geoffrey Fairchild (gcfairch)/Flickr   |
| Case Studies: Using the Social Web for New Product Development Posted: 17 Jan 2012 04:30 AM PST I'm delighted to present today eight exciting new mini-case studies which demonstrate the power of social collaboration to create business value through new product development. These were curated by Amy Kenly and her team at innovation consulting firm Kalypso (Amy will also be a speaker at the April 27 Social Slam event!) I think you're going to be energized by these inspiring ideas! Business Challenge: Getting real time analysis of which future candle scents customers would be most likely to favor. Project Details: Instead of relying on traditional market research and trend analysis, Diamond Candles developed a way to crowdsource idea submission and voting from their existing customers. The company then takes the top 10% of voter suggestions and cross-references that with market trend analysis to make final decisions on new scents to launch. Results: The program received more than 250 new product ideas and 5,000 customer votes in just one month. This has established a plan for the company's R&D efforts. Business Challenge: The Coca-Cola unit wanted to utilize Vitamin Water's Facebook fanbase to design a new flavor. Project Details: Vitamin Water's flavor "Connect" was developed by the company's Facebook fanbase; one Facebook fan won $5,000 for her role in development of the new flavor. The competition allowed VitaminWater's Facebook fans to develop all aspects of the product, from selecting the flavor to designing the packaging and naming the product. Results: More than 2 million VitaminWater Facebook fans participated in the new product development effort. Project Details: Working with the online crowdsourcing organization InnoCentive, Prize4Life launched a $1 million challenge to find an accurate way to track the progression of ALS and reduce the cost of ALS clinical trials. At least 50 teams competed from 18 different countries. Prize4Life's Scientific Advisory Board voted to award the ALS Biomarker Prize to Dr. Seward Rutkove. As a result, Dr. Rutkove's work has been accelerated and gained the attention of researchers from around the world. Results: Using the biomarker discovered by Dr. Seward Rutkove reduced the cost for a clinical trial by 50 percent or more. As a result, the time required to determine the therapeutic benefit of a given drug in a clinical trial is shorter and requires fewer patients. This translates to potential therapies moving more quickly through the development pipeline, accelerating progress towards a treatment or cure for ALS, and creating incentive to invest resources in ALS drug development.
Project Details: HopeLab, a nonprofit organization, created a competition called Ruckus Nation to address childhood obesity by using the global social web to generate ideas for products that will help kids stay active. Results: HopeLab received more than 400 entries from 37 countries and 41 U.S. states. In tests conducted by HopeLab, many of the ideas submitted have displayed strong potential for HopeLab's product development efforts and six ideas resulted in patent applications.
Project Details: Madison Electric's commitment to innovation led the company to launch the Sparks Innovation Center- the industry's first crowdsourced, collaborative approach to product development. Through their website (www.meproducts.net/sparks), anyone is invited to submit ideas for new products. The Madison Electric team assesses each idea's merit, and the best ideas are then presented to a focus group through the company's online Contractor Forum. Results: Generating nearly 100 submissions thus far, the Sparks Innovation Center has been the point of origin for five profitable new Madison Electric products and another four are currently now in the production phase. The center has evolved into a go-to resource for inventors and aspiring entrepreneurs in the electronics industry.
Project Details: To address the challenges in managing a far-flung internal development staff, CDC Software relies on social network technologies to develop and deliver software from teams around the world. These social technologies are used at each step of the development process, including the commercial effort. Results: CDC cut the time of product delivery from 24 months to 12-16 weeks. These cloud-based social technologies have promoted tight collaboration among their R&D offices across 14 countries, streamlined knowledge transfer and cut costs.
Project Details: The Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform Business Unit (ECP BU) is a cross-functional development group that included team members from program management, product management, user experience, engineering, quality assurance, and their executive sponsors. This team used an internal social platform to create a collaborative community and integrate their work processes and achieve rapid product iterations. Results: The team delivered its first major release within 12 months, a reduced product time to market that equated to an average 12 percent productivity gain per employee, or 28,000 labor hours.
Project Details: In 2010, GE announced the Ecomagination Challenge, a global contest that was an open call for power grid innovations. Together with top venture capital firms, GE committed up to $200 million to help entrepreneurs develop their ideas and bring them to market. $100,000 awards were offered for each of five winning ideas along with the potential to collaborate with GE and its VC partners. Ideas were routed to subject matter experts and a final panel of judges to determine the winners. Results: The Ecoimagination Challenge website had 70,000 participants from more than 150 countries, contributing 3,844 ideas and more than 120,000 votes. Twelve projects were selected to partner with GE and received development funds totaling $55 million. The contest's most popular submissions received a $50,000 cash award and GE also granted $100,000 each for five promising products ideas. So there you have it — some really awesome examples of social networking and global collaboration. What had an impact on you? Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer.   |
| Posted: 16 Jan 2012 04:00 PM PST
I think the first step in this process is to understand the definition. Influence – the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract. Source Dictionary.com "Produce effects on actions"– I think this is the key part of the definition. Some type of action or opinion must be formed by your readers and listeners to have any capacity of influence. Everytime I write a blog post or type out a quick tweet or response on Google+, Linkedin or Facebook, I am writing to hopefully get someone to act upon the idea I have expressed. My goal is not to just have someone retweet it, I am looking for people to agree, disagree or add to the discussion. I think this should be a part of your goals, if it is not already. Think about it, if you work on your influence at work, at home and online you are really going to focus on what type of action you are hoping to instill in others. Hopefully this action is a positive one and one that leads to more learning and more discussion. The only way you can get better at being influential is by being influential yourself. Here are some things I am working on:
Final Thought: Don't let someone or some program define your social media influence. The choice is yours. You chose whether you want to be influential or not with every interaction you have each day, face to face or online. Take a minute and always think about the type of influence you want to have on a particular subject or discussion. If you liked this post or have more to add, please leave a comment here or on the social media site that you saw this post. Very interested in other people's views on this topic. Picture via Noel Feans   |
Check out your Google+ account today and you might see something new they just added: An easy-to-use meme-creating feature! If you don't have it yet, don't worry, your account will be meme-enabled in the next few days.
Skip dedicated plugins and paid accounts, Google Docs is the fastest easiest way to poll your community!
Integrated Analytics for Market-Driven Insights – 2012 will see marketing empowered by sophisticated analytics – with companies, their marketing analytics teams and their social technology vendors coming together to turn the deluge of social data into actionable, measurable insights. 
Last night I was casually perusing my Facebook news feed and … wait a second… is that what I think it is? Well… yes. Yes, it is.
Business Challenge: Identifying a biomarker for ALS (Lou Gehrig Disease), a progressive and fatal neuro-degenerative disease.
Business Challenge: To develop effective new ideas that address childhood obesity by increasing physical activity in "tweens."
Business Challenge: Develop products that solve customer problems, meet a need or increase efficiencies, on a limited research & development budget.
Business Challenge: Managing resources throughout multiple time zones, geographies and languages to deliver new products and version releases.
Business Challenge: Accelerating time to market and time to revenue generation.
Business Challenge: Leveraging knowledge and ideas beyond the company walls to develop new power grid technologies.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Social | Business 2 Community To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu