Category Archives: Business

Global perspectives on social media

Posted on February 10, 2012 at 1:11 pm UK

smw2012

A week-long feast of knowledge opportunity awaits you next week in over 20 cities around the world when Social Media Week kicks off on February 13.

This bi-annual professional development event offers you a series of interconnected activities and conversations around the world on emerging trends in social and mobile media across all major industries. The organizers say it attracts more than 60,000 attendees across thousands of individually organized events, with half a million connecting to the conference online and through mobile.

smwlondonbadgeOne of the cities involved is London where over 150 events are taking place during the week, most of them free to attend (thanks to sponsors).

I’m participating as a speaker and presenter in three of those 150+ events, all of which look as though they’ll be fully booked any minute now – if you’d like to be there, this is the moment to check availability and sign up:

Wednesday February 15

  1. 08:30 to 12:30: Social Business Immersive by Like Minds
    One of seven presenting; my topic: “Brand communications in a social world: the rise of open and transparent dialogue to manage your reputation and drive opportunities publicly to do business.”
  2. 15:00 to 17:00: “The Future of Social Business” panel discussion with JP Rangaswami, Euan Semple, Jon Ingham, Neville Hobson and Delphine Remy-Boutang. This will be a moderated open discussion and debate on social business current trends, best practices and how social media is driving change in the way organisations will do business in the future.

Thursday February 16

  1. 08:30 to 17:00: Making Social Part Of Your DNA by Klaxon Marketing
    Presentation (at 11:50) jointly with Kerry Bridge of Dell UK titled “The long haul; top tips learnt over the years on how to really make social work for your business.” Especially useful if you’re a small or medium-size business.
  • Location: 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB.
  • Details and Register: http://www.socialmediadna.co.uk/agenda/ (This is a not-for-profit event so your full ticket price goes directly to the event’s charity partners CRY and Mind.)

These are but three of the London events you can experience. Among the many others available, these five – one from each day – look like standout sessions:

And if you can’t physically get to any event, you can enjoy many of them via live video streams by Livestream (who will be streaming events from other SMW cities as well).

There are also hashtags for each city – London’s is #smwldn – so you can join the conversations on Twitter.

Enjoy your week of perspectives!

Be where your customers are – it’s simple

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:12 pm UK

There’s a huge gap in expectation as Econsultancy reports on research by Zendesk that says:

  • 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media
  • 23% of companies actually provide it that way on Facebook

Simple action: pay attention to what your customers want and deliver on that.

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The future of customer service and social media: infographic
According to Zendesk’s new infographic, 62% of customers are looking for more support through social media. Compare that to research by MarketTools at the end of 2011 which shows only 23% of US compan…

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Social media: word of mouth at scale

Posted on January 24, 2012 at 2:31 pm UK

Among some compelling metrics about Facebook’s contributions to Europe’s economies last year – led by $15.3 billion value and 230,000 jobs – is this description of social media by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg:

[...] She argued that we’re living in the midst of a revolution and said that social media has resulted in three key trends:

  1. the shift from anonymity to authentic identity,
  2. the shift from wisdom of the crowds to wisdom of the people, and
  3. the shift from being receivers of information to being broadcasters of information.

“This is a revolution that touches every aspect of our lives,” Sandberg said. Social media, she said, is word of mouth at scale.

Sandberg’s comments came in a closing keynote speech she gave at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich today.

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Facebook added $15.3B and 230k jobs to European economy in 2011
Facebook added $15.3 billion in value to the European economy in the past year, COO Sheryl Sandberg said at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich Tuesday.

Sandberg, in her closing keynote……

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Social Business – a history defined

Posted on January 20, 2012 at 10:23 am UK

sbengineIt seems that everyone is talking about social business. Whether it’s IBM launching its SmartCloud for social business, or marketers developing their social business strategies for 2012, the term ‘social business’ means different things to different people. So what does social business actually mean? Guest author Andy Hewitt of Global Dawn offers some perspectives.

We define social business as the creation of shared value for everybody in a business value chain, including the customer and the communities they live in, online or offline. For someone in technology, social business may mean free software, platform businesses or games. For a marketer, it could mean loyalty programmes or social network marketplaces. There is also a CSR angle – social business might apply to an ethical, value-driven business.

Social business isn’t new – it has in fact been around for the past thirty years and continues to evolve. Social business has evolved from multiple sources and is taking business in a new direction.

My company Global Dawn has produced an explanatory infographic to niftily sum up social business over the past three decades, showing all the routes that business has travelled to become more social. More than just being about social media, it’s also about values, customers, collaboration, involvement and engagement.

From the development of micro-finance to crowdsourcing to today’s customer ecosystems, shared value and social business is all about empowering people and creating a more collaborative human-centred business environment.

socialbusinessinfographic

The Technology Stream

A strong tradition running through social business and dating back to the free software movement and then open source is the idea of contribution, specifically making a contribution to the ecosystem you work within. This tradition has helped build the web as we know it today into a giant, free collaborative resource.

The Marketing Stream

Another strong tradition begins with multi-level marketing and loyalty programs. The web has enhanced the capacity of smart firms to build loyalty by engaging more deeply with customers and by interacting in more equal terms, creating a two-way conversation between marketers and customers.

The Social Stream

Finally, there is the tradition of social itself, beginning with the micro-finance initiatives that were designed to replace development aid in what used to be called the third world. That tradition has informed open innovation, the large mobile ecosystems that flourished first in Kenya, and then crowdsourcing.

As we can see, social business is no buzzword but rather a long tradition that has evolved through the decades. However, we can expect to see many more organisations coming forward, claiming to be social business over the coming 12 months.

Social business is about more than just engagement across social channels such as Twitter and Facebook. A true social business will create shared value for everyone, empowering the people it reaches in a valuable way.

Andy Hewitt is Global Dawn’s Director of Customer Propositions. Global Dawn works with brands to offer bespoke software-as-a-service (SaaS) social business platform packages which enable brands to optimise customer marketing engagement. Andy is responsible for defining the Global Dawn proposition for customers as well as the functionality of its Social Business Engine. Contact: andrew.hewitt@globaldawn.co.

Virgin Atlantic’s got it

Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:57 am UK

I saw this TV ad for Virgin Atlantic for the first time last night. The airline first used it in 2010. As you can probably tell, I don’t watch a lot of TV. :)

It captured my imagination. Beautifully made. And it ticks a lot of “connection boxes.” Attractive people, terrific sound track – “I’m Feeling Good” – contemporary and futuristic settings, aspirational, even experiential, solid brand value, shows the company as leading edge.

I want to fly with people like that!

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Virgin Atlantic’s brand new TV advert – “Your airline’s either got it or it hasn’t” – Virgin Atlantic
Welcome to our first ever global TV advert. Featuring the strap-line ‘Your airline’s either got it or it hasn’t', the campaign takes the viewer on a metaphorical flight with Virgin Atl…

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