Register For Webinar: Developing a Social Strategy by Objectives
Categories: AltimeterPosted on February 8th, 2010
Left: There are four main categories of social strategy, yet with over 20 subset objectives, which we’ll discuss at a high level.
Organizations that focus on social technologies suffer from the symptom of ‘Fondling The Hammer‘ . True social strategy stems from business objectives –not the latest technologies.
So often, companies develop social tactics based on the latest tool that’s sprung forth. Yet, so far and few in between to organizations develop an actionable plan based on business goals.
This second in our no-cost webinar series is coming up on the topic of social strategy. In the spirit of open research, we’re leading a discussion in public, and encourage you to join, learn, and share with others. Co-hosting with Charlene Li, we’ll be hosting a no-cost webinar to discussin how companies can develop a social marketing effort that meet business goals.
Although not a requirement, our sessions build off each other, read, watch, and listen to our previously recorded session, we discussed how companies should really understand their customers before entering the social space.
Register: Developing a Social Strategy by Objectives, Hosted by Altimeter Group
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Please sign up, we’re only limited to 1000 attendees and last time we have over 800 signups. If you are unable to make the live webcast, we’ll post the full set of slides and recording on this blog and the Altimeter blog, so please subscribe. The hashtag for this event is #AltimeterWebinar, and if you’ve questions you want to pose in advance on Twitter, I’m listening and will factor in the top questions, or leave a comment below.
Time to put the hammer down, and start focusing on building that house.
People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Feb 4, 2010
Categories: Career, On the movePosted on February 4th, 2010
The submissions are defintly picking up, I’m seeing more submissions than before. Why? I attribute this to the start of the new year when many folks change up jobs, and the slight uptick we’re starting to see in the economy.
In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks:
- Congrats to Jeannette Gibson (Twttier) who has moved to corporate marketing to run social media at Cisco Systems. I’ve shared the stage with her a few times, she’s quite impressive, and has been successful in deploying social programs in B2B environments.
- Congrats to Maria Povermo (Twitter) who’s ascended to the Group Manager, Social Media at Adobe Systems, (Altimeter client)
- Dave Armon has joined Context Optional as director of strategic accounts.
- Zena Weist (Twitter) has landed at HRBLock as the director of social media, congrats.
- Ginevra Kirkland, long term customer advocate at Six Apart (I had the joy of working with her years ago as a client) has now joined the mighty team at Get Satisfaction as a Community and Account Manager read her post, as well as read the interview on Gsat blog.
- Joe Stanhope joins Forrester Research (great folks) as a Senior Analyst focused on site optimization strategy, which includes coverage of Web analytics as well as online testing and targeting platforms.
- WPP owned agency Ogilvy PR hired Dirk Shaw as a senior vice president in its 360° Digital Influence Practice. I’ve worked closely with Dirk in the past and have been impressed, congrats Dirk and Ogilvy.
- Todd Bowman has joined (PDF) Senior Vice President of Sales at appssavvy
- Joel Johnson is now a SVP Integrated Planning Director at Porter Novelli
- Marc-Antoine Ross is the Community & Content Manager at SoftCity Technologies
- Matt Dickman has been promoted to SVP, Digital Strategy at Fleishman-Hillard
- Carey Sullivan has been promoted to Manager of Social Media American Electric Power
- Angela Connor is a new hire as Social Media Manager at Capstrat
- Chris WIlson has joined as a Senior Account Executive, Digital Strategy at Fleishman-Hillard
- Michael Litman joins as a Social Media Planner at Dare Digital
- Andrew D. Nystrom is a new hire as Digital Marketing Manager, Social Media at Red Bull North America #wings
How to connect with others (or get a job):
Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how you can too:
Submit an announcement
If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, fill out this form.
Seeking Social Media Professionals?
If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources
This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals.
Job Resources in the Social Media and Web Industry
Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, these affiliate fees pay for my hosting) Read Write Web keeps announcements flowing at Jobwire, although is broader than just social media jobs Facebook group for community manager group in Facebook Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community Teresa has a few jobs, some around community New Media hire has an extensive job database Social Media Headhunter Social media jobs Jobs in social media Altimeter Group’s list of social media consultants and agencies See this list of Corporate Social Media Strategists and Community Managers that I keep up to date
Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, please)
Slides: Four Social Media Trends for Business in 2010
Categories: Web StrategyPosted on January 22nd, 2010Companies Must Approach Social Programs In A Coordinated Effort
Many companies are enthralled by the opportunity to use social technologies to connect with customers, yet many lack a plan or coordinated effort. Additionally, things are going to get more difficult as they don’t realize that as consumers and employees rapidly adopt these tools the level of complexity increases across the organization. While it’s easy to get caught up on the specific new technologies that are constantly emerging, companies should focused on business trends and themes in 2010. In particular, companies must develop a business strategy based on customer understanding, put the baseline resources in place to get your company ready, deliver a holistic experience to customers –and build advocacy programs and anticipate customer need.
Open Research: You can download the slides from slideshare, and use with attribution for non-commercial reasons.
To Be Successful, Companies Should Focus On Four Key Trends
While there are many themes in 2010 for companies, II focused in on the four key themes companies must focus on:
1) Don’t fondle the hammer. Understand customers, focus on objectives, not develop strategies based on ever-changing tools. Companies really need to understand their customers first, see our recorded webinar to learn more.
2) Live the 80% rule. This is a movement: get your company ready. 80% of success is getting the right organizational model, roles, processes, stakeholders, and teams assembled –only 20% should be focused on technology.
3) Customers don’t care what department you’re in. Customers just want their problem fixed, they don’t care what department you’re in. Yet, now, nearly every department can have a direct relationship with your customers using social tools. As a result, provide customers with a holistic experience Start to investigate how brand monitoring, community tools and CRM systems are merging.
4) Real time is *not* fast enough. Companies cannot scale when it comes to social media, for most companies, you cannot hire enough people to monitor and respond to the conversation, As a result, lean on advocates, by building unpaid armies, and anticipate customer needs through advanced listening techniques.
This event was hosted last night at the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association nice redesign, and hosted by Adobe (disclosure: an Altimeter client). I was later joined by Jeannette Gibson, social media executive of global marketing at Cisco, Ed Terpening, VP of Social Media at Wells Fargo, Maria Povermo, leading Social Media in Marketing at Adobe, and Rob Fuggetta of Zuberance to have a lively panel on how they are using these technologies. The event was recorded, I’ll add a link as soon as it becomes available.
Translations
Text translations now in Japanese
Socialgraphics Help You To Understand Your Customers: Slides and Webinar Recording
Categories: Open Research, SocialgraphicsPosted on January 21st, 2010Companies should have a ‘Customer Strategy’ not a ‘Twitter or Facebook Strategy’. To start, first understand your customers social behaviors, below are the slides and recorded webinar featured yesterday by Charlene Li and myself.
We know that customers are adopting new technologies to communicate with each other –and companies must change their own behaviors to reach them. Yet, to often, we hear of companies ‘fondling the hammer‘ where they have knee-jerk reactions to which ever technology emerges. The problem with this strategy is that new technologies are emerging in rapid iterations due to low-cost of innovation. As a result, focus on their behaviors, which we cover in detail in the Engagement Pyramid.
While using surveys is an effective way of getting a strong baseline set of knowledge, you must be constantly monitoring and updating the changes your ever-changing customers are having, and encourage you to partner with brand monitoring companies like Visible Technologies, Techrigy by Alterian, Radian 6, TNS Cymfony, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Crimson Hexagon, and even simple easy to use tools like Twitter search and Google Alerts.
We focus on disruptive technologies, and know we don’t have all the answers, so we want to work with the community. Like the Opensource movement and creative commons, we’re embracing ‘Open Research‘ which means we want to share what we learn so others can build on top of it. We like Creative Commons, and hope you use this content for educational purposes and to share with others with attribution. Stay tuned, as we plan to share more about the socialgraphics methodology and other frameworks.
Above: Access the slides on slideshare (you can download them in PPT format)
Above: Listen and watch the recoded webinar, there were over 600 attendees in real time, making it interesting to watch the discussion in the chat and in Twitter.
Here’s the link that I mentioned comparing Toyota’s shotgun approach and Ford’s laser-like approach. Next, join the conversation in Twitter and beyond, see the many tweets tagged #socialgraphics. Last but not least, thanks to Christine Tran, for her research expertise and rolling out our new powerpoint design.
Microsoft Makes Work Fun: Office Launches “Ribbon Hero”, A Social Game
Categories: Social Gaming, Social MediaPosted on January 19th, 2010Forget Farmville or Mafia Wars, Microsoft wants you to play Excel –pivot tables FTW.
Most software training and help resources are painful experiences written by technical publication editors. We know that most tutorial and help sections within applications are horrible to work with (I’ve shaken my head in frustration quite a few times using Microsoft’s own tutorial tools), and not every office worker can afford to attend a powerpoint training class.
Click above image to see my notes: Powerpoint users are given challenges, like this artistic effect, to win points which are used to brag on Facebook.
Learning game encourages social sharing
First, click on the image to see my additional notes. I rarely get excited at briefings, however big-enterprise Microsoft is doing something interesting. In an effort to make learning fun and increase usage of Microsoft office products, they’ve launched a pilot program called “Ribbon Hero” (read blog, or watch video). Much like a game you’d find on Facebook, Ribbon Hero lets users of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and other office applications score points by unlocking challenges –then touting it to their friends.
Microsoft staff creates ‘challenges’ in the software, and encourages users to play to learn. As users unlock challenges (see screenshot above) they can earn up to a max of 300 points per product, and can choose to share their scoring with their Facebook friends on the Fan page. Don’t think there’s any social captial here? well if people can brag about their fictitious mafia wars scores, we should expect them to tout their real-world workplace proficiencies.
Innovation exposes challenges
There are three four major hurdles as I see it: 1) I’m not confident that this launch will reach a wide audience in the workplace, it may skew towards Gen X and Y. 2) Secondly, they’ll need to overcome the barriers of those who score low being bashful about their scores, and not wanting to share with others. 3) It’ll take some studies to show that professionals that complete the challenges (300/300 points) are better workers, then get HR to promote, 4) Lastly, like all games, they can be cheated, like gaming hint websites, expect there to be a ‘tip blog’ for Ribbon Hero.
Microsoft most tap into new opportunities:
Although we’ve not tried Ribbon Hero, this is an innovative way to encourage users to learn about a typically single person product -and then share with their friends. Microsoft sharing data with Facebook (who they’ve invested in) doesn’t seem like their typical big box culture, kudos for them for doing something out of their normal engineering culture. Yet despite these upsides, Microsoft must:
- Harness reputation points to grow the program. has just scratched the surface in using this reputation data like they have with the Microsoft MVP advocacy program to create a non-paid growing army of Microsoft Office experts.
- Add features to enable game to scale. 1) Q&A features that allows members to pose questions to each other and answering them, gaining more points, 2) Challenges to be created by the members themselves, growing the game at a scalable pace for high achievers. Never letting the game end.
- Develop a global leaderboard of top users. Allow them to build profiles as true ‘Office Heros’ and how they succeed at their job on a separate website, and encourage them to share their achievements on their blogs, resume and LinkedIn pages.
- Measure based on new benchmarks. 1) Top line adoption curves skew up 2) Reliance on existing support features goes down 3) Ten solid case studies of people getting new jobs or promotions in part because of their proficiency at the game.
I’m sure we’ll hear more about this from Microsoft –and maybe other traditional enterprise software companies like IBM, Oracle, and social fearful, Apple, will follow suit. I gotta hand it to Microsoft on this one, they’re finally making work fun. Lastly, ya know I gotta ask, but will Clippy make a cameo in the game?
Disclosure: Microsoft is an Altimeter client. We want you to trust us more by being upfront about our relationships, read our disclosure policy.
A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2010
Categories: Industry IndexPosted on January 19th, 2010For the third year running (see 2008, 2009) I’m going to aggregate stats in the social networking space on a single blog post, and update it through the year. Data fiends should bookmark this post for future reference.
Stats are important –but on their own, they don’t tell us much
Stats on social networks are important, but don’t rely on them alone. Data is like fire, it can be used for good and bad, proper insight and analysis is always required. Beyond that, you’ll often see conflicting stats across the industry as everyone has different methodologies, as a result, this listing will help you to see the greater trends –not numbers without context.
How to interpret stats
Numbers don’t tell us much without insight and interpretation, in fact, you’re going to see conflicting numbers of usage from many of the agencies and social networks themselves. The key is to look at trend movements, don’t focus on the specific numbers but the changes to them over time. Put more weight on active unique users in the last 30 days vs overall registered, in fact, the actual active conversion rate will often range from 10-40% of actual users sticking around and using the social network, so don’t be fooled by puffed numbers. No single metric is a good indicator, you have to evaluate the usage from multiple dimensions, so you also have to factor in what are users doing, time on site, interaction, and of course, did they end up buying, recommending products, or improving their lives.
A Collection of Social Network Stats for 2010
I’ll be updating this post throughout the year, bookmark it, and share it with others.
Comparison: All Social Networks
- ClickZ compares ‘Unique Audience’ and Time On Site. It’s interesting to see that Facebook’s time on site is much greater than others, clocking in at over 6 hours per user. By Click Z, Jan 12th
By Region and Geography
- Japan: This slideshare has data on Japan’s mobile behaviors, and demonstrates how most social networks are accessed through mobile devices, and discusses Twitter, Facebook, and other social network adoption. Japan’s Cellphone Edge, 2010.
- Facebook keeps it’s stats page updated, and boasts over 350mm users. Facebook, ongoing
- Facebook has announced 400mm users, Feb 5, 2010.
- Hubspot luanches a report of Twitter.com registrations and shows a decrease in rate of adoption. There’s also useful data within the report about followers and their behaviors based on a sample methodology. Hubspot, Jan 19, 2010.
- Sysmos launched a report about global usage of Twitter, with most adoption in US. Interesting that the key nugget is “… the number of U.S. unique users was 50.8%, a sharp drop from 62.1% in June. This suggests the use of Twitter outside the U.S. has experienced significant growth over the past six months.”, Jan 14th, Sysmos. Thanks Jean in the comments for the submission.
- Data indicates that many Twitter users are not active. read “The number of Twitter users has climbed to a lofty 75 million, but the growth rate of new users is slowing and a lot of current Twitterers are inactive” ComputerWorld, Jan 28
I’ll continue to update this page over time, please leave a comment if you have 2010 submissions, I’ll credit you.
People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Jan 16, 2010
Categories: Career, On the movePosted on January 16th, 2010
From an industry perspective there were significantly more hires this month, than last. This is due to two pieces: 1) It’s traditional for new roles to be filled during the new year, 2) An uptick in the overall financial space and a continued focus on the social and open web.
In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks:
- Chris Messina who’s been a leader in the open web and standards joins Google, where he’ll be focused on leading the open web initiatives. I’m certainly going to be following his work regardless of where he goes.
- Joseph Smarr, via product team at Comcast’s Plaxo also joins Google, both of these gentleman have a focus on web standards and the ‘Openstack’ so it’ll be interesting to see how this unfold. I’ve been friends with Joseph for a few years now, and it’s great to see him continue to grow.
- BL Ochman, a force of great positive energy who I’ve known for over 5 years, has joined Proof Digital Media – the new digital marketing arm of Burson-Marsteller. She’ll report to Proof CEO Jay Leveton, and have been given the opportunity to help guide the agency into the forefront of new media agency.
- Johannes Neuer joins the The New York Public Library as the eCommunications Manager where he’ll expand and promote eCommunications and social media initiatives at The New York Public Library (both internally and externally).
- Kati Driscoll lands at AAA Mid-Atlantic as a Social Media Community Specialist Working within existing and emerging AAA Mid-Atlantic communities to engage members, providing information and conversation to help them receive the full benefit of their membership and our community.
- Karthik S joins Edelman as Head of Digital Strategy (India) Create and frame Edelman’s social media PR offerings in India, help clients integrate social media and digital communications within existing PR programs.
- Greg Meyer joins Gist Customer Experience Manager where he’ll be providing VIP Support, Building a Customer “Power Tips” channel, and generally doing whatever necessary to make users successful.
- Jennifer Polk has been promoted at Sears Holdings as the Director, BU Social Strategy Developing and leading community and social networking initiatives for SHC BUs, including building strategies and programs to help the BUs achieve greater customer engagement. She’ll be ensuring social programs align with BU business objectives and promoting partnership between Social Media, Online, Marketing and the BUs.
- Robert Lommers has been promoted at Rabobank as the online media specialist focused on social media, online media, mobile, webcare, and social networking.
- Joel Burslem is now with 1000watt Consulting as Associate of Social media marketing and strategy for the real estate industry.
- Shara Karasic has been hired at Appolicious as the Director of Social Strategy developing community engagement and managing social strategy.
- Judith A. Mod is at Social Gastronomy as a Principal where she’ll be focused on enabling organizations to leverage social media for marketing, customer relationships, operations, employee engagement, and partner management.
- Matthew Rosenhaft also joins Social Gastronomy as a Principal where he’ll enable organizations to leverage social media for marketing, customer relationships, operations, employee engagement, and partner management.
- April M. Williams is now with Cyberlife Tutors as the President of Coaching: focused on career and social media
- Eileen O’Brien joins Siren Interactive as the Director, Search & Innovation at a social media lead for agency’ clients.
- Paul Miser has been promoted at VML Senior Social Marketing Strategist where he’ll be creating dynamic Social and Mobile strategies for VML clients as they tie in with their digital and interactive strategies.
- Kurt Abrahamson joins SocialMedia.com as the CEO, Leading the SocialMedia.com team to deliver our new social advertising platform for publishers.
- Heather Strout joins the Farland Group as a Director of Community Services, there Heather will be helping companies discover ways to establish and sustain customer communities. She comes from a great family, her brother Aaron is a friend and constituent.
- Ari Lightman has a teaching appointment at Carnegie Mellon University as an Adjunct Professor teaching a case study class on measurement and analysis of social media initiatives.
How to connect with others (or get a job):
Several people have been hired because of this blog post series, here’s how you can too:
Submit an announcement
If you know folks that are moving up in the social media industry, fill out this form.
Seeking Social Media Professionals?
If you’re seeking to connect with community advocates and community managers there are few resources
This list, which started with just 8 names continues to grow as folks submit to it. List of Social Computing Strategists and Community Managers for Enterprise Corporations 2008 –Social Media Professionals.
Job Resources in the Social Media and Web Industry
Web Strategy Jobs powered by Job o Matic (Post a job there and be seen by these blog readers, these affiliate fees pay for my hosting) Read Write Web keeps announcements flowing at Jobwire, although is broader than just social media jobs Facebook group for community manager group in Facebook Jake McKee’s community portal for jobs Chris Heuer’s Social Media Jobs SimplyHired aggregates job listings, as does Indeed ForumOne Jobs for Social Media and Community Teresa has a few jobs, some around community New Media hire has an extensive job database Social Media Headhunter Social media jobs Jobs in social media Altimeter Group’s list of social media consultants and agencies
Hiring? Leave a comment
If you’re seeking candidates in the social media industry, many of them are within arms reach, feel free to leave a link to a job description (but not the whole job description, please)
Ongoing List of Social Marketing Efforts from Vacation Destinations, Convention, and Tourism Bureaus
Categories: Industry Index, Social MediaPosted on January 13th, 2010
Above: A photo I took on a recent trip to North Shore Oahu, inline with my plans to fulfill operation bluewater.
Recent data around interactive marketing spend indicates that the hospitality industry was ripe for spending on social marketing above all other industries. Why? This form of consumer marketing could be dependent on the human emotion and story telling between individuals, or through compelling word of mouth marketing campaigns.
As a result, Christine Tran, Altimeter Researcher and myself are kicking off this list, and encourage you to add examples by leaving a comment. The scope for this is list is a tourist destination –not a hotel, airline, or specific restaurant.
- Bahamas Island Film Challenge, The Bahamas Tourist Office UK
This video contest campaign encouraged filmmakers in the UK to submit videos with voting encouraged from the crowd. - Caribbean, Caribbean Travel Organization(and islands)
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter are present on the main site, but yet each of their other travel, blog, and other sites. See Carribean Travel, OneCarribean lists out various social properties, Antigua’s forums, and Aruba’s Facebook integration. - Visit Dublin, Dublin Tourism
Site has flickr, YouTube, podcasts and Twitter integration. They also sport a Facebook page. - Hawaii’s GoHawaii, Stories of Hawaii
Hawaii has used a variety of assets such as Facebook pages, Twitter, and even created a Pandora station, in the past, Hawaii has catered to a group of bloggers who spread the word to their readers on a blogger tour. Disclosure: HVCB is an Altimeter client. - Memphis Travel
I recently met the wonderful head of social media, Kerry, at Memphis’s travel bureau on my travels, they have Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr account links on their site but haven’t yet integrated with their site. - uwishuknew, Philadelphia Tourism Marketing
An online source for an insider’s view of Philadelphia.” It’s a blog written by staff and local bloggers who are “in-the-know.” Here’s an example of their blog on dining. - The Best Job in the World, Tourism Queensland
You may have heard of the Best Job in the World campaign, a popular campaign garnering international media attention, and over 35,000 entries worldwide on youtube. The winner blogged about his entire experience. - Ultimate Thailand Explorers, Tourism Authority of Thailand
On the heels of the Best Job in the World, Thailand launched its own campaign. Contestants produced a 60-second YouTube video, and rallied for votes from their own existing social networks, effectively becoming destination ambassadors and spreading engagement. Do see the related blog.
If you’ve got examples, please leave a comment below, with a description and URL, we’ll add.
Webinar: Socialgraphics Provides a Customer-Centric Approach to Social Strategy.
Categories: Altimeter, SocialgraphicsPosted on January 11th, 2010
Left: In the past, marketers have relied on tried and true demographics to understand customers. Now, as consumers adopt social technologies, marketers must measure socialgraphics, which indicates how they interact with each other.
Beware of plans or proposals that start with “Twitter Strategy” or “Facebook Strategy” Instead, they should have a “Customer Strategy” that focuses in on how customers behave –not on the ever-changing toolset. As a result, companies should first understand how their customers use social technologies before they choose the tools. Socialgraphics is how to measure how customers use social technologies, where they are online, and how it influence them in the context of the customer lifecylce.
This upcoming free webinar, suited for corporations who want to develop plans in social with confidence, will answer how to apply socialgraphics. Like demographics or psychographics, companies must now understand socialgraphics, which answers five key questions:
Socialgraphics answers five key questions:
- Where are your customers online? First, find out where your customers are online, knowing which websites they are particiating at, this will reduce guessing.How to make this data actionable: Don’t aimlessly approach social networks without knowing if they are there, if they are in Hyves, Mixii, or Facebook, go there. Fish where the fish are.
- What are your customers’ social behaviors online? How do they use social technologies? Do they share? Comment? Create their own content?How to make this data actionable: Which social features should you deploy. Example: if they frequently like to comment on websites, allow them to leave their comments.
- What social information or people do your customers rely on? How to make this data actionable: If they rely on their friends, facilitate a marketing program that encourages customers to share with friends, this data helps with determining resource allocation on advocacy programs.
- What is your customers’ social influence? Who trusts them?How to make this data actionable: If your customers are trusted by others, highlight your customers in front of their community. For example, teens may share information with each other, spreading their influence to others. Example: Walmart’s 11 Moms blogger program is a platform for customer voices.
- How do customers use social in context of your products? How do customers use social technologies to learn, make decisions, and support your products and services? How to make this data actionable: Be confident in your resource allocation by understanding when customers rely on social tools or their peers in pre-sales, awareness, decision making, implementation, or support of a product.
When properly deployed, Socialgraphics, helps companies, their agency partners, and business units be more effective in their planning and deployment –reducing risk from deploying without having knowledge.
In the spirit of open research, we will make this webinar, the slides, and the overall methodology available for the public to use, under creative commons license. We hope you’ll join us. Stay tuned as we have other webinars coming soon.
Above: The Engagement Pyramid makes it easy to understand the specific behaviors of socialgraphics, making it simple to decide which technologies to deploy. Having customer understanding makes go-to-market strategy more effective.
Placing Bets On Social Strategy, SCRM, and Mobile in 2010
Categories: Social CRMPosted on January 5th, 2010
Above Image: Readers of this blog asked for coverage in Social CRM, Mobile Social Networks, and Community Platforms. This is in alignment with my goals for 2010.
First of all, thanks to those who responded to the 2009 Web Strategy survey, the results were telling. One of the questions that I asked was about areas of focus, I’m pleased to hear that the direction readers want me to focus is in alignment with where I’m headed. It’s important to have goals, (even my personal goals to live in Hawaii 30 days a yearlike Operation Bluewater) and I’m happy to share my focus for the coming year.
Here’s my baseline topics that I’ve been blogging about, and helping clients through advisory and research, I’ve been doing this since I ran the social program at Hitachi, back in 2006, over four years ago.
Organizational Social Readiness: 80% of a companies success is getting their organization ready through the right roles, processes, policies, measurement, only 20% should be on tools. I’ll continue to talk about organizational readiness.
Social Strategy: This also ties into social marketing strategy, which should be focused first on socialgraphics (how your customers use these tools) and business goals –not reacting to the latest technology.
Vendor and Technology Review: I’ll continue to cover the social networking space, like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, as well as enterprise systems like Community Platforms like Jive, Lithium, Telligent, Awareness, Mzinga, Pluck, Eos, Salesforce Chatter.
I make it a point in my career to always be uncomfortable: trying new things, looking at the upcoming changes and taking risks, I hope that by continuing to blog what I learn, we can grow together. The areas of increased focus for this year are:
Social CRM: An organization’s response to the fleeting customer in the social space, and how companies must provide a holistic experience to customers by creating processes, integrating new channels, and responding to customers in near-real time. Why this space? Most companies don’t know they need it, but as customers increase their social behavior, tacking, managing, and responding will become increasingly difficult. I’ve already blogged some of my findings, read all the posts tagged ’social crm’.
Location based and Mobile Marketing: I place to distinct separations between these topics, although they are intrinsically tied. I’m placing bets on the increased marketing context that’s available by triangulating information through mobile and location devices. Similarly, I’ll continue to look at applications that extend to mobile devices –a natural extension to the social web. I’ve never put a lot of effort into the immature mobile space, but the adoption of these mini-computers are taking off, the space is slowly moving out of diapers and into adolescence. Read all my posts tagged ‘mobile’.
Now back to you: What topics and focuses will you have during this coming year? What areas of education are you planning to bolster up on? What will you practice and deliver? Wishing you a very successful 2010!
Matrix: Social Technology Adoption Curve Benefits –and Downsides
Categories: Analysis, Social Media, Web StrategyPosted on January 3rd, 2010Know The Upsides –And Downsides Of Your Adoption Behavior
Individuals and companies should be deliberate in their adoption strategy, there are benefits and risks to each category. It’s been interesting watching different group adopt social technologies over the past few years, I can see who benefits from being first –and the pains to be a thought leader of both individuals and companies.
Above, this is the standard Rogers Adoption Curve, it’s important to point out that my matrix below only is in context of social technologies, it will vary from technology to technology. I found this take on the adoption stages of social technologies helpful in framing how I thought about the following matrix. I built this following matrix in the context of social technologies and adoption by both individuals and mixed in with organizations and industries.
| Categories | Description | Benefits | Downsides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innovators | These brave souls take on new technologies, trial them, then will often evangelize them. I’d put those that adopted Twitter in 2006. or any entrepreneurs that creates new technologies fitting into these categories. From a corporate perspective, Dell was forced into this arena, and has benefited. | Glory for being first, a thought and practice leader.. Will have learned from their mistakes, and have far more experience than any others. Will always be able to tout they were first. | Very costly in terms of time, effort to find new technologies that are often flawed. Additionally, since innovation becomes cheaper and more accessible, this becomes more difficult as more entrants to the market launch products. Lastly, while these folks may be first for some technologies, they are often wrong for the many other technologies that did not take off. |
| Early Adopters | This behavior is exhibited by those that try out new technologies in a careful way, often thought leaders. Some analyst firms like Forrester adopted early, and the Tech industry deployed social. Agencies like Edelman, Razorfish have helped their clients. | Learn from the failures of innovators, they reduce risk. Often they have the opportunity to explain how it works to others. Become the case studies that other groups follow | Never first, and have to write the playbooks. They may adopt, but at higher costs than the majorities as the technology has not matured. Tech companies adopted social in 2005-2007 as an early industry, but a lack of measurement, and rapid tool change required great effort to stay current. |
| Early Majority | Although thoughtful in their deployment, they adopt faster than the mainstream. in 2009, we saw industries like consumer packaged goods, finance, and healthcare adopt social technologies. I think of when mainstream Oprah joining Twitter as a defining moment as she was ahead of most celebrities and media. | Technology starts to mature, reducing risk and costs. Standards emerge, although this group gets to help define mainstream adoption. | Some of the cool factor leaves, and brands start to move in on social technologies, scaring off some innovators. |
| Late Majority | This skeptical group only adopts when the mainstream does. Industries that only got on board with social when Obama, mainstream press, or celebrity adoption occurred fit here. Companies adopting in 2009 and beyond. | Reduced risk from learning from who’s done it right and wrong, as well as benefits from standard proccesses, and consolidation of vendors. | Not seen as thought leaders and don’t benefit from the residual buzz from being ‘cool’, instead come across as a ‘me too’./td> |
| Laggards | Still cautions in deployment, even after the technology has become mainstream. These folks will adopt social technologies in 2010 or later. | Cookie cutter deployment from standardization and very little risk. Deployment may actually be faster and with less effort than those above. | In balance with lower risk, lower opportunity for reward. No thought leadership, and little additional reputation or buzz value from the intended investment. |
Matrix: Be Deliberate In Your Adoption Strategy
Each category has specific benefits and risks, but rather than just behaving in a way that comes natural, I encourage you in your personal and work adoption to be deliberate in your actions.
- Examine your organizations adoption patterns. First, define how quickly your organization responds and adopts to technologies, and factor into your considerations.
- Be a Category Ahead Of Your Company. If you’re responsible for new technologies at your company, your personal adoption should be a level or two ahead of the organizations adoption, as you cannot effectively deploy for your company if you don’t personally understand the impacts of the new technologies.
- Track The Category Ahead Of You. Find an individual that’s above your adoption category (the early adopter watches the innovator) and be sure to watch their behaviors and learn from them. Adopters are often blazing their own trail, and may not ever follow anyone.
My Strategy: Early Adopter –But Not Innovator
One thing is clear, being first doesn’t mean you’re right, in fact, the Innovators have a difficult time dealing with early and late majority, paving roads of opportunity for analysis, agencies, and consultants. As a result, I make a distinct effort to be an early adopter of new social technologies, but not the innovator, as I find I’d rather be more often right, and expend less energy trying to be first.
Leave a Comment. Share Your Adoption Strategy
Let’s learn from each other, I’d like to know about your adoption behavior and that of your company. Were you deliberate in choosing your adoption strategy? How does it hurt or help your company?
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Jeremiah Owyang
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