Strategy

Sarah Worsham / Jun 22, 2009

Book Review – Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Ever wonder how to effectively use social media for your business? Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, of Forrester Research, provide real-world information and data on how to make it social media work for your business in their book, groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies (Amazon affiliate link). The book is packed with data and experience from twenty-five cases, spanning different types of industries, companies and organizations.

If you’re not sure exactly why social media is important to business, Li and Bernoff start off explaining why it is – they term the emergence of social media technologies into the mainstream as the “groundswell.” Once you understand exactly what the groundswell is, they explain how it can be tapped to help your organization. The last part of the book focuses on how using the groundswell will change your company and what the future looks like.

One of the strengths of this book is that it doesn’t have a one-size-fits all social media strategy that works for all organizations and companies. Instead, it examines the use of social media on a behavorial level – different types of people interact with social media in different ways. Some types will login to a social site every day but never actually interact. Others post regularly. Understanding what types of people you have in your particular target audience is key for crafting a social media strategy that will actually work. The book runs through the different types of people and their typical interactions with social media and how to use this information to craft a winning strategy.

While this book is a year old, the underlying information is still extremely valuable to anyone looking to tie social media in with business measurements, such as ROI. There’s also a website which provides updated information via a blog and some tools for understanding the possible makeup of your target audience, based on industry and age groups. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering using social media for their business – it will give you a good idea of what needs to be done to be successful and the twenty-five cases provide good real-world examples of possible ways to use social media for your business.

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Amazon affiliate link)

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Sarah Worsham / Jun 18, 2009

Thoughts on The National Summit #tns09

nationalsummit As mentioned, I attended the National Summit yesterday here in Detroit. I was lucky enough to attend for free as a student, but I only went to the last day. Still, if you were able to follow my Twitter feed, you know there was some interesting and valuable conversations. I’ll provide them again here and then move into some of my thoughts from the day:

At national summit #tns09 horrible signage made for an adventure. No plugs in room should make coverage spotty.
I wish people would get off the web 2.0 kick. That’s old news #tns09
Looked over and there’s a little bird hopping around in the Renaissance ballroom – bit unexpected #tns09
I’d be interested in a discussion about how to manage and engage different generations of workers #tns09
we’re in detroit and auto industry is important but we need to get beyond relating every issue back to it. Broaden your thinking #tns09
Jim balsillie (RIM) – few think strategically about technology – don’t get caught up in the device but what transformation it enables #tns09
Micheal Klein – in recession there are more needs than ever = opportunities to innovate and grow #tns09
Micheal Klein – marvel comics announced they are bringing back Capt America – the US needs a hero with super powers as a role model #tns09
I never thought I’d admit it but MS has some cool tech (surfaces, tagging, touch screen) I blame @joshholmes #tns09
Deborah wince-smith – son is getting engineering degree – forced to integrate multidisciplines of education to innovate #tns09
John mao – concept of classroom in us needs to change – we’re stuck in a system based on farming schedules – innovation in education #tns09
John mao – innovation is in danger of becoming the new buzzword of the century #tns09
Alan mulally – innovation is a process enabling technology to provide what people actually want (add value to their lives) #tns09
Steve ballmer – learned everything that’s important about life when he lived in Detroit #tns09 woot!
Aneesh chopra – need to use technology to create mashups of data, devices, & entreprenurial vision #tns09
Steve ballmer – bing – need to be tenacious and patient and keep up a high rate of innovation for the long run #tns09
Steve ballmer is really passionate that patience, investments for long term and education are key to sustaining innovation #tns09
Steve ballmer – lots of people here still using paper – tech hasn’t solved their problems yet #tns09

I think the idea behind this conference was brilliant – bringing together CEOs, thought leaders, business people and students to have some conversations about the issues facing us as a country. But, I think that they could have a done a better job of encouraging conversation between audience members. Most of the conversations were between panel members and the audience. I think it would have been awesome if they had scheduled some specific networking events – maybe even about certain issues or industries to encourage these conversations. (I’m not sure what was done on the first two days, however). And a lunch where you were “forced” to sit down at a table with people from different industries and experience would have broken down some of the traditional barriers. One thing I noticed is that many people did know each other, but you had cliques forming – CEOs over here – students over there – companies all together – that I think stiffled some of the truly collaborative conversations which could have been had.

They did try to encourage a conversation online on their blogs and bulletin boards. As a student we were “required” to post at least one response to a blog and two to the discussion groups. But this forced posting did nothing to really foster conversations. The levels of students went from high school up through graduate level college, which doesn’t necessarily provide balanced levels of interesting ideas. Since there were no plugs in the conference rooms and we were supposedly not allowed to use cell phones, there was very little conversation online during the actual conference (I obviously broke with the cell phone rule in order to Twitter).

Overall I think the conference was a bit of a dichotomy – foster conversations but no way to have them – old guard (executive management) and new guard (students) – Twitter and Facebook during the conference but no cell phone use – use of new media and technology but no way to use them during the actual conference. I think the conference had a lot of value in terms of things that were brought up, but I think the conversations and engagement would have been more productive if they had taken more steps to foster more interaction during the conference.

Technorati tags: national summit, conference, detroit, strategy, business, innovation

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Sarah Worsham / Jun 3, 2009

Using Facebook as a Business Tool – Some Examples

On Monday I talked about how Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are just tools. In order to properly use tools, you first need to figure out what the job is and what it entails (or coming up with a goal and a strategy). So, let’s say that you’ve done the hard work of figuring out a business goal and now you’re trying to figure out how to use Facebook to help you attain that goal. While every business and industry is going to be different, I thought it might help to run through a few example scenarios… (please keep in mind that these are examples and not the only way to use Facebook – also not necessarily the way to use it for your business – these are just for learning purposes.)

Scenario 1: Increase Sales of Product X by 5% in 3 months

5% is usually a pretty reasonable goal. So how would you normally increase sales of a product? Advertise, market, network, contact potential leads, reconnect with past customers, etc. Almost all of the typical tasks you would do offline can also be accomplished online. Using Facebook, you definitely can advertise by using their platform – targeting specific demographics. Marketing can be accomplished by creating a profile, a company page and posting interesting information – as well as engaging with customers and potential leads (oh! look! you can also network with potential customers and past customers).

Scenario 2: Increase Revenues by 10% over next 6 months

Increasing Revenues usually involves increasing sales – so similar to Scenario 1 – but also probably a big campaign to generate new leads. (Remember revenues is not the same as profits. If you’re looking at increasing profits, you also have to look at possibly reducing costs.) Scenario 2 will probably look pretty similar to Scenario 1, but you’ll also reach out to generate more leads. How do you usually do this? By providing something of value and benefit to potential customers. Using Facebook, it also means providing useful information (which is not the same as advertising and may not always be about your prodcuts) and connecting with people – sort of a consultative sale before there’s even a sale potential.

Scenario 3: Reduce Costs by 20% over the next quarter

Facebook helping to reduce costs? Well, yes. How much are you spending on advertising and marketing? Much of the same result can be attained much more cost effectively and efficiently using social networking, such as Facebook. Facebook still involves time, but it allows you to reach a much more specific (and interested) audience by engaging with them and providing information and relationships (benefits) that they want.

Conclusion

These are in no way the only ways to use Facebook and they also are not necessarily the way your company should use it – even if you have similar goals to those above. These scenarios are only for illustrative purposes and to help people understand possible ways to use Facebook for business. Also, please notice that each business goal is very specific and for a well defined time frame – the only way you’ll actually achieve a goal is if it’s achievable. Setting a goal like “I want to be rich” doesn’t really give you anything definite to shoot for (what do you consider rich? how fast? how will you do it?).

How do you use Facebook for your business? How does that tie in with your business goal?

(pic by batega @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: social networking strategy, strategy, business, marketing

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