Social Networking: Blend With REAL Networking for Effectiveness

Posted on September 22, 2010 by tpltx70

The old adage It’s not what you know; it’s who you know may be seen as a tired cliche in many circles these days, with good reason. This is what you’d expect from overused analogies like this one.

Tired or not, it is still absolutely a fact. Thought leaders spend unbelievable time and effort trying to hammer home this message in an online context, wrapping words like social networking, social media, social graph, and other terms around it in hopes of getting the message across.

The problem? Well, there is a forest, and there are some trees, but are they one and the same? Not really…

Social Networking vs. Social Media

First let’s draw lines between a couple of terms that I see being used interchangeably far too often. My loose definitions read something like this:

Social Networking

The act of reaching out to and engaging others via whatever means possible, including social media, traditional media, real-time communications vehicles (phone, SMS), or even an in-person conversation (remember those?).

Social Media

The category term for data-driven services and tools, typically delivered over the Internet, that enable networking of various types by providing new and novel communications capabilities, leading to unique ways of sharing and spreading messages with your network.

Social Networking = Networking

Social Networking: Get Out There And Meet Someone

Bear with me for a moment as I explain the thinking on this one. I’m positing that Social Networking is nothing new. In fact it’s simply old fashioned networking, with new communications vehicles available for the exchange of information and referrals.

At the end of the day, we are still people with real-world needs. This isn’t just about the “must haves” from Maslow’s Triangle either. We get our food, shelter, etc. (the basics) handled offline with our day-to-day lives. But all of that stuff about self-actualization, spiritual growth, career progression, etc. take much more than us working hard during the day and cashing checks for our time and effort.

Now we just have limitless opportunity to expand the “who” in our analogy above. The days are over where your only networking option was to go one of to those awful events where a bunch of Type A exec-wannabes are running around in Dockers, with their hand extended to shake yours, and a business card waiting to be shoved into your pocket in the other hand. Or where you had to arrange your schedule around an event where a thought leader is speaking, just so you can wait in line to guffaw over them and hope you don’t look like a dopey (or creepy) stalker-in-waiting.

Now we can build rapport with anyone that makes him- or herself available. We can establish mutual interest, trust, even schedule availability to meet in real-time.

And once we meet, we already have a foundation upon which to spark interesting conversation. I must say, any introverts who aren’t rejoicing at this newfound way to “come out of their shell” are simply missing the big picture!

New Tools; Old Techniques

The key thing to keep in mind is that all of these cool new tools, websites, and services are just that…tools for us to use. We need to then apply tried-and-true networking and communications techniques to these new tools, and we’ll be able to more nimbly craft networking strategies that take advantage of both the new capabilities and approaches that work.

Once we get that part in order, we can start to experiment with any sort of newfound techniques. Perhaps certain types of discussions are better started on a microblogging service, while others are better on a career networking site. Maybe some belong on Facebook but wouldn’t work anywhere else. I’ve found that Twitter is great for exchanging ideas, sharing content, and promoting services tactfully (i.e. no hard sells). LinkedIn is great for reconnecting with old colleagues, interacting in groups with likeminded professionals, and trying to connect your way to the right people via a “6 degrees of separation” like effort.

You get the picture. These new tools are great, but they can only go so far as your imagination. Get the basics down first…how to use these tools for traditional / IRL networking…and then you can start to try new things. And yes, this does involve getting off the computer and meeting someone in person! If that’s not one of the reasons you’re doing this, then it should be.

_______________________________

What have you observed in the past in this area? How much more effective has it been for you when you blend offline networking with online / social media-based networking? What do you deem the best mix? Or alternatively, have you seen the opposite?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please share in the comments below.

Social Media Analogies

Posted on August 10, 2010 by tpltx70

Let’s take a quick break from the serious topics today. In a recent conversation with a colleague of mine, I sat and watched as he struggled to come up with a new analogy for social media as a whole.

Of course, through those struggles, we both realized that it’s not quite the easiest thing to liken to another concept. At the same time, many people had already attempted to do so.

In honor of his struggles and our on-the-spot realization, I present to you the following possible analogies for social media. These all include citations if you wish to learn more about the thought process for yourself, and I’d welcome any commentary on whether you agree or disagree with my assessment of each.

Cocktail Party

Is Social Media like a cocktail party?

This is perhaps the most obvious, and as a result, the most quoted analogy for social media. Essentially, it posits that social media is a virtual party, and we are just participants in the festivities. While that is certainly a plausible comparison, it overlooks much of the additional value that social media can provide above and beyond that of a cocktail party or other type of party (the latter of which says your blog is your home…welcome to my humble abode!).

For a simplistic model, I suppose, this would suffice. But once you really “get” what social media is all about, it becomes clearly too low of a target.

High School

Wow, I really hope this doesn’t stick, because I have no desire in any shape or form to go back to that stage of my life! Collective Thoughts shared one interesting write up that presents the thought process behind this idea. They hit on everything from parties, to gossip, to clubs and cliques. This is actually a pretty decent comparison overall, but it still fails to hit the nail right on the head.

Give the original write up as linked above a read to see what you think. Since I personally have a mental block against the idea of spending my time dabbling with a return to high school, I’ll leave it at that.

A Plague

I included this one just to see if you are paying attention. (Clearly, if you are reading this, you are.)

That said, The Relationship Economy did a post on this topic, but it didn’t deliver on the promise. Great example of why your blog posts should be titled something that actually relates to the content it covers (might as well make something of this otherwise wasted space).

Fly Fishing

Cheers for Marketing Profs for first proposing this analogy. This analogy boils down to some key attributes of social media that also remain similar when fly fishing: Go where your target audience is (or where the fish swim), let go of the urge to control, focus on executing properly, and dig in because you can’t fish without getting wet.

I must say, this is perhaps the best analogy I was able to find referenced online. Give a read to the original blog post and see for yourself.

The Next Step in Human Evolution

Yes, I went there. This isn’t a commentary meant to elicit Orwellian fears of any sort. Back in 2007, a fellow named Arun Radhakrishnan gave his take on this viewpoint. I must say, he makes a compelling argument for why the development of language itself, long considered a key evolution point for homo sapiens as a whole, has striking similarities in impact to how social media is changing our communications reach, habits, etc.

Is Social Media just another step in human evolution?

While this looks to be just a clever brainstorm, it does raise the question for me…was Arun right? Is this the next logical step in human evolution, or just a shiny new toy? The biggest argument against this concept is that language actually originates and is mostly participated in by actual humans, without media involved. The written word, obviously, changed that detail, but it didn’t fundamentally change language. It extended our capabilities to use it, much like social media.

So I guess I might buy that social media is the next evolution of the written and/or recorded word. But certainly not of language or humankind.

A Symphony

CausePlanet.org was the first place I saw this analogy, and they made the best argument for it as an analogy that I have seen. They spun together a clever tale about how the various instruments and parts of the orchestra must be aligned much like your various customer touchpoints and social media (website, blog, social profiles, etc.).

While this is a great inside-out view of social media, it fails to take into account the impact of true interaction and relationship building. Good analogy, just not 100% real world.

Conclusion

There you have it…a handful of interesting and creative takes on how to explain social media to a “noob”.

Have you seen any other interesting analogies? Is there one out there that is far better than all of these? Do you have your own analogy that you’d be willing to share?

Please chime in below and let’s get a good conversation going here. Thanks for reading!

____________________

6 Questions To Test Credibility of Content in a Social World

Posted on June 23, 2010 by tpltx70

Everyone out there is talking about social media, the new opportunities and risks it poses, and how to best use it. In response, your peers have begun an aggressive push to figure out what the various tools, sites, and techniques can offer their business. This is a great thing, one that I’ve been cheering on since the start.

In reality, we’ve only taken baby steps toward really getting this all figured out in both a personal and business context. With so much left to learn and so many different opinions about this fast-changing area, it’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of mastering some new tricks.

“Generate content. Generate more content. Be sure it’s relevant. The eyeballs will come!”

What about the “eyeballs”? Sure, relevant content written in a compelling manner will attract attention. That should make the information sources happy. Who is looking out for the consumers of the content?

Citizen Journalism: Fact Vs. Opinion

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, Citizen Journalism involves the “public” taking an active role in researching, analyzing, summarizing, and sharing new, information, data, gossip, multimedia, etc. that other members of the public would want to consume and/or discuss. If you think about all of the social media tools available to us — bookmarking, blogging, networking, content sharing — they are geared toward exactly that means.

This sort of empowerment of voice is truly a breakthrough that the Internet has been so kind as to provide us. But how would one know when something is “true” or “correct”? Sure, there are easy ways to do this based on public opinion, but then again, does popularity really prove anything, except the fact that a writer can get and hold your attention?

It is essential that you take a critical eye toward everything you read online. Even the stuff written by the “experts” or “thought leaders”. The following is a quick 6-question guide for completing a “stink test” on anything you read online.

Do I know and trust them already?

This is the no-brainer, and the premise behind Google Caffeine. If you know someone, their intelligence level, their credibility and trustworthiness, and their ability to assimilate information, why wouldn’t you put credence into their thoughts and opinions? If they are trustworthy and dependable, you know they won’t bend the truth just to make a point. And if you know them, you likely also know what their area of specialty is, which should significantly enhance your confidence in their writings on said topic.

Whether you are a fan of Caffeine (the search logic, not the stimulant) or not, it was built on a sound assumption that I anticipate will be proven useful. Don’t just search for me based on cryptic formulas and keywords; also filter those results for the colleagues and friends with whom I’ve already established a base level of credibility.

Was it recommended to me by someone I know and trust?

Extending out one more degree away from you (even Kevin Bacon would be proud), you don’t have to necessarily know someone personally to quickly establish credibility. When a trusted contact of mine makes a recommendation, I take it at face value. If you are like most of us, you likely do the same.

Think about Twitter for a moment. They’ve taken this concept and run with it. For example…Retweets, Lists, and even Follow Friday. Those traditions are all various methods of connecting people to each other (or to each other’s content) via recommendation. They are popular for a reason, and this is it.

Are they known as a reliable source?

This is where reputation comes into play. The first two tests are the most obvious and easiest to answer. For anyone who doesn’t make it through those filters, it makes sense to then consider public opinion. Are they a well-respected thought leader, a’la Chris Brogan (Social Media), Erin Jacobs (IT and Information Security), or Seth Godin (Marketing Strategies)? Do many of their peers seem to link to them?

It is important to consider whether someone is popular because they are already in established media, or whether they were popular on their own right before going in print or on the radio/television. All the three examples above established strong personal identities on their own merit. That’s what you need to look for.

What else have they written or said?

Perhaps the person under question for you is an unknown commodity, to you, your peers, and to the general public. Don’t just assume that means their opinions are not important. If you like a piece they’ve written, take a few moments to peruse more of their work. Share some of the “eyeball” love! You just might be the person whom your peers will trust when they are evaluating the same individual’s work in the near future.

What are the top minds in the space saying?

Hmmm, so you and your peers don’t know the person, they aren’t an established thought leader or information source, and you’ve read more of their work…but you still can’t determine the difference between fact or “quack”.

Compare notes. Do a quick search on the topic under question. See what others are saying. Is this a popular opinion or a unique one? Do you agree with popular opinion or not? Perhaps the masses are still singing the same old song while this one person truly gets it! Or perhaps the writing was hammered out while under a peyote-induced haze. This is where you need to really insert some of your own rationale into the process, as in…

What does my gut tell me?

That’s right. There is no perfect system, but at the end of the day, what do you really think? Did the writing move you to change your mind about something? Is that a sensible reaction or not? This isn’t saying to blindly accept something as fact, but quite the opposite. By this point, you’ve done enough consideration of whether they are credible or not. You’ve seen what peers, experts, and popular opinion think about them or the topic. Read, analyze, draw your own conclusions, and move on. Or maybe you can just post your thoughts to a blog, citizen journalism style!

Conclusion

Everyone is jumping on the citizen journalism bandwagon these days. That can be a great thing, but you want to be sure to use some calculated filtering of what you read out there. This isn’t just limited to blogs and social media; be critical of the established media as well.

What approach do you use with user-generated content? Do you tend to believe everything, nothing, or something in between? Do you have a better approach to the “stink test”? Fill me in!

Social Media: 3 Situations Where It Is NOT Right For Your Business

Posted on June 11, 2010 by tpltx70

Judging by the pageview stats and general response, it is pretty clear that my last post, Social Media is NOT a Strategy, really caught your attention. Since I’m on a roll with the whole “not” thing, let’s come at it from another angle.

Like I said last week, I am a huge proponent of using social media for specific business purposes, particularly when you can measure it. This is in addition to my “doesn’t have to be said” stance that everyone with an online identity should be using it for personal reasons. But just because it’s a no-brainer for personal use and is a great new tool for business, that doesn’t say it is right for YOUR business.

When is Social Media Not Right for Your Business?

Keep in mind what I said last week about getting your objectives figured out prior to attacking social media without any direction. That’s always the first critical step. However, even if your objectives might suggest that social media could provide value for you, that might not always be the case. Here are 3 situations where you might want to try other avenues first.

Your Target Audience Is Not Online

This is one area where my previous post should ring most relevant to you. Obviously, you want to make sure your customers and prospects can actually be found through whatever mediums you select upon which to execute any of your most critical strategies. For example, Facebook stats show that there are precious few elderly folks with profiles. The same holds true across most platforms.

I had someone approach me a while back about whether they needed to be on Facebook. Guess what they were selling…hearing aids! ["Um, lemme think for a sec, NO!"] In fact, the oldest demographic of our population is least likely to be computer literate at all, let alone actually savvy enough to move beyond games and email to social media. It’s not hard to find them…just rely on the established mass media and direct marketing techniques that they grew up knowing and understanding.

You Have Not Gotten The Basics In Order First

Not to harp on the topic, but the OST (Objectives, Strategies, Tactics) approach can help prioritize what the most important business objectives are. Then you designate the strategies and align against it. The next step, which should most certainly be undertaken prior to experimentation with new technologies and tools, is to get the actual PR, marketing, networking, etc. activities figured out using the tools that you already know and understand.

Granted, some of these don’t work like they once did, but I’m a staunch believer that you need to understand the past to move on into the future. Make sure you establish operating procedures, processes, and other business critical variables first. Then and only then should you start to throw darts at a wall to see what sticks.

Your Team Cannot Commit To It

Regardless what anyone says, social media is in no way free. Sure, you can throw together a profile on the various social media properties at no cost. You can start posting content to a blog or Twitter daily, hourly, whatever you deem appropriate. Is that free? What is your time worth? Who will do it for you?

If you or your team has to spend time on something, it is crucial to consider the opportunity cost associated with that activity. What would you or your marketing team be doing with that time otherwise? Will social media get the level of attention and effort it deserves? I hope so. The worst thing you can do is jump in with a head of steam and then drop it mid-stream, as soon as other priorities start to interfere. Just look at the trail of dead blogs out there and you’ll see what I mean.

If you intend to do it, you simply cannot cut corners. There is a real time and effort “fee” associated with social media. Do the calculation of your expected manhours, the cost for that time investment, and what you are leaving by the wayside to do so. Then decide if that number is large enough to hire someone full-time or as an outside consultant to execute on your behalf. If you aren’t willing to invest in it at some level, you’re better off sticking to your established methods of doing business.

Conclusion

Social media is a major shift in the way we can interact and market ourselves. It finally uses the internet as intended…in a fully interactive and organic fashion. But you simply cannot get so excited about it that you jump in without considering if it is actually relevant to your business. Surely there are other situations where you are better off delaying or ignoring social media as a communication medium, but here are three biggie’s that I see overlooked frequently.

Have you seen any other situations I’m missing? Did you experiment with social media and find that it is not a fit? How did that impact your business? I’d love to hear some real-world accounts of this, so please share your thoughts.

____________________

Social Media is NOT a Strategy

Posted on June 4, 2010 by tpltx70

Really got your attention with that headline, didn’t I? It’s not just a ploy to get cheap clicks.

Enough with the Hype

As you are surely aware by now, I’m a huge fan of social media, new media, social networking, sharing/bookmarking, and pretty much every other cool social offering out there. I spend countless hours playing with different services, sites, and techniques on a weekly basis. Heck, I’ve met some good friends and amazing colleagues through various forms of social networking.

Let’s get one thing straight though…most of what is being thrown around as strategic advice is nothing but some good ol’ fashioned hype. Yes, there is a time and place for social networking and social media. Yes, there appears to be a list of actual money-making techniques that can be employed to derive financial value from these services. But a great deal of this yammering about ROI is just that…talk.

I’ve seen a few select examples of how social media can be used for B2B in a measurable fashion, but I’ve also seen many more examples of futile attempts at replicating these successes. And that’s not even to mention the widespread list of social media “gurus” and “experts” who throw around pie-in-the-sky advice about how you should be using social media. My message to them: Show me real world examples.

Social Media is NOT a Strategy

I recall earlier in my career when the Internet and email marketing were the hot trends. We had long conversations about our “email marketing strategy”, right after we finished talking about our “trade show strategy”, “web site strategy”, and “direct mail strategy.” We thought we were cutting edge, until someone who actually knew what they were talking about chimed in.

“Do you understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy?”

No one in the room could give a reasonable answer to that question. Luckily, I was just a couple of years out of school, so I could chalk up my “deer in the headlights” response to inexperience. But today I’m seeing the same trend. I see all of these people talking about social media strategy, content strategy, even Twitter strategy!

Let’ s get one thing straight – a strategy requires high level thinking. A medium is simply a tactic that should support a true strategy. Twitter, my friends, is a tactic, a medium. Plain and simply.

Now, many of the consultants out there will sell you on why you need a “social media strategy.” I agree that you need a plan for how to integrate social media into your business operations. But social media as the strategy itself? What’s the objective behind it…to meet a bunch of cool people and LOL/LMAO/LMFAO our way to the bank? Maybe it is a real and profitable strategy for the smart entrepreneurs, pundits, and consultants who keep dangling shiny new toys and techniques in front of you. For the rest of us, we need to take a chill pill and think for a second.

Strategic Thinking Should Come BEFORE Tactics and Media!

This is a very important point. You work for a business (or run a business in some of your cases). That business has important metrics to meet in order to succeed. Those metrics might be growing revenue, signing up “n” new customers, reducing business expenses, or even “keeping” the loyal and profitable customers or clients with whom you’ve built valuable relationships.

What do these metrics have to do with the subject of this post? Strategy must be derived from important business objectives. It must also be measured against real business metrics to benchmark success. The metrics should be driving the objectives, which in turn should be driving your strategic decisions. Then, and only then, should you turn your attention to go-to-market tactics.

Simple Process To Think More Strategically

Set your high level objective(s) – Well-crafted objectives should also be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-Bound). A good objective will often start with the word “To”, as in “To build a new channel of 20 resellers in the southeast USA by December 31, 2010″. That’s a darn SMART goal, as well.
Determine the strategy that will help meet your objective – Cool, so this is where I say “how” I will meet that objective. Is the right answer to “start using social media”? Of course not. There’s no logical connection between the objective and the “strategy” proposed, like that of the underpants gnomes as shown in the image below. The strategy might be to launch a recruitment and qualification program for a very particular type of reseller in the region specified. Notice we haven’t talked about how to execute it yet; just what we are trying to do from a high level to meet the objective.
Outline the tactics that will help the strategy meet the designated metrics – Now we are ready to talk about tactics and media. Here you can get into specific messaging, targeting approach, and the exact media you intend to employ to make it happen. It should also indicate how you intend to measure each tactic/medium, and how that rolls up to help meet the overall goal as designated in #1 above.

: Underpants Gnomes: “Strategy” for Profitability (courtesy of thinkprocess.org)

Conclusion

Strategic thinking is very important, and a simple objectives/strategy/tactics model should prove very helpful in keeping this all in perspective. Let’s start talking about how to fit social media into our existing businesses and our overall media mix in a truly integrated fashion. This argument is not a new one; I was having conversations like this in the mid-90s!

What do you think? Do you view social media as a strategy? Is that a realistic way to look at it? It’s most certainly not just a “fad”, as I’ve heard many baby boomers refer to it. The Internet was tailor made for this sort of interaction, so that narrow viewpoint is extremely naive.

Will you think about it differently now, or did you already manage to sort all this out for yourself amidst the hype?

____________________

Twitter: Follow Friday and Etiquette

Posted on May 7, 2010 by tpltx70

Twitter is, as many of you already know, one of my favorite social media toys available today. For those of us who are active on Twitter, we are all aware of a little tradition called Follow Friday.

In case you don’t use Twitter or somehow managed to miss it, Follow Friday is a tradition where, every Friday, folks tweet about which other Twitter users are worth following and/or meeting. It’s actually quite simple in my opinion, but there are rather widely varying opinions about how and why you do it properly.

The original tradition dating back 2-3 years was a pretty simple concept – pick your most favorite Tweeters, recommend them, and give a quick blurb about why someone would want to follow. Over time, as the user base began to grow and folks went from having dozens or hundreds of followers to thousands, we started to see a change in behavior.

A little over a year ago, we started seeing a lot of people tweeting list of people to follow, with the #FollowFriday tag attached, of course. (If you don’t know about hashtags, take a moment to learn more.) As this further evolved over the past year or so, the tag changed from #FollowFriday to #FF to save room for another Twitter handle to be added. Makes sense, no?

Twitter “purists” (i.e. early adopters) reacted very negatively to the behavior. Lists of folks to follow did not add the right value they argued. People were taking a shortcut. It shows mass behavior, which is the antithesis of focusing on relationships over “push” messaging. These are all valid arguments.

But this all misses the point. Twitter is a service where you can microblog about whatever you want. You have every right to use the 140 characters for anything. Since it’s based on pure “opt in” (i.e. I choose to follow or unfollow you, or neither), the population can judge by their very behavior. Are people still following me, even if I do the list of users to spread the love more in my limited free time to do so? Sure. So in my opinion, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it.

My point: Don’t let people bark direction at you about how to use Twitter. Use common sense, listen to those with whom you’ve engaged, and simply behave in the way that best suits your style, your objectives, and the friends you’ve made online. Sure, there are things you want to shy away from on Twitter, but for the most part, have fun and try not to annoy people, and you’ll be fine.

Do you partake in #FF? Every week or intermittently? What do you think etiquette “should” be? Or should there just be freeform behavior of your choosing? I know some tweeps are passionate about this topic, so let me know what you think!

Levels of Social – and Integration – Cut Across Enterprises

Posted on April 16, 2010 by tpltx70

This week, enjoy another compelling guest post by fellow Austin-ite and colleague Julie Hunt of the Highly Competitive blog.

_____________

When I started writing articles for my blog Highly Competitive, I had in the back of my mind the “classic” advice for professional blogging: pick one main area to cover and as such, show my SME-ness for that area. So I should have selected a particular software solution space and stuck to it.

Well that doesn’t really work for me and isn’t even realistic for anyone analyzing today’s software infrastructures in most companies. As such, I find myself covering multiple software topics, largely due to my diverse software tech background, and it all makes sense as we see more and more overt overlap and interconnection between the different applications of any-size enterprises, and between the activities and processes of how enterprises do business. As enterprises become more customer-focused (outside-in), what has become especially interesting is the evolution of change that eventually will produce Social businesses.

Starting with systems infrastructure, many enterprises have multiple points of integration and interoperability. It is this interrelatedness of systems that increases the business value to the enterprise. Integrations and interconnections are happening at multiple levels in businesses: their IT/application infrastructures, the applications themselves, how teams function in the enterprise interacting with systems and people, and how companies are evolving for doing business and engaging buyers. To become an effective Social Business, enterprises will have to nurture integrated internal systems and processes, as well as social strategies and practices for external and internal collaboration and communication.

Enterprises Can’t be Built on Silos – First, a Look at Internal Interoperability

It has become more and more clear that enterprises work better with overtly interconnected systems and business processes. Silos within enterprises both for systems and internal processes have caused a lot of problems. Enterprises, no matter the size, cannot have teams, or systems, operating in vacuums. Where too many silos persist, businesses are doomed, whether the silos are technology or human based.

Understanding how to reduce duplication in systems infrastructure, business processes, team activities, and strategy implementation does much to improve the health of the enterprise. Enterprises want to achieve efficiencies of operation and want to do more with fewer resources, so the elimination of duplications in systems and teams, and the increase of integration (systems) and collaboration (people) is essential.

Since we’re talking about the integrated enterprise, I see enterprise data integration as an illustrative “metaphor”. In most cases data integration endeavors to cut through almost everything in systems infrastructure and involves multiple teams, both IT and Business. Building really good DI processes requires the involvement and collaboration of many teams. Data integration solutions cannot be built in a vacuum to be effective; DI initiatives embody a metaphoric sense of interrelationships and interoperability: process, collaboration, disparate data feeds (information sources) coming together, business rules, business needs. People, business process and technology have worked together to achieve the right results.

Social Capabilities and Strategies Appearing in Many Enterprise Software Solutions

Increasingly, enterprises are introducing and integrating social media for internal and external applications. And now many “traditional” enterprise solutions are adding / integrating social capabilities, to enhance the usability and relevance of these solutions.

Business cases for social media include: internal implementations for enhanced collaboration and communication purposes for employees; external initiatives for better engagement and support of customers/buyers. Many social media guidelines rightly advise that introducing social practices and technology into an enterprise should come after a thorough understanding of what is to be accomplished, and then after an articulation of the strategy. Additionally, businesses have to figure out what cultural changes need to take place internally, for social to make a big difference. Business social process is something that people have to do authentically. Technology and tools do matter as a means of enacting and managing social business processes, but they are no substitute for strategic planning, best practices, real goals, and serious consideration for the human participants.

Beyond the social media technology that is being adopted by enterprises, many “traditional” enterprise applications are becoming more “social”. This is reasonable considering that software solutions are for use by people, whether employees, customers/buyers, or partners. Most software solutions are components of people-oriented processes. These “socializing” solutions include: BPM, BI, CRM, ERP, internal collaboration / intranet, and content management.

Recently Forrester’s Connie Moore – @cmooreforrester – commented on Twitter: “social computing has become the tipping point for businesses and vendors finally marrying collaboration and process” and then “Collaboration between business and business and business and IT is core to any successful #bpm effort.” Connie Moore has extended her coverage of BPM to include social capabilities that will transform BPM solutions.

For many software industry analysts and writers, there are no longer clear demarcations between software solution spaces. The “classic” approach of separate software solution categories being covered by SME writers is giving way to analysis that acknowledges the interdependencies of different kinds of software solutions. We are seeing more collaborative work across solutions, with social computing as a common thread of discussion. Analyst firms like Altimeter Group and Forrester are working with more collaborative efforts from their staff analysts across formerly separate software solution spaces to reflect the realities of how enterprises operate.

And People Complete the Integrated Social Business

My tech background has a markedly strong emphasis on people since software companies are very people-intensive enterprises. Many teams need to collaborate to accomplish company goals and customer needs, with the result that most teams are customer-oriented. If you have a career in software technology, it is essential to recognize the value of people, especially customers. Not surprisingly, many customers of software technology are driving the change to Social Business where the focus is more on people and less on tech.

It’s not just about why people buy or make technology decisions but about respecting people who are trying to accomplish business tasks and solve real problems, and who just want their software to work as advertised without a lot of pain to get there. Software technology ultimately is a product to be sold, so the focus must be on the purpose and real value the technology provides customers.

On the software vendor side, people collaboration should be a top priority: collaborations to sell solutions, collaborations to contribute to customer/buyer success, collaboration with partners and customers for success. Businesses can be very successful if they encourage and engender internal cross-team collaborations focused on customer needs. The growing interest in Social CRM addresses how businesses develop customer relationships to contribute to customer success.

Social is partly about tapping into the connectedness that people are building with the web as a platform. Social Business adoption by software vendors must be based on the fact that people and relationships are what really drive success and longevity. The lesson to enterprise management: Social media adoption has been driven by the people who want to use it to communicate and work efficiently, no matter the purpose. Social media invaded enterprises because people really want to use it – because it is effective for what they are tasked to accomplish.

“Social Business” practices have been around for years

The essentials of Social Business have been around for years in many software enterprises – frequently as a “shadow” culture. A lot of employees in the software industry have intuitively understood and practiced aspects of the “social business”, recognizing the importance of the customer and of collaboration. The process of selling software solutions to enterprises involves a lot of people working with many other people, for internal and external purposes, no matter the sales model.

Ironically employees, customers, partners have been open to adopting social capabilities as part of doing business; the executive level, however, is the laggard for authentic adoption of social collaboration culture and processes. Upper management often has impeded real efforts for social business and has also contributed to creating silos within the company and chasms between teams. Many software companies have been poorly structured for many years to be able to nurture “social business”. Usually not enough people and not enough budget have been allocated for fully supporting strong customer-centric processes and initiatives.

It’s very important that executive and other management levels formalize strategies for Social Business and better empower the many employees who already intuitively know how to find and keep customers/buyers through social relationships and support for customer success.

Fully empowered collaboration with customers and partners will improve sales, product offerings, long-lasting relationships, and will lead to fewer problems. Enterprise teams will be better connected to customers, and to one another. And upper management may finally get real perspective on employee motivations as well as customer desires.

Social Media: Simplify to Reignite Your Social Network

Posted on April 14, 2010 by tpltx70

It finally happened to me. I never thought it would, but it sure did.

What am I talking about? Information Overload

We’ve seen a slew of blog posts, studies, articles, and general commentary about this phenomenon. There are even psychological analyses and studies on this topic. Surely you’ve seen the various viewpoints…those who think our newly adopted, manic multi-tasking culture is a natural evolution, and those who think we were never meant to operate in this fashion. The Millennials / Net Generation / whatever you want to call the folks born from 1980 forward are experts at it. They operate differently, and they seem to have no problem with hopping from topic-to-topic, conversation-to-conversation, rapidly absorbing, filtering, and interpreting as many data points as they can possibly access.

Personally, I think it’s a natural evolution in behavior. As a species, we have always evolved to take advantage of new innovations. In fact, there’s a little concept we call Darwinism that explains why certain members of each species manage to survive over the long term, and why others do not. If you can’t keep up, you get left behind, as sad as that reality may be.

But there’s another issue here. That model of evolution makes a lot of sense, but it has historically conspired over extended periods of time, decades, centuries, even millenniums. But now we are making large-scale advancements between generations and even decades. Many Baby Boomers simply don’t understand or condone the younger sect’s way of operating. That doesn’t make them superior or more right. After all, they were raised in a different time where mass media was the primary form of communications. That medium, by its very nature, is a single stream of content on which you need to focus.

I find myself in an odd between state, where I can often be much more productive via focusing, but where my normal mode of operation is fragmented like the younger group.

A couple of things changed that put me over the tipping point.

First, I decided to dabble with foursquare over the course of several months. My initial reaction to the service was negative. Thoughts of an Orwellian future filled my head on first glance. Why do I want to advertise where I am? And as we’ve seen, why advertise where I am not? Well, the repeated advice from social media “gurus” that I needed to get on the Geolocation train finally broke me down and I started to play the game. Those of you who know me personally have already likely heard about my concerns, even while I was using it (probably a mad effort to rationalize it for myself, actually).

Second, my job changed a bit and became significantly more busy. Like 14 trade shows in 4 months busy, on top of my existing messaging, social media, and other responsibilities. I also inherited all of MarCom for Anue Systems.

Of course, sooner or later, something had to give. I was already juggling a full time job, family, blogging, and a list of other items. But a couple of weeks ago, I got this mad feeling to go hide under a rock. Yep, it was full-on Information Overload.

So I had to make a very important choice: Simplify.

Go cold turkey on foursquare.

Start removing those I follow on Twitter with whom I have no relationship to speak of or who provide no value to me. If they stop following, oh well. Quality over quantity, right?

Focus more on conversations rather than content. And strongly focus on real people in my locale who I can meet and engage with offline. This was the most refreshing of all of these changes!

Now I feel much better. Call it a social media spring cleaning. It’s something we should make a habit.

How is social media treating you? Are you still getting the same value out of it? Could your activities use a fresh spring cleaning? Have you ever experienced Information Overload? Tell me your story in the comments. If I get some good enough conversation going, I’ll assemble them into a post for my Posterous page to share with the world!