The Social Society – Social Networking

The Social Society…?! What is it? We are all social, aren’t we? We have always been. Long before the Social Web, Social Media and Social Networking ruled our daily lives.

This post will be the start of a new series of thought-provoking posts which will be grouped together under the category “The Social Society” (I was actually surprised nobody has used the term yet for posts if you check Google). The idea of this series of posts is to make us all think about our daily behavior, our habits, our attitudes in how we engage in the Social Web. How we share our Social Graphs. How we connect and leverage our Social Media affinity in the digital future.

The topic of the first post: Social Networking.

I came across the whole idea of the series when I read the following tweet…

Although I have not checked how often this quote has been shared in the last five days, I can assure you it was very often. I am asking myself if this is a clever quote?! Does it still have value in the era of globalization networking? Do we even have a chance to leave people behind in the future?

Just numbers…
How many contacts do we have? Come on, be honest and tell me. Can you…? You cannot, right? Or do you still count them…? Does it give you some kind of satisfaction, a good feeling when you can add someone? Or when someone gives you a like on your Facebook fanpage? Do you even still check your newbies on Twitter following you? Wouldn’t you add those people if they have some value for you?

Just content…
In a seminar some weeks ago, I have heard that “Sharing is the catalyst of social networking”. Is this still true in a world of information overload? And if so, think about the following… Do you credit people according to what information somebody shares, how important this person is, or what the value of the content creator is?

Just quality…
How do you rate your contacts? How often do we add contacts that we don’t really know? How often do we add some we have never had any conversations with in the offline world? Come on, let’s be honest! How seldom do we stick to our personal social networking tactics? How easily do we forget our unique strategy why we connect with others, exchange our visions and hold the contact to people we have or had long forgotten?

Just a reminder…
By dropping a contact always bear in mind…
… how you might shift your open-minded nature and how this changes your interest and social graph…
… how you might lose out on job opportunities (Social HR)…
… how you might let go a social customer in the future… (SocialCRM)
… how you might affect your Personal Scoring Index…

Many questions, many thoughts, many suggestions…

Spot On!
The Social Society and social networking will be changing the way we are thinking about relationships, about face-to-face recognition and about the way we define ourselves. However, isn’t it time and a chance, as well as a challenge, to rethink our social networking strategy? In order not to loose humanity with all the social networking madness? Is it “uber-social” when we logon to Facebook first thing in the morning? Or does every contact in our social networks have their special places in our lives? If only to use them to boost our social graphs…? All of us have such contacts I would assume. Is social networking today an ode to joy?

How much truth lies in the above comic today if you think about your own social network? How far have we gone with social networking today? How much social are we? Let me know your thoughts…

What is Social Media? – Famous quotes from the istrategyconference Amsterdam

After the first day of the istrategyconference in Amsterdam, I briefly wanted to share some insights in how Twitter caught some famous quotes about “What is Social Media?”. The people who brought these quotes up in their presentations, or the people that (re-)tweeted those might forgive me if I am not quoting and linking back to every single tweet, or Twitter account where it came form.

Why I am not quoting? Apart from having to listen to Power Point presentations, the challenge for presenters and moderators is to attract the attention of a crowd. And for the audience it is becoming more and more some massive workload to do multitasking, and participating an offline event in a 2.0 manner. A thought I have explored in a German post, and definitely need to translate when I find the time for it.

“Sometimes it makes you mad to listen to speakers and keynotes, write tweets, and respond to mails and Facebook at the same time. Not to mention blogging… How do you handle this?” A question I asked my friends on Facebook today. And I know from studies that multitasking is becoming more difficult the older we get, and that we are only able to do maximum two things at the same time. I don’t know how you see this but participation 2.0 is nearly impossible if you want to be share the way people would love you to do it.

This is just a random collection of different quotes that shows how Social Media was defined at the conference. Maybe you add some more quotes…?!

“Social Media is like sand: you can play with it and have fun but sometimes it gets into your underwear and becomes very annoying.”

“Social Media is like gardening: the real hard work starts after the seeding and planting.”

“Social Media is like … a dance with the right music (content) and partner (fan). It never needs to end!”

“Social Media is like an icecream, it’s delicious, everybody wants it, but it melts if you are too slow.”

“Social Media is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done its a surprise it’s not better.”

Spot On!
In the B2B SocialMedia panel, which I had the honor to moderate and talk to Ed Bezooijen (Citrix), Paul Dunay (Networked Insights) and Menno Lijkendijk (Milestone Marketing) I also mentioned a quote that I think is going to be the main challenge for B2B marketers in the future. The relationship of content, distribution and perception which was (and in my eyes still is) the advantage of publishers to other content producers and curators. Publishers have all three of these as main pillars of their business…

“Content = King – Context = Queen – Community = The Empire”

If you see it different, tell me. If you like it, do so. If you want to add something, go ahead…

PS: THX to a great team from istrategyconference in Amsterdam for the good organization and the diner yesterday night.

Web 3.0 – Let’s find a new title…

Many web evangelists are sharing their views about the future of the next web these days. What will The Web 3.0 be, and how will it be named? For years people have foreseen The Semantic Web. Some might say, it is The Mobile Web, and know how to illustrate the opportunities (i.e. Augmented Reality) in their video.

Others deny this theory and state it is The Spatial Web.

“What tend to define Web 3.0 as not semantic, but rather the extension of the Web 1.0 (content) and Web 2.0 (Social Graph) into the spatial domain. Web 3.0 web content and social nodes are both tagged with spatial relationships and able to form social relationships based on current location. (…) We at the Web 3.0 Lab thing that by adding more spatial dimensions you will get improved semantic understanding. Much of our social understanding is spatial. Reasoning that some people hope to get out of triplestores we think will emerge out of geo-tagging of information. Spatial arrangements of data will drive interesting conclusions about how that data relates to the real world, how it is used, and therefore what it means.”

And if we listen to the conversation of Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, and Robert Scoble, at this year’s Web 2.0 conference, then the power of location-based data will be connecting the dots of user behaviour for future business and customer service strategies. Dennis envisions the future of Foursquare in “listening for what’s going on around you (…) You’re walking down the street and normally you eat lunch, but you haven’t yet. And Foursquare will tell you that you’re close to a sandwich place you read about in the New York Times three weeks ago. And that’s what you want to try.”

Thinking about the development of location-based technology the Web seems to move away from being The Global Web to The Local Web.

In the end, some proclaim Web 3.0 will be The Contextual Web.

“It is a robust procedural grid that understands us, and responds appropriately given the user’s current context.”

Spot On!
Isn’t it funny how we all try to invent our own Web 3.0 stamp as web specialists? And I could imagine different other namings or titles. The Authentic Web. The Realtime Web. The Live Web. And be sure, I will find some explanations for all of the above named. In the end, the Web is about people. People invented and continue to drive the Web – from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 – now more conversational, engaging and transactional than ever before. So, why not name it The People’s Web or The Human(ity) Web?

You decide. What title seems most appropriate for you? Come on, let’s discuss…

Some Easter Fun…

I am wishing you all a great Easter! Today, we just want to share some fun. And as you will have some time to think about life, here is something to think about…

Think about the new ROI metrics in the future. And we better rethink if we don’t spend more time with our real friends over Easter…

Why spend time with your real friends? To tell them the true story of the Easter rabbit…

…or to remember how nice love could be (if you are not the husband)…

News Update – Best of the Day

When companies start thinking about Social Media the question I get asked quite frequently is “How to: Evaluate and Compare Social Media Tools?”. Liza Sperling wrote a remarkable summary of the best tools available in the market from Social Media Monitoring (SMM), Social Media Engagement (SME), Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) to Social Media Specialized (SMS).

Sometimes it is good to simplify life. Simplifying Social Media with an infographic in order to get started can also help companies creating a strategic plan (once they have got rid of the five social media myths). Willis Lee shares an interesting infographic from Getit Comms, a Singapore based PR firm. This infographic offers 13 steps on how to get buyers and map key influencers.

Can we really imagine that 51% (8% in 2008!) of Americans ages 12 and up have Facebook accounts? Edison Research 19th study on digital media-related topics has tracked the growth of Facebook since 2008. The study called “The Social Habit” suprises especially when bearing in mind that Facebook said last week to have removed 20.000 users from their database of users underage.

News Update – Best of the Day

The mobile breakthrough was first named probably about six6 years ago, if not earlier. John Bell now hints to 4 killer slides that demonstrate why 2011 could be the year of the mobile revolution, and tells us how to align your mobile strategy. He based his reasons on the growing use of social networks in combination with mobile, the evolution of the mobile device which could be a tablets or car technology, and the evolution of location-based shopping.

Some companies think about getting rid of email at the workplace. While the younger generation merges their private emails with business emails… The email management company Mimecast released a survey showing that “85% of what Mimecast dubs “Generation Gmail” – employees 25 years old and younger – have used personal email accounts to send work-related documents”. And the reason is nothing new… size limits of their official work email accounts.

Many companies are asking me how to create content for their YouTube channels. SapientNitro shows in an interesting video how old school journalism moves into modern journalism 2.0. Just go to the streets, interview people about social media usage and consumers relationships with socially-conscious companies. Generate different voices from offline to go online. Radio stations have done this the audio way, companies now can do it in audio-video quality easily. Make others and yourself heard in an intelligent way…

How Cisco’s SocialMiner helps improve the conversation with customers (a John Hernandez interview)

One-on-one interview with John Hernandez

John Hernandez is General Manager of the Customer Collaboration Business Unit (CCBU) at Cisco, which provides contact center and interactive voice applications to enterprises and service providers. In this capacity he oversees product and market development, and is closely involved in the business with the Cisco sales force and partners.

The Strategy Web spoke with him about the launch and benefits of their new customer care product SocialMiner.

What were Cisco’s most successful social medias tactics in the last 2 years? How did Cisco came across the new solution SocialMiner? Why is social media monitoring so important from a strategic point of view for businesses?

Cisco is very active in social media. Our employees were some of the earliest adopters of Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social sites. We have tens of thousands of active social media users in our company, as well as a robust and vibrant corporate presence on the social web.

Social media monitoring can become a key strategic advantage for businesses. From a contact center perspective, social media could be treated as “just another channel” in a multichannel approach. However, the public nature of social media, along with the sheer volume of social media postings, makes social media as much a business intelligence tool as a new way to engage with customers. Cisco believes that proactive social media customer care will have a transformative impact on how companies engage and serve their customers.

The concept of the SocialMiner product came from our observation of the changing communication habits and Internet usage of consumers. As consumers have adopted social media channels for their individual communications on an ever-increasing basis over the past couple years, it is only natural that they would consider interacting with a business via social media. This concept of social impacting customer relationships is a very active topic within the emerging “Social CRM” community.

Is SocialMiner just a Customer Service product? Bearing in mind that social conversations on the web affects the whole business…

Cisco SocialMiner is an engagement product, not a “listening product.” SocialMiner is designed to scale the quality and quantity of social media interactions performed by a business. SocialMiner can be used for a variety of business functions such as Support or Sales, but we believe the customers that derive the most value from social media will also use these engagements to drive business process change. For example, an organization could use SocialMiner as a source of business intelligence to provide real-time customer appreciation or criticism of a product or service (or of a competitors’ product/service). Social media can direct their business strategy. Cisco believes that companies that learn from social media will become closer to meeting their customers’ expectations and this will drive overall business success.

Which three benefits do business users have using SocialMiner compared to other tools in the market (Radian6, Alterian, etc.)

1. Cisco SocialMiner is complementary to brand monitoring dashboard solutions. It is designed to support scaling social media by leveraging the best practices from contact center type operational models: Queuing, Service Level Metrics (Average Speed of Answer), and productivity metrics for users. By contrast, many of the brand monitoring dashboards have pieces of workflow capability, but these capabilities are either relatively limited or recently introduced functions.

2. Cisco SocialMiner is a component of the Cisco contact center portfolio which currently includes an installed base of over 10,000 customers. SocialMiner is packaged, priced, and delivered along with Cisco Unified Contact Center Express and Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise solutions, and therefore it supports the same installation, deployment, serviceability, and user experience as these other Cisco collaboration solutions.

3. Cisco SocialMiner is a very easy to install and operate software appliance. It runs on premise or in a customer controlled data-center hosting facility and offers unlimited capture capability. Cisco SocialMiner is an API-first product with 100% of functionality available via REST API’s and all user interface delivered as OpenSocial gadgets with documented source that can be modified by Cisco channel or customers. This model supports the preferred consumption model of most enterprise organizations along with a broad customization capability.

Can it be used as a stand-alone product or only in combination with other Cisco products for customer service? Do you have any case studies of success?

Cisco SocialMiner can be used as a stand-alone solution. We have several case studies that illustrate SocialMiner’s success. Zone Labs is one of them. The small wellness company was looking to accelerate revenues & grow 1000% in next 3 years, implemented Cisco SocialMiner to increase customer engagement, customer satisfaction and sales. Zone Labs started developing social communities on their own website as well as Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets. They used Cisco SocialMiner to route and queue contacts to experts within their organization.

Using SocialMiner, experts were able to proactively answer health and wellness questions via Twitter, providing encouragement to consumers on the Zone Diet, customer service and expert advice on questions such as vitamins and healthy recipes. Zone Labs saw improved agent productivity by automating capturing and responding to social media posts (currently estimated at ~10x). They gained greater customer satisfaction & brand mind-share from faster first inquiry resolution on the web, and were able to compete on comparable scale with larger companies. Their social media activity reduced their customer acquisition cost and created a larger funnel with more leads, that were converted more easily and more quickly than before.

Within 4 months of using SocialMiner, Zone Labs saw tremendous results:
- Web site transactions up 189%
- Revenue up 203%
- 202% increase in total visitors to www.zonediet.com

Thank you for your time, John. And by the way: I like your commercial for the product…

Personal Scoring Index = The future of digital identity?

Three years ago, I was sitting together with a colleague in a coffee shop. It was snowing. We were watching the snowflakes falling down. We were talking some philosophy on how the future of individuality will look like ten years ahead, refering to the snow flakes and how their “individual dna” changes the world around us into a new one we have never seen before.

Sure, we were not sure what the future will bring. However, that day we were realizing some critical development that people define themselves through blog posts (like our fathers did with books), reviews (Amazon and the likes), ratings (in communities and networks, not only social ones…), and comments on articles and posts on websites all over the world. We saw that CV’s might loose their relevance for job search as there was an option to recommend a person’s capabillities and intelligence just by checking their digital engagement, output – their digital DNA. The feeling that humanity and ethic values will have a massive effect on how people might be defined from the outside world was obvious to us. Just like “perfect” snow flakes have somehow perfect formats than others. They have scored and thus indexed themselves as superior to the others.

Today, I know, see and read that scoring and indexing becomes a crucial part of our lives, our individuality, and our identity. Although it might just affect those who are really active social web users… for now. Still, the trend is alive. Platforms are tracking our digital footprints, our shopping behaviour like Blippy, our deepest desires, and try to predict our future purchase decision. The question is not whether we will continue to score value to our index, and/or if others will follow. It is more like… Will social pofiles, writing status updates, and sharing brain value enhance our individuality, and thus how will this influence our credibility? And who or which organization or association will be judging upon it? Or even more important, who will secure the validity of such an index process?

Just imagine we had some kind of trusted source or association that knows our scoring index on the personal likelihood of sharing some piece of information, the potential of reach and relevance? Ideas, news, rumors, and visions around brands, products and services would be addressed to that person via a newly-created trust agency. Agencies and brands would be much more interested in the long-tail ad market, in bloggers or in social medians in general. Artifical user reach would be shifting to real personal relevance. Brand intensity could be enlarged by user credibility. If the users voluntarily share their believe in brands, products and companies. But is this realistic? It must be, or how could Facebook pages have become so important for some of us? We love to score, define and index ourselves via the social web. And personal search engines like 123people or yasni are just two examples of possible scoring index platforms that undermine our aasumptions.

Obviously the social web will be changing into a pervasive web which people need to be aware of (and understand). Semantic impact needs to evolve, become a trustworty basis for credible metric which people could rely upon. And how does the amout of time invested in web engagement pay into the credit of our professional individuality? Is less more, or more less? How will Google change it’s algorithm and thereby the impact on our personal scoring index? Should we invest in Facebook, Diaspora or on Path (which by its definition may become the real base for our personal brandvangelism). And just think about the possibilities if you can match the personal index in a room via mobile and augmented reality tools? There will be no way around a personal web manager controling, checking and optimizing your personal branding in the future. Don’t you think?

“Like Larry Page and Sergey Brin changed the way websites are measured with their Pagerank, reputation scores will change the way people will be treated in the future. Reputation scores will change the classical customer relationship management as it was done bei companies in the past and will enable them to identify opinion leaders within their customers and attract them with special offers and treatment in order to use them as evangelists for their products. Knowing who the most valuable peers are provides marketing experts a complete new angle of doing campaigns – offline and online,” says Marcel Hollerbach, CEO of SiRANK (…a company that is working on a business model on indexing people’s reputation).

I am just waiting that there will be a platform that aggregates all the data that we leave as score data on the web, and that this platform then indexes us. Or is that a threat? Already becoming reality when we look at Klout, the first personal scoring index? Or is it just an assessment of social media influence?

Today, the snow flakes keep falling down…. Many of us have built an intense relationship on the basis of sharing and matching our most inner brain credentials. We work on our personal scoring index and hope whenever we need to differentiate ourselves from others, our social graph can enrich our digital identity.

Do you still wonder if and in which way some format of Personal Scoring Index (PSI) could become alive…?

Bloggers – Future multipliers for reach or relevance?

In some meetings and talks with marketers I have got the feeling that reach and relevance will be redefined in the media landscape in the future. And I would like to ask my readers (as I am also asking myself) if and how much businesses will need to orientate their awareness towards a new media intensity dimension: bloggers. Can bloggers become important multipliers for advertising reach and/or relevance, or will they always suffer from the long-tail argumentation which I have heard quite often lately: lack of reach…?

Traditional media will still be the main driver for reach and relevance stated all of my co-panelists at the event “The World after Advertising“. And yes, I agree with them somwhow… Or why would I have chosen to work for a global publisher like IDG again?! However, I wonder how (not if!) bloggers will change their relevance for the modern social advertising market. Although bloggers might not necessarily have a mass influence (reach) for brands, they could have even more intense impact (relevance) for brands when addressing a “target-group”.

Especially, when we bare in mind the latest Forrester research “The 2010 European Peer Influence Analysis Report” which states that “4% of online users are responsible for 80% of all influence impressions”.

Let’s imagine bloggers are thoughtleaders, visioneers or trendsetter. They are among the most engaged people in their topic of interest. If not, why would they commit blogging, and not invest their spare time in watching football or going for a drink with their friends more often instead? Many bloggers have 500 readers via their social graph that are intense social influencers in their expert field as well. They again speak with 1000 followers/fans/readers in average via their communication channels. This sums up a potential special interest target-group of 500.000 contacts. Overlapping contacts and doublication in different social networks does the multiplication business which the media space calls the importance of frequency buying. Isn’t this exactly what brands are looking for?

I can see the blogger’s audience potential and can evaluate their reach intensity and contextual relevance as I understand more from day to day what my blog has done to me. The relevance for the blogger’s reach will be defined through their social graph and the active social medians (and their social graphs) networking with them. If bloggers position themselves as a trusted resource, especially when speaking with a quality business audience, and have a deep relationship with their followers/fans/readers, should not companies and brands establish relationship with these people? They are the best brand and message multipliers – almost (or even more?) like VIP’s, brandevangelists, every time you rescue, retain or re-engage a relationship with them. And how great would it be if they would commit to one brand publicly…? As a brand marketer would you not embrace that blogger and try to cooperate?

Some marketers already buy (or want to buy) traditional banner ads on blogs or try to paid post campaigns, but cannot buy a social graph yet. In my eyes the long-tail needs to find a way to enable that. Just imagine the frequency and intensity effect it does to the relevance of a brand. Some even pay for posts and some even want to conquer social streams by buying tweets. A nice opportunity for bloggers if they want to monetize on sharing their knowledge. If (for some) there wasn’t social media ethics like honesty, authenticity and credibility in their way, the ad options for companies and brands would be fantastic.

Sometimes, I doubt that bloggers don’t want to earn money with their social graphs. Sometimes, I think publishers monetize editors via their ads, so why don’t bloggers think the same way but more clever…? And sometimes, I ask myself why companies still ignore the advantage of a blogger’s intense reach, and even more… relevance for an engaged (growing) audience.

The question for brands and companies is: Will blogger content, and thus reach and relevance, scale like traditional advertising for brands? And then I try to understand if and how they might affect the ad industry in the future? If you have any answers, let’s dicuss…

The World after Advertising & The Internet of Things

Last week, I had the opportunity to take part in (and speak about the future of targeting at) an interesting event called The World after Advertising. The well-organized day offered a full program on the future of media and web business from all aspects: advertising, collaboration and insights, insights, insights which will help us understand the new ways of monetization and how to turn our business models in the direction of a cultural change that is happening already.

For me the most inspiring speech was held by Rob Gonda, Director of Strategy at SapientNitro. Rob was giving a broad overview of the digital landscape and his interactive outlook into 2020. I liked his approach to make people understand that in principle our business stays simple. It is based on technology, media and data, and the way these will be interacting in the future. When he quoted data from Morgan Stanley that there is a global opportunity for internet advertising of 50 Billion USD, he got the right switch to the main technology that will drive these bucks: Go mobile!

Thinking about the future of the internet and the future of advertising (if the future of advertising will be advertising), I actually got two views this week: Rob Gonda’s and Dean Donaldson’s (Mediamind). Having attended a Mediamind event on Monday, the output of both speeches sounded alike: Sensors are the future drivers of the (mobile) internet and might replace (or even become?) the cookie technology at some point in the future. “Sensors are the cookies of the future,” said Dean Donaldson. And Rob showed examples like Ray Ban’s virtual mirror and Unilever’s ShareHappy (see video).

In his key-note he also talked about the Internet of Things, he mentioned that Wallmart uses RFID codes for better tracking of their inventory and expects manufacturers to put RFID codes on products before they come to their stores. Although Rob considers a “normal level” evolving and adapting from a user perspective when maschines start talking to each other. I base my view more on a sceptic user behaviour, a privacy debate which will arise from it (or people will simply cut out the labels…), and also a cultural alongside the evolution of a new generation. He made clear that he sees the tipping point of the Internet of Things (see IBM explanation video) not before 2020 – another view I share with him. Though there are many reasons of why the Internet of Things could be with us earlier than we think.

After his speech I had the option to touch base with him on the Internet of Things. Watch it…

Spot On!
His six predictions were definitely something to think about. Though I rate his visions, I would doubt that all of these will become reality…
- Location-Based-Services will die – My answer: Depending on user flexibility and information overflow, and whether the user wants to receive information from things like wallpapers and the likes when they are passing by…
- Facebook own 50% of advertising – My answer: Whenever a market-leader became to popular, some new start-up or competitor took market share of them. Do I not see an advent on the horizont from the guys at Paths and Diaspora…?!
- Facebook penetrates APAC >2bn users – My answer: Defintely worth a try for Facebook, no surprise…
- Android + GoogleMe – My answer: Yep…!
- MediaTradeFloor: My answer: The danger for a jobtitle like media planer to die becomes reality, it seems…
- Media budgets will shift – My answer: Yes, the challenge will be to integrate the user in this process. If he/she voluntarily tells us their preferences, ad technology will deliver more precisely and ads/commercials will receive new conversion levels.

Looking forward to get your views on the Internet of Things or on Rob’s predictions… Share them with us! Let’s discuss…

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