Archive for November, 2010
by Rob Paterson
November 28, 2010 at 12:20 pm · Filed under
Adoption, Andy Carvin, Apple, Barriers, Columbus, Content, NPR, New Realities, Public Media, Relationships, Social Media, iTunes
Most organizations know that the web is important today – even the most dinosauric. But for most, the web is an up and coming “channel” and most still don’t have a clue about social media – they do it because they have to and they do it without much understanding about how it works and how different it is from their old “Normal”.
The final arrival of the Beatles on the web – mainly as we see boosted by social media – shows the new reality. That the web amplified by good use of social media is now the primary way of connecting what you have to the public.
Billboard magazine reports that The Beatles sold more than two million individual songs worldwide and in excess of 450,000 albums in its first week on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. (The Beatles’ catalog was added to iTunes on November 16th.)
According to Experian Hitwise, it was social media — not search — that drove a lot of the online interest and, more importantly, the online traffic surrounding The Beatles addition to iTunes. Consider this stat: On November 16, the first day Beatles songs were available on iTunes, 26% of UK traffic to Apple.com came from social media, about double the amount that came from search.
This nail in the coffin of old marketing is what NPR discovered. When I worked for NPR back in 2005 – attracting a younger audience was thought to be vital. But at the time this meant that somehow the content should be changed. But what they found was that if you changed the medium for connection to Social Media – the young came – they loved the content – they just will not access it in the old way.
In a survey of more than 10,000 respondents, NPR found that its Twitter followers are younger, more connected to the social web, and more likely to access content through digital platforms such as NPR’s website, podcasts, mobile apps and more.
NPR has more than one Twitter account; its survey found that most respondents followed between two and five NPR accounts, including topical account, show-specific accounts and on-air staff accounts.
The data on age is hardly surprising. The median age of an NPR Twitter follower is 35 — around 15 years younger than the average NPR radio listener. This lines up with data we recently found about other traditional news media; the average Facebook user reading and “liking” content on a news website is two decades younger than the average print newspaper subscriber.
Isn’t this what has happened to the Beatles? Good content is good. If you have a product or a service or cintent that is good and is not available on the web via social media – you are punishing your business.
So what does this mean? The jury is no longer out. If you are not using the web and social media well – you are no longer cautious but stupid. You are refusing to see the world as it is. Now I know why you won’t move. Because this is all new and you are not any good at it. It’s like me taking up skiing in my forties. What had held me back was how awkward and stupid I would look and feel. But you know – no one cared about how awkward I was and learning to ski then allowed me to spend 10 winters with my kids having a hell of a time. I am 60. I started blogging back in 2002. I was utterly pathetic at it. But over time, I got ok. You can be too.
The real question is do you want your TV station, store, business to survive? It’s still not too late but it is getting close.
Who can help you? Well there are a lot of shysters out there. “Self proclaimed” Social Media Experts who have been involved for a year or so. So here are a few questions to ask to ensure that you are getting someone who can help for real:
- Tell us about who you have worked for in the past that you have helped make the shift in mindset? They must have been able to help another make this shift in POV
- Tell us who your friends and network are? The shysters know shysters, the real folks know others who know their stuff and their network is as valuable as anything that they know.
- Show us what you have written that moves the cheese! Shysters pound on about Facebook etc, the real deal is part of a larger deeper conversation about what all of this means.
- Show us how knowing what you do has helped you in your own life? Most Shysters still live in the 1.0 world themselves. The real deal don’t – living this life has changed them radically – they have been made different by this and you will know this when you compare the 2 types. PS relentless self promotion is a give away!
Some advice about process:
- There is no formula/cookie cutter – it is not about using Facebook next week – it is about changing your own mindset. So start with lots of conversation about what is going on and where you can start – you cannot know where you will end up right now – don’t try and go there.
- Our mindset is changed not by will but by new habits – try a few smallish experiments and label them as such – look at at others who have done well and see how this may give you a start – Have a look here at how Boingo have used listening or look here about how Kotex have used a deep question. These are powerful places to start to help you be different for in the 1.0 world we don’t listen, we shout. In the 1.0 world we don’t ask tough questions, we live instead in a clean, fun, smooth fantasy world where periods are the best part of the month.
- Hire one or two great young folks. Andy Carvin - just one person has done more for NPR than an army of consultants. Same with Baochi at Boingo who enjoys the confidence of the CEO.
- Persevere!!! This is really really hard to execute – the tools are simple – it is the shift in mindset that is so painful. I have found that as much as I and others know the direction the day to day part of the journey is stressful. Think of Christopher Columbus on his first voyage. He “knew” that there would be land if he sailed long enough west. But his crew did not. They also had to deal with storms etc, When they arrived, it was land but not the Indies – the destination was different. People got upset. When you do this – all of the trials of Columbus will come your way – Doubt, fear mutiny, disappointment – the lot. But there is no going back – you just have to push through.
- Last point – anyone who tells you that this is easy and they can show you a step by step formula is a Shyster
So stand up for our species. Be a Sapiens and not a Sap and good luck to you.
by Joe McKendrick
November 27, 2010 at 12:03 am · Filed under
FASTforward'09
Innovation is often looked at as a random acts of brilliance, but there are now ways to employ technology and services to capture and channel new ideas along the right course.
Some software tools — sometimes referred to as “ideation” platforms — have emerged to try to better systemize the innovation process. The idea is that ideas can be moved through a workflow of processes — just as projects are managed by project management software — from initial design to proposal stage, refinement, and funding.
How many ideas never get off the ground, languish, or are never even voiced, since enterprises usually don’t have formal systems to capture them and hold them up for possible conversion into new products and services?
Social networking can support this process every step of the way. There’s plenty of excitement, of course around the formulation stage, which is often crowdsourced with awards and prizes to the brightest bulb.
There are other ways social networking plays roles throughout the idea lifecycle. Forrester’s Nigel Fenwick walks through the stages of moving ideas from inception to productization, and the role of social in a new post:
INVENT: Ideation communities to propose and rank new ideas; discussion boards and wikis for exploring possibilities.
VALIDATE: Blogs and discussion boards to test concepts.
INCUBATE: Collaboration work groups; customer and partner communities.
IMPLEMENT: Promotion through social channels such as blogs, microblogs, videos, and communities.
MEASURE: Measure impact through social communities; reward idea contributors through community kudos.
by Bill Ives
November 25, 2010 at 12:59 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, intranet
Here my notes from the Intranets in 2015 session led by James Robertson at KM World 2010 and Enterprise Search Summit 2010. James is the Managing Director - Step Two Designs. Here is the session description.
“How can we deliver great intranets if we don’t know where we’re heading? This powerful presentation outlines a vision for intranets in 2015, describing a day-in-the-life of how staff will work. Going beyond the technology aspects, this session explores the “enterprise experience” that we should be providing to staff and how to start delivering it today.”
James has been talking about intranets for a long time. He speaks with a lot of people about how to make then work. His site has over 250 articles that are available for free on his site. He does three new articles a month except for January.
Looking at today’s intranet issues can be better addressed by knowing what the future holds. He started with the first of two scenarios, a new employee, first day at work. First, she finds a desk and computer with an email waiting for her. It is from the intranet offering to help her get started. Someone in the audience said they wanted to work there.
She starts the intranet and finds a series of links on getting started. There are videos from other staff on things they wish they learned on day one. There are many induction tasks including updating her profile. She can add her own tasks. There is a space for collaborating. She can see the collaborative spaces and view the profiles of her team members.
There are product chats about the company’s various offerings, as well as competitors. At the end of the first day she has a good start on her new job. She has done some tasks and has an initial understanding of what is happening at the company and within its market.
In debriefing this scenario it was mentioned that much is happening behind the scenes. This is cool but there is a fine line between being cool and creapy, with too much “big brother.” James feels that intranets need to be proactive and take advantage of the information located around the enterprise.
James said that these features are not blue sky. Some of the features are already in place. For example, the Jansen-Cilag intranet allows people to manage their own IT assets (see ). The CRS Australia intranet has an inbox that collects to-dos for multiple areas. The IDEO intranet connects people to people.
Then James covered another scenario. The new employee is off to her first business meeting and has some downtime at the airport. She looks at the intranet and finds all the company’s products and many real time details around them: sales, customer satisfaction, etc.. Booking the trip was automated through the intranet. She saw the hotels for her pay grade and no others, restaurants with reviews, both by the company and outside on the Web, and information for joggers. The intranet noticed that this was her first trip so the company issues and policies are covered.
James said the important issue is the employee experience and not whether it is on the cloud or inside the firewall. He said that there are some tough issues in these scenarios but they are achievable. I would agree. James noted that eighty to ninety percent of the data exists so you just need to make it accessible and use it.
James offered some principles. First, content is not longer the center, people are. User centered design is the approach to use. I found this to be the case since the early 90s, if not before. I found that the degree of success for a project was directly related to how much the users were involved in the design and their needs were made the center of it.
Second – provide universal access, including mobile access for everyone. Enable access from home.
Third – create a seamless enterprise experience. Blur the line between systems. Make this capability a mandate for vendors.
Fourth – Offer end-to-end solutions. Focus on task completion and clarify and simplify. The simplification can generate a lot of ROI.
Fifth – Integrate into the business
Sixth – Crossing boundaries – Break down silos and create awareness of what is going on in the enterprise, as well as outside. Enable a transparent organization.
James moved to what we can do now when budgets are tight, management is cautious, technology can be clunky. First, create your own design and future scenarios. Design small but great solutions. Make sure you do something rather than just talk about possibilities. Remember intranet need to attractive, as well as functional.
It was very useful for him to close on some calls to action.
by Bill Ives
November 24, 2010 at 8:01 am · Filed under
knowledge management
Here my session notes from the KM World 2010 and Enterprise Search Summit 2010 keynote: The Wealth of Knowledge by Thomas A Stewart, Tom is the Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer – Booz & Company. He is the Former Editor & Managing Director, Harvard Business Review and I have read his work for some time. Here is the session description:
“Our experienced author and practitioner shares winning strategies for developing and evolving knowledge-driven enterprises that are productive, innovative, and successful. Using real-world examples he illustrates how those strategies have worked in many different types of organizations. Stewart also looks into the future and suggests directions that knowledge-driven enterprises will engage in over the next few years.”
Tom started by pointing out the knowledge effort has been around for a while, running hot and cold like the Gartner hype curve. Investing in knowledge can still return great value. He began by looking at value in the knowledge economy.
He asked if the primary role of management is to address change or continuity. Change won, as did intellectual assets over physical assets.
Tom said that the knowledge economy stands on four pillars, First, knowledge is what we buy and sell. More of the money we spend now is on knowledge versus food, shelter, etc. Our smart phones have more knowledge than what was required to put a man on the moon. He now has a smart stove. This has created new strategic options for companies. For example, how are we going to package knowledge? One option is to put it into things. You can also distil your knowledge and sell it as a product. The third option is black box services such as what consulting companies and law firms do.
The TV show Mad Men shows old style marketing. They gave away marketing strategy to get the physical ads. Now these are separate and the ad agency game has changed. Firms such as law firms need new business models.
Knowledge now defines our work and activities. People need to ask what knowledge they need to do thier job. This is an opportunity for KM. This basic business case has limits. The first is that traditional organizations do not manage knowledge well and knowledge gets distorted in the communication process. Networks can be a solution. There are three kinds: the network of our team, networks from the center of an organization to those on the edge (including customers and partners), and networks to connect those on the edge with each other. Knowledge managers need to get these three networks under control.
Knowledge management needs to be able to handle fuzzy problems. When things are clear you provide best practices. When cause and effect is knowable you provide access to experts. When cause and effect are not known, you need to be able to take intelligent action within the chaos. This is where the most value from knowledge can be derived.
The third pressure on companies is the increasing globalization. First there was the globalization of markets, then production, now it is intellect. Now R&D budgets are being increasingly spent off shore. Distributed decision making only works when everyone understands the strategy and the knowledge to support it. Knowledge assets are what separate winners and losers. You need to be able identify your value to the market. Is it innovation, consistency, service, etc.? Does the sales force agree with management? This alignment is essential to compete.
The last pillar of knowledge economy is that return on knowledge should exceed that for other assets. This is how you create value. KM can accelerate this value creation.
Next, he addressed the rise of extreme competition. Everything is going faster. The customer expects 24/7 service. Customer power is growing. Pricing power is elusive. Traditional media has to compete against free products. Finding these products is much easier. Adaptability is key and KM can address this issue.
Then he covered pursuing a capabilities-driven strategy. The first order is defining what an organization really is. What is the identity? How do we create value for our customers? What do need to do this? To who are we selling what? The problem comes when these answers do not align. Problems when companies get side tracked to go after other goals because they seem easy. Coherence pays off. How can KM support this alignment? The answer will drive value in the 21st century.
Key questions include: Have we earned the right to win? Can we articulate the capabilities that give us this right? Have we created coherence in our KM system? How can we create the needed synergy by creating coherence through the same knowledge base? Tom suggests that knowledge management’s role has increased and become more strategic in today’s marketplace. I would agree.
by Rob Paterson
November 23, 2010 at 10:34 am · Filed under
Chaord, Network Effect, Organizational Design, Robin Dunbar, Social Networking, Socialprise, Trust, Trusted Space, Work 2.0, Workplace
I saw another piece of stupidity the other day when a “Social Media Expert” claimed that his thousands of friends on Facebook and Twitter made him such an expert and that he could teach you how to have that many friends as well. In other words that having lots of Friends was the goal!
Of course people like him make these claims based on nothing.
A few of us do read and those of us who do have long known of the work of Robin Dunbar. Those who care to do some work, know that there is a lot of science that underpins how humans live in social groups and that there is an underlying math that is well known.
So for those that don’t have time to read here he is in 16 minutes on Youtube offering you the science that shows why:
- Our social personal limit is about 150 people
- How this came about
- That we have layers of intimacy inside this limit
- That there are layers beyond it but that are not intimate
- That meeting face to face – is crucial to maintaining these relationships and that they degrade if not enhanced with face to face
- That men and women use two very different types of social grooming to maintain their networks – women need to talk and men need to do
- That the folks who claim to have thousands of friends are nearly all men with poor social skills in the real world
So for all you Social Media Experts and HR professionals and Organization Design Folks here is Dunbar:
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