Archive for Social Networking
by Joe McKendrick
March 25, 2011 at 10:40 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
In a previous post, we pondered the lack of social CRM in evidence, asking whether all CRM should be social anyway. In a new post, Umberto Milletti talks about the issues getting in the way of social CRM.
Milletti says marketing and customer service have actually been effectively engaging in social media, but sales has been missing the boat. Kind of ironic, since sales is the most social activity there is in the business.
- Salespeople are not techno-geeks: They see technology as a tool, nothing more, nothing less.
- Salespeople need to understand what’s in it for them: They know time is money, and don’t want to invest valuable time to learn technologies they don’t fully see a return on.
- Social media tools have not been integrated into the sales workflow.
- Salespeople rely on their employer for training on new sales processes and tools to support them.
by Joe McKendrick
March 15, 2011 at 9:59 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking
A recent article in Knowledge@Wharton asks if business-centric social networking is a “revolution” or a “ruse.” Since we’re inclined here at this site to pick the revolutionary option, it’s worth examining why some experts at UPenn’s Wharton School may be skeptical about its power to transform business.
First, there’s the still-uncertain ROI aspect. As Shawndra Hill, a Wharton operations and information management professor, put it: “Social networking in the enterprise sector is relatively new, and better tools can enable people to communicate across an organization. But before this really takes off, there needs to be some proof that these things are useful.” Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations and information management, echos this sentiment: “I’m a little skeptical about usage, but I’m even more skeptical about benefits to corporations. Companies may use it, but I don’t think it will provide the productivity benefits vendors claim they will provide.”
Ultimately, the success of social networking in enterprises will not be employees and managers adopting sites such as Facebook and Twitter as a separate activity. Kendall Whitehouse, director of new media at Wharton, predicts that ultimately, social networking will simply be pervasive within enterprise software and processes. “Today, social networking is being thought of as a separate thing,” he says. “We’ll see that fade over time, and it will become just part of the way we interact.”
by Joe McKendrick
January 14, 2011 at 5:45 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, FASTforward'09, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
What exactly is the difference between “Social Business” and “Enterprise 2.0,” if there is one?
The question came up at in a Quora discussion, and asked again by Ross Dawson in one of his latest posts.
It’s semantics, but important semantics. Many articles and papers are using the terms interchangeably. You may recall it was Andrew MacAfee who first surfaced the term “Enterprise 2.0″ back in 2007 as a way to describe the application of Web 2.0 approaches and thinking to enterprise settings, but separate it from the consumerist fanfare.
For his part, Ross sees Social Business as an emerging way to describe the transformation that organizations are undertaking as part of their Enterprise 2.0 activities. Enterprise 2.0 as a term may have a more technical cast to it.
In the Quora discussion, our colleague Jevon McDonald also saw Enterprise 2.0 in terms of the tools and Social Business as the outcome:
“Enterprise 2.0 represents a set of technologies and methodologies for IT implementation inside the enterprise. A Social Business uses Enterprise 2.0 software to implement internal social process but also accounts for things such as: external social presence, supporting process, HR issues, policy development and governance.”
Stowe Boyd echoed similar sentiments:
“A social business is an organization designed consciously around sociality and social tools, as a response to a changed world and the emergence of the social web, including social media, social networks, and a long list of other advances. Enterprise 2.0 is generally used to represent the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies — like cloud computing, social media, wikis, and the like — and is, as such, principally a technology adoption issue, and not a reconceptualization of business operations.”
John Tropea, on the other hand, sees Social Business as the journey to reach Enterprise 2.0. E 2.0, he says, is more the idealized end state — Enterprise 2.0 is a concept and strategy to do business a different way… a more transparent workplace, two-way communication, networked/activity centric overlayed on the present process-centric and blended with hierarchy.” As he puts it:
“With social business design we may reach a state of enterprise 2.0 eventually.”
So which comes first — Enterprise 2.0 or Social Business?
by Joe McKendrick
January 5, 2011 at 1:38 pm · Filed under
2.0 Design Thinking, Enterprise 2.0, FASTforward'09, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
Consider the plight of the Web designer. I saw a comic a couple of years back (author unknown) that really laid out quite well the hair-pulling process of designing, building, and maintaining a site. It goes something like this:
- “Everything is cool the beginning. The client communicates their needs. You set expectations. Enthusiasm and excitement all ’round.”
- “The client shows you their current Website. You both laugh at how terrible it is.”
- “You redesign the Website. It looks nice and works well. This is the high point of the design.”
- “Just a few ‘minor’ changes.”
- “Minor changes start to add up.”
- “The client gets others involved: ‘Looks great, but I want feedback from my friends, co-workers, uncle, pet hamster, etc.’”
- “All hope is lost. You begin to fantasize about other careers… “
- “You are no longer a Web designer. You are a mouse cursor inside a graphics program which the client can control by speaking, emailing and instant messaging.”
- “An abomination is born. The client has completely forgotten that they hired you, the Web designer, to build them a great product.”
The process of Website design and management has turned up many, many abominations for businesses across the land. However, social networking may be sorting that all out. In fact, the flight from Website abominations may now be fueling the social networking movement for many businesses.
IDC’s Frank Gens, for one, recently issued his predictions for the year ahead, and foresees social networking software growing at a 38% percent clip over the next five years. In addition, more than one-quarter of vendors could be gobbled up in 2011:
“We believe that — as a sure sign of social business mainstreaming — 2011 will be a year of consolidation and convergence for social business software vendors, as well as a year of adoption expanding into small and medium-sized businesses.”
The small to medium size business sector is an interesting and growing sweet spot for social enterprise. In fact, SMB adoption is likely to grow to 40 percent of these companies employing online services to better market their products and services, he predicts. The benefit to small businesses: it’s cheaper and easier to use free online social media services than to go through the time and expense of setting up a customized Website.
In his 2011 report, Gens observes that Website development has topped out for many small and medium-size businesses. Instead, he says, “small and midsize firms will increasingly flock to Facebook and other social networks to establish a free online presence that improves their ability to acquire, engage, and retain customers without the hassle and cost of setting up a traditional Website. We predict that the percentage of SMBs using social networks for promotional purposes will exceed 40% by year-end 2011.”
by Joe McKendrick
December 15, 2010 at 1:03 pm · Filed under
Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Software, Social Computing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web 2.0
More proof that it really does pay — in a bottom-line kind of way — to be Web/Enterprise 2.0 savvy.
New research out of McKinsey & Company shows that companies embracing Web 2.0 approaches are likely to be reaping more gains and market leadership than their less Web 2.0-savvy counterparts. McKinsey spoke to 3,249 companies as part of its annual Web 2.0 survey, and concluded that these “networked enterprises” are more likely to be market leaders and gaining market share, “but also use management practices that lead to margins higher than those of companies using the Web in more limited ways.”
The study’s authors, Jacques Bughin and Michael Chui, report that 27% of companies overall reported having both market share gains against their competitors and higher profit margins. However, “highly networked enterprises” — those using Web 2.0 inside and outside their organizations in innovative ways — “were 50 percent more likely to fall in this high-performance group than other organizations were,” they report.
The authors predict that in many industries, “new competitive battle lines may form between companies that use the Web in sophisticated ways and companies that feel uncomfortable with new Web-inspired management styles or simply can’t execute at a sufficiently high level.”
Bughin and Chui also report that the majority of companies that have embraced Web 2.0 continue to report that they are receiving measurable business benefits—with nearly nine out of ten reporting at least one benefit. These benefits include increasing speed of access to knowledge (cited by 77% of respodents with internal Web 2.0 efforts and 57% using Web 2.0 to engage external partners); reduced communication costs (60% internal users, 53% external); and decreased travel costs (44% internal users, 38% external).
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