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mandag den 23. maj 2011

Is it worth using Social Media in enterprise B2B coherence?

Yesterday I received a magazine from my bank called Investment, in the magazine there was an article “Social Network are good for the Society”[1]. In the article the author came to the conclusion, that due to a survey on social media, people on the Social media are for 96%, only sharing content and information which could be described as small talk or chit chat. The survey described that only 4% of the content on FaceBook is "serious" content. 

  • Is there models which can help us choose as a B2B enterprise the best Social Media tools towards our costumers?
  • So if you are not selling consumer products you will not be able to use Social Media towards costumers?
  • Even though FaceBook is the biggest of the Social Media content “spreaders” it will not work for B2B enterprises to get a dialog with their costumers?

First before explaining and answering the questions and all the virtues of Social Media and the use towards B2B costumers, I do understand the author of the article in “Investment” and his point of describing Social Media as to much small talk. Looking into what my children are using FaceBook fore is mainly chit chatting with each other and expression views on everything and nothing. Some could say that this kind of collaboration is not something which enterprises addressing the B2B market should use time and money? 
But you have to take into consideration that a large majority of these chit-chatters are your costumers enjoying the social media in their spare time for something else than business. But be aware they will remember you seeing you and your products and services - if  you are there.
There are no doubt that you as an enterprise addressing the B2B market need to be selective of which types of Social Media you choose[2]. You as an enterprise has to select what will do the best for your business and what your social media advocates get most out of.
So even if your are not selling consumer products you have to have a voice on the social media platform you can even find surveys telling you that B2B enterprises are investing even more heavily in social Media as a part of the overall marketing strategy, than consumer related companies. Some major players even start to take their employees into education session learning employees how to listen and participate in costumer communication and that the employees are personally responsible for their own branding, as well as the enterprise branding.
You can find cases where companies in the pharmaceutical sector, get their products “tried out” by users using FaceBook groups to communicate about their experiences with a product – this happened to Novo Nordisk who found that one of their new insulin products could be used for something else than just diabetes It could be used as a obesity restricts.
Another challenge you will have to work out is the lack of measurement tools, which will give C-level management a ROI, which is measurable in raw figures.[3]
Even though Social Media has a hard time to deliver results which is easy to be quantified, social media is moving so fast forward that the real risk is to stay out. It is not a matter of you as an enterprise can afford to implement a B2B social media presence into your marketing strategy, it is a matter of you can afford to stay out - and as the author of the article in investment said Social Media is here for good!




[1] Danske Bank Investment May 2011 page 32

[2] My blog “How to get success with Social Media in a Corporation” here you will find a framework which can help you in your decision making on choosing Social Media for your enterprise company.

[3] My blog “3 areas which has impact on the Social Media success?” gives you some indications of which measurement tools will be helpful

torsdag den 19. maj 2011

Social Cloud – how does it create value to the enterprise company?

What is Social Cloud?
Social Cloud is in short where Social Media and Cloud Computing technologies create changes in how individuals behave and work and orient towards challenges.  Where Social Media software is a Communication model and Cloud Computing is a Delivery model working with the combined challenges a Social Cloud provides the possible answers.

What does Cloud Computing provide to Social Cloud?
Cloud Computing provides flexible access to sophisticated IT-resources not necessarily controlled by the IT-department. With Cloud Computing it is possible for other business units (Marketing and communication) to work with their challenges without getting approval from the IT-unit, as it is possible quickly to ramp up alternatives which does not cost a lot and most important does not acquire investments in further HW, SW and services. As a Cloud Computing user you just use the IT-packages which is provided in the Cloud by Capacity providing companies. What happens is that the power of controlling the technology and in many cases the communication will be reduced by tearing down the barriers for other departments to experiment with business challenges with minimal cost and risk and possible payoff using the cloud.

What is the role of Social Media Software in the Social Cloud?
Social Media Software provides connectivity and scalability to departments/and individuals who want to engage in collaborative problem solving and communication. What is happening is that we tear down the barriers of how communication has gone from One-to-many over to Many-to-many, and social media software fosters a connecting disposition among employees. Enterprises can reap a significant payoff from facilitating the efforts of motivated employees to connect, and doing so requires little investment of time and resources. By liberate the communication from the internal control you set yourself at risk as an enterprise.  You expose your company with potential governance and security risk posed by Social Media software. Weighing the benefits against the risk it becomes clear that the benefits in increased passion among employees and herby the possible performance improvement creates more value than just looking at the security risk which the technology can bring.

Where is the value creation for the enterprise with Social Cloud?
The two technologies has their individual potential but the real value for the enterprise company lies in their combined strength and power to ignite and unleash the human potential in the company. Ultimately the convergence of social media software and cloud computing may support a more productive orientation to the constant disruption and unexpected change of the business environment.[1] In short using the technologies from both social media software and cloud computing benefits your enterprise company with more engaged and productive employees who will secure a greater content of what the enterprise stands for in a more cost efficient delivery model. This is Social Cloud.



[1] John Hagel III and John Seely Brown 2010 – The Power of the Social Cloud

tirsdag den 17. maj 2011

Social Media and Cloud an opportunity for growth in your business or just a buzz-word?

The reason for this blog is that I over the past 5 MONTH haVE seen how concepts like Cloud, Social Media and SaaS (Software as a Service) has been marketed towards companies in all industries with different angles and with varying success. That is why I want to have a dialogue with you and your business around what you have of demands to Cloud and Social Media  and what you expect of the future from your suppliers of these services.

- Have you thought cloud into the company's strategy and future delivery model for your customers?
- Have you thought Social Media into your company marketing strategy and how will you progress?
- What questions have you had about the opportunities and threats that Cloud and Social Media     concepts creates for your company?
- Do the  above concepts make sense in your business model?

Give me a feed back on the above questions, I'd like to have a dialogue with you so that I can adapt my current and future benefits from my blogs for you and your business needs.


lørdag den 14. maj 2011

Does Social Media create social effects?

There seems to be an “effect” from using Social Media, an effect that can be described as a social effect, at least it has an impact on consumer/ users. When consumers/users are taking advantage of Social media and feel the power it has and the fear of failure too, it is obvious that such media create an effect and even a social effect.
Birdsall (2007) has noticed that Web 2.0 (Shown in my blog: "Is there a relationship between Cloud 2.0 and Web 2.0?") as a social movement has become an internal part of the daily use of many consumers. Several social actions take place in this environment and the almost unlimited possibilities to take contact/ engage and exchange information goods or services with other users allow the creation of online communities. These online communities are formed around demographics or special interests which again create openness in the environment (Beer and Barrows, 2007; Birdsall, 2007).
Generating content and exchanging the content in its many forms as copy reproduce and re-mix information on the Web 2.0 domain is a normal practise. Practices of this kind lead to the democratization process of the technology, information and knowledge (O´Reilly, 2005), which leads to a user participation on a new level, with users becoming contributors, reporters, commentators and editors. The possibility for the users to engage and exchange in a transparent conversation with other users and even industry and politicians has become a reality in the special interest groups and communities. Social media/networks have become part of specially the youth culture but other parts of the society have adapted the possibility to exchange information, goods and services quickly. Politicians have lately used the social media/networks with success. The American president candidate now president of the USA has used social media/networks to deliver his message of change to the entire American population. Herby he has understood the power of the communication platform and the communities that he has created to reach an even broader part of the population more precise and with the possibility to get a reaction from his voters. A similar situation has occurred in Denmark during the last national elections. During the Danish election, a competition among the politicians whom would gain most friends on FaceBook, was launched by the media– it could be an indication of who would win the election! The power of gaining friends is still controlled by believes in the various political doctrines, but also by the ones who could create the best content and stories –content fuels Social Media interaction[1]. In Business It is getting uncommon that businesses create such communities themselves inviting people to become members. What has been common is that users of certain products creates communities by themselves to discuss the possibilities of the product and create new ways of using the products on or even find some of the negative sites of the product. A recent example of this is the FaceBook group[2] created by users of the Novo Nordisk (Insulin Company) insulin product Victoza who by using the product has found that they are loosing weight without any site effects using the product. One person has lost 41 kg of weight in 6 month.
Is the above examples an impression of how to be social or is it socializing? One thing is clear if you have the right content and can produce a good story you will get a social or socializing effect out to your audience and this is not just small talk this is a start to do business.


[1] Comes from MarketingProfs Article of the same name
[2] Article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende, August 6. 2010 (Business section page 4-5)

tirsdag den 10. maj 2011

What impact has Web 2.0 and 3.0 on Cloud Computing?


What is happening in Web 2.0 and even more in the new Web 3.0 is a technology shift that brings the user/costumer into the possession of having control over the interaction among users.  As we move from web content to web application and further on to the Semantic web (Web 3.0), the bulk of user data and applications will reside in the network cloud. This shift of working with data happens to come due to a more inexpensive way of providing storage, software and hardware in the cloud. Another thing, which is important for the application-user is unlimited access to use applications – this happens to appear using Cloud 24/7/365. A third thing which supports the Web 2.0, Social Media and Cloud computing is the decreasing price of broadband. As the wireless connections grew, the Cloud Computing allows users and companies to pay for and use software and storage as needed. This type of software deployment is Software as a Service (SaaS). An important criteria, for both Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing and the growth of these is open standards and open source. The components for a Cloud solution, and the components used for supporting Web 2.0 clients and users are on many positions mutual or comparable. In the below chart you can see a range of what is mend to be important components for a service can be called Cloud and Web 2.0 services.


Cloud Components
Web 2.0 and 3.0 Components
·       Virtualized
·       User controlled
·       Automated
·       Availability
·       Standardized
·       Scalability
·       Location independent
·       Device independence
·       Scalability
·       Open source
·       Self serviced


In a Cloud environment, applications, data and software no longer exist on the client platforms, instead they are treaded as services and reside in the cloud. This will give companies living of licences a new challenge of how to keep the same revenue in the future. Innovation will be a code word for these companies and a much closer collaboration with their costumers, which will increase the use of Web 2.0 and 3.0 applications. Many of these applications will demand increased capacity of computer power and this will eventually expand the cloud to new dimensions. The advantage of cloud computing will be supported by the increased use of Web 2.0 and 3.0 applications. The cloud success will be very much depending of how;

·        Price
Licence pay will disappear and payments will be based on pay for services on usage.
·        Simplicity
It is simple to use and set up, no resource management is needed.
·        Reliability
Network and data are guaranteed to be reliably maintained, as experts are in play.
·        Flexibility
Services can be partly outsourced and proprietary data can stay at costumers own site.
·        Focus
Companies and consumers can focus on running their business rather than worrying about infrastructure set up.
·        Collaboration
Since all the applications are on the cloud it becomes natural for consumers to collaborate on a common project or application


There is tremendous potential for consumers to exploit the cloud computing technology. This potential will be even more interesting for consumers. The potential will expand when self contained, pre-packaged cloud solutions for the providing cloud companies are available. The “Cloud Burst” from IBM provides hardware, software, applications and middleware for these faster application development and deployment turn around time solutions. This is important to further expand the cloud vision and make it sustainable for consumers and companies.

onsdag den 4. maj 2011

Has Social Media more impact on your private life than on your working life?


Before the invention of the internet, content creation was done by professionals all controlled by a corporation and/or a board. If you as a private wanted your opinion out in the open space you needed to corporate with the established medias to get your content out. You could not just turn your computer on and set a manifest on your FaceBook wall as there was nothing like this – if you wanted to tell friends or others something you had to use the communication forms existing or just accept that communication was a one-to-many communication.
That is why technology development has been seen as one of the main factors effecting enterprises processes and profitability and getting private communication from on-to-many out to many-to-many, by working in an open innovation environment. 1982 was the start of the commercial internet which opened a whole new world of opportunities to consumers and corporations and its success in changing our way of communicating and working has been largely researched in various subjects and defined in several terms. From 1982 and forward the internet has evolved and created new rules of engagement for companies and people interacting and doing business and social relationships with their costumers and partners. The new applications and services are being developed and offered in order to catch up with changing information society where culture and social landscapes in the various geographies in the world, are being challenged by defining new concepts of doing business and communication.
During the last couple of years, terms as Web 2.0 and today even Web 3.0 and social media and network has emerged, as the definition of the second and third generation of web based services (Eikelman et al 2008). According to Strategy Analytics report (2010) Social media and network users will expand to 1.9 billion by 2015.
GLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORK USERS BY REGION, 2010 VS. 2015




Source: Global Social Network Market forecast 18.10.2010 – Figure 1.1
This huge growth of Social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook, flicker among other) blogs, wikis and consumers participation in these platforms forces companies to revaluate their strategies and  
same time have a check on their key values and ethics. The investments (amounts from 53 mio $ up to 1 billion$) which has been done by large corporations such as Google, IBM, AOL and Microsoft 
in social networks gives a clear signal that companies presence in social relationships and collaborations with their costumers gains a new meaning in terms of communication strategy.

It certainly has an impact on you as consumer, user of social media. Your influence of products and business development is one thing. Another thing is your possibility to get new knowledge and enrich your knowledge of other people struggles and possibilities in the world. Suddenly minority groups will be able to raise their problems and hopes, by using the Social Media in a cheap and uncontrolled way without censure ship from authorities. You as a private person are able to send a message to the world without being controlled. You as a private person can communicate your messages as New York Times and nobody can stop you – you may not have the same amount of readers and followers as New York Times but you don’t have to wait for some one else to publish your content – you can do it in a split second. You get a power, which is positive for you as a person, but it also gives you a big responsibility to use your power on a positive way.
The Social Media has shown in the last couple of month to be a part of a democratization process as individuals can use the new technology and medias to show the world how governments acts to support regimes which suppresses the majority of the population in the region. We have seen that private persons have sent You Tube videos on the net with documentation of government suppression and tweets and blogs from new opposition have emerged. Not only in the North African region but also in southern America local people expressing misbelieves of the government policy on various matters.
Everybody has suddenly been their own public spokesperson.  This has an impact on both your private and professional live, it can be difficult to distinguish between when you are on work and when you are a private person. Building on the point above it will be impossible for traditional spokespeople to devote time to the growing number of on the record statements required. Rather corporate affairs and PR departments will need to train the entire organization for influencer engagements. On the private use of Social Media you need to learn to have a certain set of rules so you are not online all the time and you know what content and pictures are on your social account.

Social Media is open source for both companies and private persons and the only controlling factor is you as an individual. This brings possibilities but also responsibilities to you and the companies. My personal believe is, that Social Media has the same impact on private and business relations as the overall ecosystem hopefully will be impacted positively by these new possibilities.