Social Networking technology has made it incredibly easy and inexpensive for people to collaborate and work together irrespective of their physical location. Given the proliferation of high speed internet access from home and mobile devices, something unthinkable even a few years ago (remember those dial-up modems), we are increasingly going to see people from diverse backgrounds & geographies collaborate on a project and share their expertise, thanks to Social Networks.

This presents an excellent opportunity for business to tap into Cognitive Surplus, world’s spare brain power so to speak, and leverage it in a way that it is beneficial to all concerned (see this link for an excellent visualization of the size of Cognitive Surplus and refer to my earlier post titled Cognitive Surplus: Implications for Social CRM for more on the subject).

Quirky, a Social product development company is a very good example of not only collaborative work, but also of how influencers can be rewarded for their contribution (see the last column of any product’s page on Quirky’s online store for share of each influencer in total price of the product).

Watch the following videos to learn more about how Quirky taps into Cognitive Surplus of Influencers and rewards them for their contribution, a win-win strategy indeed.

Clay Shirky is one of the leading thinkers on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and is well known for his talks on Cognitive Surplus. He believes that loose ­collaboration enabled by new technologies (such as Social Media) can change the way society works with the aid of “spare” brainpower.

Listen to to his inspiring TED@State talk about how cellphones, Twitter and Facebook can make history and his talk at TED@Cannes on how cognitive surplus will change the world. Thinkers and practitioner of Social CRM can learn many valuable lessons from these two TED Talks.

Enjoy the videos and share your thoughts and comments on how we can leverage Cognitive Surplus in business, especially marketing.

Google is one of the great success stories of internet age. Given its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, it has achieved remarkable success by focusing on search results and monetizing clicks. But Google’s revenue model is under threat in the age of Social Media. Facebook recently surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website (for more, see this and this).

What should Google do to continue its dominance in the Social Age? Think outside the box, “Search” box that is! Google has done a great job focusing on its core competency of indexing content on the web and displaying most relevant search results without any “noise” or “clutter” on the screen. And this is what made Google so popular in the first place.

But this strategy of indexing web content and displaying most relevant search results will no longer work in Social Age as users rely more on Social Media channels and less on search engines to get relevant information. Google should shift its strategy from Search to Share, to continue its dominance in the Social Age as people are more likely to pay attention to content from those they trust rather than ones suggested by search engines. 

Facebook recently introduced some great changes to its service in order to leverage the power of Open Graph and “create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken” (for more, see Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post here). Google should up the ante on Facebook by introducing “Social Plugins” that will help collect, index and display content based on Social links. And this transformation from Search to Share involves thinking outside the Search box.

I want to end this post by sharing with you this great CNBC Video titled Inside the Mind of Google that explains very well Google’s success story. Enjoy the video!

Excellent interview of Chris Brogan by David Thomas of SAS Institute on biggest change Social Media will bring to the way we do business.

Social Media according to Chris Brogan:

• Lot of light as compared to heat
• Puts human face back on Business
• Big companies have a chance to feel small and human again
• Individuals have an opportunity to compete with bigger organizations like never before

Results of CMO Club Weekly Poll published on BW blog made some interesting reading. Question that was asked was “Which of your groups is best equipped to help you with your social media efforts today?”  114 CMOs responded:

• 65.6% In House
• 15.6% Interactive Agency
• 9.4% PR Firm
• 9.4% Social Media Agency
• 0% Creative/Ad Agency

Why majority of respondents preferred In House Agency rather than entrusting the work to outside firms?

Answer lies in the fact that Social Media is still a very new subject and unexplored medium – constantly evolving. More importantly, Social Media/Interactive/PR/Creative/Ad agencies have not done a good job of defining their offerings and articulating them well to clients. And in absence of any well defined service offerings from agencies, clients prefer to do Social Media in-house.

What Can agencies do to remedy the situation?

• Come out with well defined service offerings
• Articulate their service offerings well to clients
• Offer a result oriented approach to induce clients to try out Social Media
• Hire best available talent who understand Social Media well and how to leverage it for Brand Promotion

Agencies will have to take a lead on this and guide their clients. Early birds will get the best returns! What do you think?

Watch this video for what three visionary CEOs have to say about Social Networking:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco: “Social Networking is transforming companies. It is the future of Business Productivity, Health Care, Education and Entertainment.”
• Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsico: “Global company with global brands and reputation can use it as a force for good.”
• Jeffrey Joerres, President and CEO, Manpower: “When it comes to Social Networking, it is a major trend towards what will be a very standard everyday stuff.”

This very clearly highlights the fact that Social Media and Social Networking are not a fad, but for real, are here to stay and will become mainstream in near future. Social Business is not just another way of doing business, it is THE way business will be conducted.

I strongly recommend that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, and lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools.

Social Networking has far reaching implications for the marketing department and I recommend that CMOs setup a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social Networking tools and applications. Sooner marketing department(s) adopt and start using Social Networking for engaging their customers better for their brand(s), else performance of their business will suffer.

Social Media and Social CRM being so new, one is often asked the question what is Social CRM and how is it different from “traditional” CRM?

Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Loyalty is defined as attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it and/or recommend it to others.

Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers than about managing relationships or transactions, which are focus areas of “traditional” CRM.

Hope this answers the question. If not, please feel free to leave a comment:

Should the CEO Tweet? This is a hot topic of discussion among senior execs with strong opinions both in favor and against. But in practice, very few CEOs of large corporations are actively using Twitter. Findings of a study on use of Social Media tools by CEOs of Fortune 100 companies are shocking. It was found that among Fortune’s top 100 CEOs:

* Only 2 CEOs have twitter account
* Mere 13 have LinkedIn profile
* 81% do not have a Facebook page
* Only 2 Fortune 100 CEOs have more than 10 friends on Facebook
* Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog

Shouldn’t CEOs leverage growing reach and effectiveness of Social Media channels to reach out to their Customers, Employees and other stake holders?

In my opinion, they should. Of course, they need to be careful in what they write on their Facebook page or on Twitter. But they SHOULD use social media channels with necessary inputs from their PR, Media Relations and Legal departments. Social Media is all about bringing the “human touch” and CEOs being public face of corporations can use Twitter very effectively for this. For example, CEOs can tweet about what their company has done to help those affected by recent earthquake in Haiti. This can help generate a lot of goodwill for their corporate brand.

Watch this excellent CNN video interview with Pete Cashmore of Mashable.com and Sarah Milstein

Zappos CEO is quoted as saying “if you don’t trust your employees to tweet freely, it’s an employee or leadership issue, not an employee Twitter policy issue”.

So true! Hope more CEOs and senior executives start actively using Social Media channels like Facebook and Twitter and allow their employees to do the same in a constructive way that will benefit everyone!

What do you think? Should CEOs and other senior executives use Twitter and Facebook? And should they allow employees in their company to use Social Media freely?

Socialnomics Author Erik Qualman recently visited Google’s Boston, MA campus to discuss his book, Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business.

This is a great talk by Erik on why Social Media is one of the greatest shift since industrial revolution and what successful people and companies are doing in this space. Watch the video:

Not a week goes by without publication of findings from a study or a survey confirming growing reach of Social Media channels. Latest in this series is findings by NielsenWire. As per this study, “global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year”. This study further highlights that “Consumers in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210% year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-over-year in December 2009. Year-over-year growth in average time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively” (for more see this link).

This study confirms the phenomenal growth in Social Media usage, not only in terms of number of users, but average amount of time spent by each user on social networking sites. There is a unique opportunity for marketers to leverage emerging media for Social CRM, which can be defined as business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media for building trust and brand loyalty.

But in spite of this clear opportunity, marketers have not allocated time or resources for engaging customers over Social Media channels. According to a survey of 124 chief marketing officers by The CMO Club and Hill & Knowlton, more than four out of five (84 percent) chief marketing officers (CMOs) allocate less than ten percent of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than half (55 percent) allocating just five percent or less. To the question “Does your brand have a web 2.0 communications policy?” almost half said either they don’t have or are currently developing one. Only 14% CMOs said that they were “proactive” about creating external brand advocates and leveraging them (detailed findings of the survey here).

In another study by Weber Shandwick for evaluating how effectively Fortune 100 companies used Twitter to its full potential as an engagement platform, it was found that “for the majority of Fortune 100 companies, Twitter remains a missed opportunity. Many of their Twitter accounts did not appear to listen to or engage with their readers, instead offering a one-way broadcast of press releases, company blog posts and event information. This falls short of the opportunity that Twitter offers as a valuable communications channel and strategic social network.”

Results of a study by Burson-Marsteller on Fortune 100’s use of key Social Media Tools and another study on use of Social Media tools by CEOs of Fortune 100 companies are equally disappointing.

Findings of studies referred above clearly indicate that even large companies don’t get it when it comes to Social Media. Marketers are not having their eyes and ears on Social Media channels that are going to drive their business going forward.

It is very important that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously. They should lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools. As a first step in this direction, I strongly recommend that CMOs should:

• Have a Twitter account and start using it for communicating with customers and general public
• Monitor discussion regarding their company or brands on Social Media channels and if there are any legitimate issues, take it up with respective execs and make sure that they are resolved
• Should use feedback gained from Social Media channels and ask right questions during review meetings. This will send out clear message down the chain that senior execs are listening to customers on Social Media and line managers or customer support staff will be more responsive to handling customer issues via Social channels.
• Set up a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social web applications

These are some of the Must Do items that every CMO should tackle right away. Sooner they adopt and start using Social Media for engaging their customers better for them, else performance of their business will suffer.

Dear CMOs, the choice is yours!

Who says Social Media isn’t worth the time and effort? Watch this great report by CNN’s Josh Levs on a $300 YouTube clip that triggered a $30 million Hollywood deal.

Good Panel discussion on What Comes Next in Social Media? organized by The Paley Center for Media.

Panelist include:

• Jamie Daves, Venture Partner at City Light Capital
• Tom Arrix, Vice President of Sales at Facebook
• Peter Land, Senior Vice President of PepsiCo
• Joe Marchese, Co-founder and President of SocialVibe
• Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder of Meebo

Some key points of discussion are:

1. Pepsico marketing in Social Media
2. New Era in Media Advertising
3. Advertisers utilizing Facebook user experience
4. Monetization models and revenue streams
5. Monetization from communities, not brands
6. Evolution of Social game experience
7. User experience: International Vs. Domestic

One of the biggest stories in 2010 is going  to be the exponential growth of Social Media in Asia, not only in terms of reach but also content created in varied Asian languages. What is different about Social Media in Asia as compared to North America, Europe or Australia?

• Scale of Asia: China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Korea – to name just a few countries.
• Diversity: Culture and Languages
• Usage of Internet: Access to Social Networking sites via Mobile devices, not a PC
• Monetization models

Watch this excellent video interview with Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific Director, Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, followed by a Slideshare presentation by him.

Excellent slideshare presentation by Gia Lyons, Strategic Consultant at Jive Software on Employees as Social Media Marketers. This presentation highlights how to effectively orchestrate Social Media use by employees, Do’s and Don’ts, internal guidelines for an organization and what software can help organize it all.

Very relevant given the fact that many organizations are grappling with this issue currently. I think best way for organizations to deal with this issue is to educate employees about Do’s and Don’ts, have a “reasonable” Social Media usage guidelines and above all, have Trust and Confidence in employees to do the right thing.

(Click Play for slide show to play with presentation audio)

Wanted to share two great panel discussion videos on “Social Media: Platform or Provocation for Innovation?” organized by USC’s Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism. Both are “long” videos, first one is 1 hour and 25 minutes and second one is 1 hour and 40 minutes. So without wasting any additional time on intro, I would let you dive right into these two great videos and hear directly from the masters. Enjoy! (just in case if there are any streaming issues, disable the “HQ” mode by clicking on it).

Panel 1: On Social and Technological Innovation being brought about by Social Media:

Panel 2: Implications of Social Media to business:

There has been lot of discussion on whether Social Media revolution is for real or is it some passing fad that will die down eventually. Well, those who have any doubt should read findings of a recent survey by Forrester. In this survey of 204 marketing executives across industries, it was found that recession is accelerating shift to interactive, mobile and social media.

Marketers were most optimistic about social media, online video, SEO, mobile, paid placement in social media, email and paid search, in descending order. Near the bottom were outdoor, telemarketing, radio and newspapers. As per Forrester’s Interactive Marketing forecast, Interactive marketing will approach $55 billion in marketing spend in 2014 benefiting from search, social media and mobile marketing.

It is important to note that in the past two years, time spent by consumers online has grown from 29% to 34%, but advertisers spend only 12% of their budget on Internet marketing. Forrester predicts that by 2014, spend will increase to 21% of budget. Forrester further predicts that both social and mobile will have the biggest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — 34% and 27%, respectively through 2014.

So, there you have it! Consumers are spending more time online, interacting with their friends and contacts through Social Networks. TV and Print Media have seen their Viewership/Readership fall significantly. This is the right time to allocate (or should I say “shift”) resources for investment from “traditional” media to “new” media and engage customers through Social Media for building trust and loyalty (see my earlier post on What is Social CRM and why it is important). It is time for CMOs and Marketing Executives to wake up to Social Media challenge and lead from the front.

What do you think? Should CMOs & CIOs wait any longer before deciding to allocate $$$ for Social CRM Program?

Results of a study by Burson-Marsteller Australia on Social Media Use by Australia’s Best Brands are disappointing (refer to slide no. 22 for conclusions and takeaways):

Another great preso by Tara Hunt titled “Your Social Media Strategy Won’t Save You”. My fav is slide no. 84, it is very well said (or written)!

Excellent video on how to be a Social Media change agent, an interview with Josh Bernoff, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Although this video is more than a year old, it is very much relevant in today’s context and worth watching again.

In my previous post titled What is Social CRM and why it is important, I have highlighted the phenomenal growth in number of Social Media users and importance of engaging customers through Social Media for building trust and brand loyalty.

Given statistically significant correlation between social media engagement and financial performance metrics – revenue and profit, one would expect CMOs to be busy making elaborate plans about engaging customers through Social Media, Right? WRONG!

According to a survey of 124 chief marketing officers by The CMO Club and Hill & Knowlton, more than four out of five (84 percent) chief marketing officers (CMOs) allocate less than ten percent of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than half (55 percent) allocating just five percent or less.

To the question “Does your brand have a web 2.0 communications policy?” almost half said either they don’t have or are currently developing one. Only 14% CMOs said that they were “proactive” about creating external brand advocates and leveraging them (detailed findings of the survey here).

This lack of involvement on the part of CMOs contradicts with the growth of Social Media, not only in terms of users but time spent on it as well (see excellent post by Brian Solis on growth stats).

In another study by Weber Shandwick for evaluating how effectively Fortune 100 companies used Twitter to its full potential as an engagement platform, it was found that “for the majority of Fortune 100 companies, Twitter remains a missed opportunity. Many of their Twitter accounts did not appear to listen to or engage with their readers, instead offering a one-way broadcast of press releases, company blog posts and event information. This falls short of the opportunity that Twitter offers as a valuable communications channel and strategic social network.”

As per findings of two studies quoted above, we can see a major “disconnect” given the phenomenal growth in Social Media usage on one hand and lack of involvement of CMOs on the other. CMOs need to wake up to Social Media challenge NOW and lead from front, else they risk falling far behind other brands, not only in their industry, but across customers’ general online experience.

What do you think? What should CMOs do to engage their customers through Social Media for building Trust and Loyalty?

Excellent Video on Socialnomics: Social Media ROI

In spite of phenomenal growth of Social Media channels and almost hysterical following this has generated among its users, it is rare to see large corporations making effective use of Social Media in engaging their Customers. Burson-Marsteller has studied Fortune 100’s use of key Social Media Tools It is evident from this study that although use of Social Media by business is growing rapidly, it is still way behind what one would expect given the level of involvement of Social Media users.

Findings of another Study on use of Social Media tools by CEOs of Fortune 100 companies
are even more shocking. It was found that among Fortune’s top 100 CEOs:

• Only 2 CEOs have twitter account
• Mere 13 have LinkedIn profile
• 81% do not have a Facebook page
• Only 2 Fortune 100 CEOs have more than 10 friends on Facebook
• Not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog

This shows CEOs are disinterested and are not having their eyes and ears on Social Media channels that are going to drive their business going forward. It is very important that all senior executives of business start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, especially the CEOs and CMOs. They should lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools. To start with, CEOs and CMOs should:

• Have a Twitter account and start using it for communicating with customers and general public
• Have a Facebook page and respond to discussion on their page
• Monitor discussion regarding their company or brands on Social Media channels and if there are any legitimate issues, take it up with respective execs and make sure that they are resolved
• Should use feedback gained from Social Media channels and ask right questions during review meetings. This will send out clear message down the chain that senior execs are listening to customers on Social Media and line managers or customer support staff will be more responsive to handling customer issues via Social channels.
• Set up a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their business into emerging Social web applications

These are some of the Must Do items that every CEO and CMO of any business should tackle right away. Sooner they adopt and start using Social Media for engaging their customers and key stake-holders better for them else performance of their business will suffer. They need to make sure that their business engages customers through Social Media for building trust and brand loyalty.

What is your opinion? What should CEOs and CMOs do to effectively engages Customers on Social Media for building Trust and Loyalty? Love to hear from you …

Social CRM is defined as the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Loyalty being attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it or recommend it to others (see my earlier post on Social CRM)

Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers. This fact is well illustrated in Lion brand Social Media conversion case study. On slide #7 note that Social Media users are 83% more likely to be very brand loyal than people who don’t use Social Media. This indicates that if marketers engage customers using social media, they can build a loyal relationship based on trust – biggest asset for any brand.

Excellent Preso on Enterprise 2.0 and how it can help Internal Innovation Process:

Excellent Wiki of Social Media resources featuring list of Corporate Social Media policies and Social Media Agencies, Consultants.