Portals and KM

My FastForward Posts for March 2010

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in April.

Global Intranet Trends 2010 Report

Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage

Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Research from Cecile Demailly

Using Social Media to Predict the Strength of Personal Ties

Watch Out as Social Media Can Be Addictive

Microblogging Inside and Outside the Enterprise

Early Strategies Provides Useful Enterprise 2.0 Adoption Research

Cecile Demailly at the French consulting firm, Early Strategies, recently completed an interesting study of enterprise 2.0 adoption that I learned about through Twitter. The report titled, Toward Enterprise 2.0: Making the Change in the Corporation, is based on an online survey conducted between November 2009 and January 2010. The participants included a primary set of people involved in enterprise 2.0 deployment, and a secondary audience of well-informed users of enterprise 2.0 applications and projects. The majority of participants were European with 18 percent from the US. The report stated that they mostly belong to CIO/IT (38%), followed by HR (16%), Communications (12%) and Marketing (12%).

A number of themes for successful enterprise 2.0 adoptions emerged from the data.  Like many others, the respondents indicated that, “though technology is important, it is not about technology.”  The report went on to state that, “moving toward enterprise 2.0 is not a standalone game; it has to serve the overall corporate vision. The transformation has to plant its roots into the organization’s culture and strategy.”  The report used Schein’s organizational culture model, and the Early Strategies’ Enterprise 2.0 maturity model.  It segmented the transformational requirements into three levels.

At the organizational level transformation must support a strategic vision.  This could be a broad goal such as being a pioneer in the area or a more focused one such as moving toward more corporate social responsibility. At individual level, the transformation has to help with the daily work.  The broad goals of the organization may not be top of mind for the employees who have to undergo a change in the way they work and/or the tools they use.  Getting the job done better and more efficiently will be the main driver for them. At management level, an enterprise 2.0 transformation needs to help create a different and more accurate and up-to-date management model.  I believe that the transparency built into enterprise 2.0 tools and practices can certainly address this management goal if used properly.

I think this is a useful approach and these three levels need to be working in harmony for the general health of the company, as well as any enterprise 2.0 adoption efforts.  The report also states that the benefits on all three levels need to be communicated widely during the adoption process.  So far these results are consistent with most management and technology transformations. The report goes on to offer some new insights that may be more specific to enterprise 2.0.

First, it stated, “although there are complex impacts on management, it is important to note that by simply participating, managers transfer their status into the new paradigm; while not participating creates a real discrepancy.” I would agree as the nature of transparent tools changes to course of work. I know of one firm that had its first project come in under budget when they adopted enterprise 2.0 management tools. They attributed this to the transparency as everyone could see what has happening at all times in the process so accountability was clear and continuous improvements were made (see Changing Organization Behavior at XM Radio through Enterprise 2.0). 

Next, the report stated, “Middle management appears to be the organization layer where adoption is the slower, or most difficult, for all types of organizations and at all stages.” Now this has frequently happen in organizations going back to the Roman army but it remains an issue to address. Booz Allen spent the majority of its change management efforts on this level as it moved to an enterprise 2.0 collaboration platform.

The third point was, “Networking tools (rich directory, profiles, microblogging, forums, tagging, …) may be deployed just before collaboration tools (wikis, groups, …), or together, rather than the other way around or not being prioritized.” Some of the vendors have recognized this and are prompting their networking tools as a “Trojan horse” before getting into the more complex process of aligning collaboration platforms to work processes. These networking tools can show quick returns and provide a means for viral marketing of these benefits. 

The report suggests that, “communicating externally about the internal change may help to change the mindsets internally.” This is an interesting idea. Those that have been successful in enterprise 2.0 are by definition early adopters who often like to promote their efforts in the external world.  This external promotion will indicate the importance of the transformation, as well as potentially provide more pride within the workplace.

Finally, it added that it helps when “new educational modes: mentoring and collaborative learning, structured or unstructured, when the community takes care of improving each one’s participation.”  I have always found that collaborative peer learning produces the best results. Enterprise 2.0 tools now allow for this peer learning to be more effective. For example, I have seen several instances where switching to blogs in the learning platform dramatically increased results.

I think these are all excellent points. There is much more in the thirty eight page report as I have just touched on a few highlights. It is available at the Early Strategies web site.

 

Google Opens Apps Marketplace and Zoho Joins with CRM and Project

Google’s recently launched its online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services. The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easier for more than two million Google Apps customers to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience that can increase business efficiency and reduce administrative overhead. It is another step in Google’s move to become a player in the productivity software space, especially the cloud version.

Now Zoho recently announced it has added Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects to the Google Apps Marketplace.™ These are two of their most popular offerings. Zoho had previously integrated their apps with Google at the log-in level with single sign-on.  Now, they are taking their integrations deepe using the enhanced APIs for Google Apps.

Users gain a variety of benefits from the integration of the Zoho applications with Google Apps. For all Zoho applications, the integration lets users automatically sign in to the Zoho applications with their existing Google Apps credentials. In addition, Zoho Business applications are listed in Google’s universal navigation, and Zoho application gadgets can be embedded in relevant Google applications, such as Gmail™, iGoogle™ and Google Sites™.

With Zoho CRM ussers can view Gmail emails in Zoho CRM contextually, so all Gmail emails exchanged with a Zoho CRM contact can be viewed. Users can also import contacts from Google Apps to Zoho CRM, view Zoho CRM calendar events in Google Calendar, and more.? 

With Zoho Projects users can view Zoho Project calendar events in Google Calendar and attach Google Docs™ files to Zoho Projects. 

Here is an interesting post, It Is Not About Our App, It Is About the User's Data and Context, by Zoho’s CEO Sridhar Vembu that discusses their integrate with Google Apps.  He writes that an important emerging theme in cloud applications is the one-browser-tab approach to design. In this case there is contextual integration of information across applications, so that whatever app the user happens to be in, relevant information is pulled from other apps and displayed it in the right context. This is a good move by both Zoho and Google. . 

Images of New Orleans Neighborhoods 2010 Part Six: The Columns Hotel

This is the sixth in a series of images of New Orleans neighborhoods taken in February 2010 the weekend before the Super Bowl victory and two weeks for Mardi Gras. I certainly did not have time to cover them all but this series will provide a glimpse of the city that I hope you will want to visit.

Okay, the Columns Hotel is not a neighborhood but it is located between the fifth and seventh neighborhoods in this series. It located on the edge of the Garden District on St. Charles Ave. and the edge of the Uptown area above St. Charles that I will cover next. My grandmother was the manager in the 1950s and I would visit her often. Her room was on the top floor and I remember the sky light and stairs (see below). I have stayed there a number of times in the past few years, including once in my grandmother's old room on the top floor. It is located at 3811 Saint Charles Avenue.

The Columns Hotel was designed by one of New Orleans' great architects, Thomas Sully. It is the only remaining example of a large group of Italianate houses that he designed in the late 1880's. It was use for the interior scenes in the Louis Malle movie, Pretty Baby.  The bar is one of the favorites in the uptown area and live music is often provided. You can see the location in the map below

                            
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Our Dinner with Don – Veal Short Ribs, Polenta, Root Vegetables, Artichokes, Eggplant, and More

This was a wonderful meal by my good friend Don Lesser who covers food and restaurants for Western Massachusetts through the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton and Edible Pioneer Valley magazine.  We frequently get together and I have written about his food and his food writing a good bit on this blog as well as our food experiences (see for example:  Tale of Two NOLA Breakfasts in Ashfield MA and Making Spanish Tapas – Cooking at the Culinary Institute of America.

This meal was inspired by the French Laundry Cookbook.  The main meal included veal short ribs, polenta cakes with root vegetables, baby artichokes, and asparagus. The veal was grass-fed (non-torture) from Vermont. We started with a wonderful eggplant spread, roasted red peppers, and a salami. Don does a geat job of describing the cooking and the meal in this post, Veal Short Ribs and Asparagus – Winter into Spring Dinner, so I will defer to him from the details. Below you can see the assemblage of the main event, as well as the starters.

         
 
 
 
 
 
 

RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species from Joel Sartore

 I received a review copy of Joel Sartore's new book, RARE: Portraits of America's Endangered Species, and greatly appreciated it. It is published by National Geographic. The book presents 68 iconic images representing Joel’s three-year investigation into the Endangered Species Act. It protays some of the creatures it exists to protect.  The book moves from condors to crocodiles, wolverines to woodpeckers, snails to sea turtles, plovers to pitcher plants. RARE presents each animal with the number left. This is very impactful.

As you open the book you see a Southern Mountain Yellow-legged frog breaking the surface. The contents are organized by the number of a species left on earth. Many are fewer than a thousand or unknown.  I was surprised to find there are only 46 Woodland Caribou, 195 Ocelots, around 300 Wolverines, 330 red wolves, 356 Condors, and 539 Whooping Cranes. I remember as a kid in New Orleans seeing the Whooping Crane stamp released connected to Louisiana.

Even among more animals with greater numbers, it is concerning to see only about 3500 Polar bears and 2,000 American Crocodiles. Joel’s photos really make these animals come alive. There are some plants, as well.

Joel Sartore is a winner of the 2010 North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) “Outstanding Photographer of the Year” award, and award winner at the 2010 Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition for images that form the foundation of this book. You can visit Joel’s web site to see a video on the book.

This is a highly recommended book on an important issue. 

Gary Flake Demos Pivot at TED

Gary Flake recently demoed Pivot at TED.  It is a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing. Gary is a Technical Fellow at Microsoft, and the founder and director of Live Lab. He shows how you can take control over data to see trends that might be undiscovered otherwise.  For example, being able to see all Wikipedia pages related to a topic at once, allow you to see trends that are not contained in any single entry.

He said that with Pivot you can navigate the Web as if it is a Web and see relationships.  He talks about taking the curse of data overload and turning it on its head to take advantage of quantity to see the patterns within it. Here is Gary’s Pivot talk on TED.

Although we take a different approach this is exactly the goal of the Darwin Awareness Engine (TM). Instead of bring you long lists of content on topic that are order by popularity, we show the top 100 themes within the content that relates to your topic of interest.  We attempt to let you discover unexpected patterns, content, and relationships in this manner. 

Another Enterprise 2.0 App Goes Mobile - Brightidea Innovation Management

Brightidea brings the capabilities of social computing to the idea generation and implementation process. Their WebStorm^TM product is an Idea Collection and Ranking Portal that facilitates the innovation process. I have covered them before (see: Brightidea.com – Brings Focused Enterprise 2.0 Capabilities to Innovation).

Now collaboration is forecasted by Forrester to be one of the big drivers for smart phone usage in 2010 (see Smartphone Surge in 2010). In line with this trend Brightidea has announced the release of Brightidea Mobile^TM.  Designed exclusively for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as well as the Google Android platform, the native App brings the Brightidea platform to mobile users.

The Brightidea Mobile^TM app supports public or private communities and is designed to support the rigorous security requirements and access controls required by large enterprises that host many online brainstorms simultaneously.  

Users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad can move between multiple Brightidea WebStorms through the familiar iPhone interface and simple navigation menu with built-in access to all accounts, campaigns, ideas, and comments.  With Brightidea Mobile, users can view, post, comment, vote, and share ideas as well as use Brightidea’s corporate micro-blogging feature that allows users to post and follow activity within their innovation community.

One of Brightidea’s first clients to roll-out the mobile app is The Nielsen Company. Brightidea Mobile TM can be downloaded directly from the iTunes store. I think the migration to mobile instances of enterprise 2.0 collaboration software will continue. Most studies have shown that moving to mobile is a major direction for enterprise software (see for example, Global Intranet Trends 2010 Report). 

Brightidea was also recently selected by the city of San Francisco to power their program to get more employee involvement in improvements for the city.  They are also supporting Ireland's efforts to get more citizen involvement in improving the country in the Your Country Your Call effort. A mobile app should be very useful in these cases. 

Darwin Discovers Emerging Buzz Over UCLA Tuition Hike Protests

Here is an example of how the Darwin Awareness Engine™ can uncover breaking news before it hits the mainstream press.  We have the concept of rising and falling stars as topics gather or lose momentum on the Web.  These rising and falling starts are displayed in a ticker tape type across the top of the Darwin screen.

Recently, Thierry Hubert notices an acceleration or rising star on the term – tuition hike.  He looked at the formal mainstream media and found nothing. Then he looked at informal media and found a lot of content and variety of related themes on the Darwin Scan Cloud™.  For example, there was a video of UCLA students protesting the tuition hike at their school.  There are several other sites with similar videos. It appeared to be a coordinated by the UCLA students through social media. Here is link to a video of the Darwin screens and results hosted on Vimeo.

We found a similar example recently, when we saw that the Latino community was organizing through social media to get Lou Dobbs. This social media effort appeared through Darwin before it was picked up by the mainstream press. 

Will Apple iTunes Impact the Business Model in Television, Like Music?

Things continue to move fast in the TV sector. Apple and other Web apps have certainly impacted the music industry and print publishing.  Now there is a move to impact television by changing the business model. Instead of subscribing to cable for a fixed fee to get a lot of stuff bundled, Apple wants to sell TV programs one at a time, like they do with music, for a low cost per program. A recent Fats Company article best that they will succeed (see: Apple's iPad Disrupting the Network TV Business Model? I'd Buy That for a Dollar!).

Naturally, the TV industry is exhibiting broad concern over this plan. While they're want to get on the Apple's iPad bandwagon as a TV player, they are worried that lower prices will cut into their revenue streams. Now TV has its markets to protect but there are also 125 million registered iTunes users, representing a huge potential market, waiting to be tapped by someone. The main worry on the TV side is that production is expensive and each show represents a huge investment in time and money. Can they get their money a buck at a time?

The FastCompany article, which builds a story in the New York Times, suggests that they would be fools to not do this. If they do not offer programs at attractive prices, people will just steal the shows as it is not that complex to do in the digital world. If the price is right, it will convince most people not to do to the trouble and potential risk to resort to piracy.  It will be very interesting to see how this shakes out. We feel that Darwin can help the winners, whoever they are, with both news gathering and impact analysis regardless of the winner as TV moves closer to the Web (see Monitoring and Measuring the Impact of Public Service Media Part Two: Addressing the Issues). 

Painting of Silver Boots

Here is a 14" x 18" acrylic painting of silver boots. They belong to our studio model. I am putting shoes that I feel have some character against a roll of brown paper in the same way that photographers often put people against white paper.  You can see the early stages of the painting below the final version.  This and many others are for sale at the Artsetter site. 

 

  
  

 
 

Images of New Orleans Neighborhoods 2010 Part Five: Garden District

This is the fifth in a series of images of New Orleans neighborhoods taken in February 2010 the weekend before the Super Bowl victory and two weeks for Mardi Gras. I certainly did not have time to cover them all but this series will provide a glimpse of the city that I hope you will want to visit.

The Garden District is probably the best known area outside the downtown. It was built by transplants form New York and New England in the 1850s. They tended to build large houses with gardens on the outside, unlike the French who built their gardens hidden in the back or center of houses. It is bounded by St. Charles Ave, Jackson Ave, Louisiana Ave. and Magazine Street. I did not spend much time here this trip so it is supplemented with pictures from earlier trips. You see many of the southern live oaks planted in the early 20th century, 

There is also a picture of Commoander's Palace located at 1403 Washington Street This was my parent's favorite place to take out-of-towners for the big night out in the 1950s.  For informal seafood they went to Bruning's in the West End but it got wiped out by Katrina. I have been back several times more recently and the food remains great. This first five images are from 2010. 

                                
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

Cisco Launches Second I-Prize Competition

Cisco has recently announced the launch of the second I-Prize global innovation contest where entrepreneurs worldwide can collaborate and submit proposals for Cisco’s next billion-dollar business idea. I wrote about the first contest (see: Cisco I-Prize – Mining the Web and the World for Innovation) and the results. Following the first I-Prize, which drew nearly 2,500 entrepreneurs, this year participants will have access to an expanded portfolio of Cisco collaboration solutions to build on as they share their ideas with others globally. The winning team will be eligible for $250,000 in prize money.

There are four main categories as described by Cisco:

The future of work: Use the power of the network to bring together customers, suppliers and associates to propose solutions that will change the way companies and organizations do business. 

The connected life: Showcase technological advancements that will dramatically improve living conditions and culture. This category will require people to envision a life of seamless connectivity. 

New ways to learn: Create innovative solutions that will transform when, where and how people learn.

The future of entertainment: Devise next-generation solutions that will change how people play.

I like their topics. I-Prize contest participants will be able to use the following Cisco collaboration tools:

Cisc  Show and Share, a social video community where contest participants can record, edit and share video; comment, rate and tag interesting content; and use speech-to-text translation for easy video search and viewing.

Cisco Pulse, a search platform that dynamically tags content as it crosses the network, allowing contest participants to accurately locate and rapidly connect with the best available experts and information on a particular topic.

Cisco WebEx™, an online meeting platform for audio and Web conferencing that enables users to share documents and desktops in real time.

Cisco TelePresence™, an immersive, virtual meeting experience that combines innovative real-time video, audio and interactive technologies to give people in distributed global locations a wide variety of face-to-face collaboration experiences.

This is a good way for Cisco to gain more exposure for its collaboration suite. I-Prize participants will also have access to a management platform, powered by Spigit, which enables participants to buy and sell ideas on an open market (see: Innovating Through Market Games with Spigit). The idea market lets contest participants establish the value of their ideas through trades. Shares of ideas are purchased with virtual currency awarded to participants based on the value of their contributions on the platform. This is the same platform being used by the upcoming Enterprise 2.0 conference to help participants and others evaluate potential sessions.

This program seems to be a win-win for Cisco as they get to harvest new ideas, showcase an innovative crowd-sourcing program, as well as feature their collaboration products. 

Jane McConnell’s Global Intranet Trends 2010 Report

Jane McConnell is an intranet strategy consultant based in France who has worked with intranets since 1998. She recently published her fourth annual Intranet trends survey and report. Data was collected from nearly 300 organizations worldwide between June and September 2009. Organizations range from under 5,000 to over 100,000 employees. The five major trends for the future of intranets covered in the 2010 report are summarized below.

 The intranet is starting to become the entry point into the “workplace web” - the collection of resources and information needed by staff. This includes applications, intranet sites, specialized portals, team spaces, collaboration spaces and so on. This was the original vision for many intranets but rarely realized. The current evolution is from a fragmented workplace web to a hybrid one and finally to the end goal, a unified workplace web. In the “unified” workplace web, the intranet or enterprise portal is the front door to the organization’s information, business and collaborative resources and places. There is a ways to go as today only 15 percent of the survey participants have achieved a “unified workplace web”.

  Team-orientation is rising as firms are starting to bring collaboration spaces inside the intranet. Today, the vast majority of organizations already have team places but they are usually not considered part of the intranet. These places sometimes become mini silos. Now as the way of working becomes more collaborative and enterprise 2.0 concepts spread, this is beginning to change.

A more people-focused approach is being adopted. In the past the intranet has traditionally been a place where organizations provides content for employees to read and use. Communication was primarily top-down. This is changing with the introduction of social media. I have found that advanced organizations are recognizing the need to be more people oriented. That was the case with the Booz Allen work where profiles are the foundation for their collaborative system.

Intranets are also becoming more real-time through chat, micro-blogging, and other tools. In addition, intranets are also becoming place independent as anytime, anywhere access grows through mobile devices and home access.

These are only some of the highlights. I certainly agree with these trends. You can see the complete report at Jane’s Net Strategy site. 

Reaching Better, Faster Business Outcomes - Guest Post from Ken Muir, Novell

Today's post was written by Ken Muir, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer of Novell's Collaboration Business Unit. As a disclosure, I received no payment or any other favor for this post to appear. I have written about Novell's collaboration tools in the past and was happy to accept their offer of a conceptual post that was not a product promotion. The following qualifies and adds to the general conversation about enterprise 2.0 so I am glad to feature it today. I certainly agree with his point that consumer Web tools are usually not the right choice for use inside the enterprise. The rest is in Ken's words, unedited and a brief bio for Ken follows the post. 

What’s wrong with existing collaboration tools? Traditional collaboration solutions, such as instant messenger, content publishing and knowledge management tools, allow for information sharing, but they are also missing a key capability, the ability to work the way people do. They stifle productivity and fragment information by forcing people to work separately with incongruous tools - hindering the collaborative process.

For example, imagine you’re tasked with selecting a new product name. You meet with a colleague, start brainstorming, and capture some initial ideas in a document. Then you e-mail the document to the rest of your team for their input. Just the process of opening an email, browsing to find and attach the file takes you out of the creative “zone”.

Moreover, as your colleagues begin sending their feedback, you are collecting and aggregating the changes, hopefully capturing everything and keeping everyone up to date, without overloading them with extraneous communication. This wastes times and distracts from getting to the end goal of selecting that new product name.

Users want software that allows them to work together in a single collaborative environment, instead of having to jump from an Office program to chat to knowledge bases in a futile effort to spark innovation.

Why are social media tools a problem for the workplace? Social messaging tools have exploded in the last few years and users are finding that they enable interactions that are not available with traditional, enterprise collaboration tools. As a result, employees are bringing into the office the tools that work best for them. In fact, according to IDC, 54 percent of people use social tools for business more than two times per week, and that number is growing every day.

So, what’s the big deal? And why should IT security staff be concerned?  Historically, humans survived in groups, and it’s the way we seek to solve problems today. It’s our nature to gravitate to talking with others to tackle challenges. These tools mimic the way people work and behave, making them highly desirable for business. While tools like Facebook and Twitter started in the consumer space, people quickly realized they could extend these tools to produce more successful outcomes in the enterprise. People use these tools to produce faster, better outcomes that will improve their competitive stance.

There’s a real value to the enterprise to incorporate these types of tools—if they can just figure out how to do it within compliance guidelines.

The reality is that social media brings out new challenges for meeting enterprise security and regulatory requirements. The boundaries aren’t clear and employees aren’t waiting around for enterprise approval to start venturing out to Facebook and other channels. Many of these tools are brought in under the radar, making it difficult for IT to police them. Of course, employees using outside, unsecured tools in an unstructured way increases risk on numerous levels.

A new way to work and compete effectively: There’s a tremendous opportunity to support the rhythm of how people and teams want to work. The first step is bringing together the relevant people, conversations, assets and incoming social input in an environment that’s intuitive to the user.

People are more productive when they can co-create, share and edit documents in real-time; stay on top of issues and topics with selected feeds; and see the "big picture" when files are organized with related groups and conversations. To truly drive collaboration though, businesses need more than another place to store files and communicate. They need tools that encompass the following attributes:

·       Highly adaptable workflows that support the speed and quality of business outcomes

·       User provisioning, sign-on and permissions that leverage the current enterprise identity and access management systems

·       Granular, policy-driven controls to content visibility and access

·       Support for collaboration across organizational boundaries

·       Interoperability with existing tools for seamless collaboration

·       Audit records for compliance purposes

While there are new web-based consumer collaboration tools hitting the market, many lack the critical security components necessary for managing and protecting business content. To satisfy risk managers and auditors, enterprises must find a way to meet the basic human need of true collaboration, supported with the right enterprise controls.  

Conclusion: The collaboration space is undergoing a radical transformation. Real-time authoring and social messaging tools, with the right security and compliance underpinnings, give people the business productivity environment that results in higher quality ideas and better informed group decisions. Enabling this environment across continents and organizations clears roadblocks to employee productivity and helps businesses get competitive ideas to market faster. That’s a solution that both business users and risk managers can embrace.

Ken Muir is the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer of Novell's Collaboration Business Unit.  His responsibilities include the overall technical vision and strategy for Novell's collaboration products, including Novell Pulse, a next-generation real-time collaboration solution for the enterprise.  Ken joined Novell in 1995 after graduating with honors from the University of Utah with degrees in both Electrical and Computer Engineering.   As an Engineer at Novell, Ken worked on AppWare, NWAdmin, ConsoleOne, and ZENworks.  Ken was a lead engineer in building the ZENworks product and holds two key patents in the area of software distribution.  Subsequently, Ken has held various engineering management positions including Vice President of Engineering over ZENworks and GroupWise.  In 2007 Ken was named as Chief of Staff to Novell's CEO, Ron Hovsepian where his responsibilities included working closely with the CEO and the Executive Leadership Team in the daily operations of the company.

 

My Favorite Tweets for March 1 - 15 2010

Here is the twelfth in a new series of posts that provide access to my favorite tweets that contain links to useful information.  Some of these I did to link to things I found useful and others are RTs that I want to save for the same reason. Since Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month so they can be easily accessed later. I will repeat this once or twice a month depending on volume.

I spot tested the reduced shortened urls and they all should work. I hope this is also useful for you.  Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

Also see the Darwineco favorite tweets.

RT @SBoSM: Top of Robert Scoble's and Nick Halstead's Twitter wish lists: ability to tag other peoples' tweets #twittertools #sxsw March 15

RT @20Community: Enterprise Microblogging by Alan Lepofsky #e2adoption http://su.pr/1nRIlF March 14, 2010

Top 10 People to Follow in the Enterprise 2.0 Space and Why (Pt 1) http://bit.ly/d2jpFz from @jacobm March 14, 2010

A framework for social learning in the enterprise + comments http://bit.ly/cYqDEB great read from @jonhusband Mar 14th 

HR Series – Performance Management in E20 Context from @jonhusband http://bit.ly/a5sC53  March 13

RT @gyehuda: Blog post #e20 My Open Balancing Act at Yahoo! - http://ow.ly/16N2DQ March 12, 2010

Social business content management made easier http://bit.ly/bXz0bz via @SBoSM March 12, 2010

HR – Math of Healthy Community 2 – Sales/Influence/Power 2.0 http://bit.ly/aaREER good read from @robpatrob March 12, 2010

RT @perryhewitt: Social apps that network in @nytimes http://nyti.ms/a3onJ8 are great for common interface, but not identity Mar 11th

RT @socialmedia2day: Fortune 100 Social Media Adoption Slow.Burson study.http://su.pr/2xwH4n Mar 11th

RT @michellemanafy: RT @mediatwit: Live-blogging tips for journalists http://bit.ly/cBbioE from @sandeep_NYC > thx Mar 11th

How to Match 10 Key Success Metrics to Your Blogging Strategy http://bit.ly/cj47pt 5:03 PM Mar 11th

Twitter users not so social after all http://bit.ly/abi0x1 IMO - but many are enough to make it so Mar 11th

from @cesarbrea Filtering The Collective Preconscious: Darwin Ecosystem http://bit.ly/bH6oCx March 10, 2010

 FBI's most-wanted list goes on Twitter, iPhone app, and Facebook http://bit.ly/bhxdBx via @SBoSM 7:23 PM Mar 9th

 Google vs. Yahoo: Who Has the Right Social Strategy? http://bit.ly/bHy0XZ via @SBoSM 1:23 PM Mar 9th

RT @ConversationAge: The Ultimate Guide to Selling Art Online http://ow.ly/1f3Hb 2:41 PM Mar 6th

from @adenin IntelliEnterprise Version 10 Includes Wireframe Modeler and One-click #Intranet Factory http://ow.ly/1en1q 2:26 PM Mar 6th

Despite Growing Social Media Activity, U.S. Latinos Ignored by Big Brands http://bit.ly/c0JVoF via @SBoSM 2:07 PM Mar 5th

 RT @shivsingh: 4 of 5 US adults & 3 of 5 Europeans use social media regularly #forrester 10:26 AM Mar 5th

 RT @socialmedia2day: How to Validate Keyword Research in Social Media... John Cass...http://su.pr/98ECcX 9:10 PM Mar 4th

 RT @20Community: Implementing Enterprise 2.0 Vistaprint Pt One: Business Drivers @JacobM http://su.pr/8kRXdW 8:22 PM Mar 4th

 The State of the Twittersphere 2010 http://bit.ly/9S5YYE 6:59 PM Mar 4th

How 5 Top Companies Win With Twitter http://bit.ly/akGxFH 6:45 PM Mar 4th

Using Facial Recognition To Display Profile Information Of Strangers http://bit.ly/a9Nlqs 3:38 PM Mar 4th

RT @CommunispaceCEO: WSJ thinks Facebook'll go public in '11 w/a market cap of $35-40B http://bit.ly/dqsPaD 3:11 PM Mar 4th

RT @socialmedia2day: 50 Call Center Best Practices To Satisfy Social Customers http://su.pr/1beZa1 2:44 PM Mar 4th 

HR Series – The Core Business Process – Not serving the customer but gaming the budget from @robpatrob http://bit.ly/bUS8BG  Mar 3

Creating a CEO blog that works http://bit.ly/aFtghG via @SBoSM  Mar 3

Report on Social Media Week via @psfk http://bit.ly/c53pvx Mar 3

RT @cesarbrea: Sounds like a very wise man http://nyti.ms/aEkjgN Mar 2

RT @michellemanafy: Semantic search company NetBase Lands $9m in VC funding http://bit.ly/aixJv0 4:33 PM Mar 2nd

 RT @jackvinson: New post on KJolt: Beyond lurking - Modes of participation http://bit.ly/agaAqg 11:26 PM Mar 1st

Selling social media upstairs http://bit.ly/dioPYV Via @SBoSM 5:58 PM Mar 1st

RT @forrester: RT @mark_mulligan What Johnny Cash tells us about Apple http://tinyurl.com/yzs7lt5 > agree 4:10 PM Mar 1st 

HR in the 21st Century – Jon Husband and Rob Paterson

Two of my Fast Forward colleagues have been posting a number of excellent posts on the role of HR within enterprise 2.0. I think that this is one of the missed opportunities and neglected areas in the enterprise 2.0 area. So I want to bring this work to your attention in case you have missed it.  I have commented on a few of them so include that here. First, here are some of the posts by Jon Husband:

Work Design Issues for HR in the Enterprise 2.0 Context

HR and E2.0 – The Beginnings of a Competency-Model Foundation

HR Series – Performance Management in an Enterprise 2.0 Context: (my comment: I believe the transparency built into the E20 tools will change performance by their nature and by human nature. People do a better job when they know that others can see what they are doing. In the XM Radio case I reported on in 07, the company had its first on time on budget project after using a project management tool with E20 transparency. So Jon you are right, the new work environment and tool sets requires some creative thinking on performance management. I think this is on of the unrealized opportunities in E20. A small part of the solution is tools that provide clear monitoring and analysis. A much bigger part is new policies that recognize that we are in the 21st century. The FCC has recently recognized this and is changing how they assign bandwidth. Companies and their HR organizations need to make these changes. The winners will do it.

A framework for social learning in the enterprise:  (part of my comment) This is a great summary of where learning should be today with the Web and E20.  As noted in The Social Factor, simply having knowledge is no longer power but knowledge sharing is now power. The position you outline is also where learning should have been in the latter part of the 20th century. I always found that collaborative learning was most effective for acquiring skills and knowledge but also enabled the organizational learning to continue.  The Web now makes this approach more possible and essential for survival.

Here are some of the posts by Rob Paterson:

HR Series – The Core Problem – The Job! Rob starts with this interesting observation: the “Job” as we know it is a 19th century idea. In America very few people as a percentage of the population had job before 1905. Then the whole purpose of a Job was to DESKILL people and this continues in many parts of our lives.

HR Series – The Core Business Process – Not serving the customer but gaming the budget

HR – The Company of the Future – Automattic

HR – The Math of Healthy Community

HR – The Math of Healthy Community 2 – Sales/Influence/Power 2.0

 

Painting of My Old Shoes

Here is a 14" x 18" acrylic paintings of my old shoes. I have had these shoes for years and they are very comfortable. I tried to convey this feeling in the painting. Like many of my works, it is available for sale at Artsetter.com. 

 
 

Images of New Orleans Neighborhoods 2010 Part Four: Frenchman Street

This is the fourth in an 18 part series over the next few months of images of New Orleans neighborhoods taken in February 2010 the weekend before the Super Bowl victory and two weeks for Mardi Gras. I certainly did not have time to cover them all but this series will provide a glimpse of the city that I hope you will want to visit.

Frenchman Street is part of the Fauborg Marigny next to the French Quarter (see map). It has some of the better music clubs and ones that are much less tourist oriented than Bourbon Street. Clubs shown include Blue Nile, Cafe Negril, Apple Barrel, and d.b.a, I saw Walter Wolfman Washington and the Roadmasters at d.b.a. You can see them below. There are also many good music clubs uptown. In the next post we will move away from the downtown area to Magazine Street. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

                       
 
 
 
 

So Who is the Most Influential?

When I read the headline, Best Connected Individuals Are Not the Most Influential Spreaders in Social Networks, I thought there might be something interesting here. Maksim Kitsak at Boston University and a team of researchers are looking at this issue and recently published a paper, Identifying influential spreaders in complex networks, that was documented in Technology Review.  I am still reflecting on this.

The article reports that the importance of hubs may have been overstated and quotes Kitsak and his colleagues. "In contrast to common belief, the most influential spreaders in a social network do not correspond to the best connected people or to the most central people.”

It goes on to report that by contrast, "a less connected person who is strategically placed in the core of the network will have a significant effect that leads to dissemination through a large fraction of the population." In fact it is being at the core of networks with the most connections that makes you the most influential.  So, if I understand this correctly, it is being near the core and being near the best connected individuals that makes you the most influential as long as your group is also the most connected.  Sounds a bit subtle.

Perhaps the most influential generate the ideas and then those near them who are best connected or their group that is best connected get the ideas out.  Or perhaps it is hanging out with well connected people allows you to get your ideas out. So I should remain in contact with the well connected writers on this group blog but we need to spend more time together as the authors conclude, “When multiple spreaders are considered simultaneously, the distance between them becomes the crucial parameter that determines the extend of the spreading.” Perhaps you need a generator and a spreader but they did not mention this. They do say that their analysis “provides a plausible route for an optimal design of efficient dissemination strategies.”

The BU team tested their idea on a diverse set of networks including the 5.5 million members of LiveJournal.com, the network of email contacts in the computer science department at University College London and the network of actors who have co-starred in adult films as defined by the Internet movie database.  The article did cover the method of connection for the latter group. I wonder what the differences and similarities were between these somewhat diverse groups.

What has been your experience here? Are you a hub, a genrator, or a spreader? Can you be both? 

YouTube Attempts to Increase Time on Site Through Discovery

The New York Times had an interesting article, YouTube’s Quest to Suggest More, that covered their goal to have people stay longer on the site which would increase ad revenue. Compared to other Web sites with similar content (or really almost any Web site) they are way ahead. But compared to that other channel for viewing content, televsion, they are way behind. Users spend an average of 15 minutes a day on the site and they spend about five hours in front of the television.

To increase time spent on YouTube Hunter Walk leads a team of about a dozen engineers, designers and project managers who are fine-tuning YouTube to users what they want, even when users aren’t quite sure what they really want. This is where discovery comes in. One way is to select the 10-15 most appealing videos for a specific user from their library of over 100 million.

The process starts with search. The NYT reported that in November, Americans typed some 3.8 billion search queries on YouTube, more than on any search engine other than Google, according to comScore, a market researcher. But there is a difference. While Google queries tend to be very specific, users often come to YouTube with requests as vague as “funny videos.” This is where discovery can help by providing a range of results that are not simply literal matches.

One challenge is when to anticipate the user might be getting tried of their original topic and proactively offer related content to keep them on site.  One way to provide good options suggesting videos that users may want to watch based on prior viewing before, or on what others with similar tastes have enjoyed. The effort requires data-mining techniques similar to those used by and Amazon to make music or book recommendations.

Darwin Ecosystems is also in the discovery business. Instead of offering content in a list format based on your prior behavior or others similar to you, it offers a set of topics arranged in a Scan Cloud™ that correlate with the original search term or, as we say attractor. Then you can hop around to explore the related topics based on your interests. It is an alternative model to trying to read your mind as YouTube and Amazon do.  Instead, it gives you a range of choices in an easy interface to allow you to better make up your own mind. 

Making Micro-Services Markets Within the Enterprise

Here is an interesting idea. Marc Andersen, my former Renaissance colleague, posted recently on his blog on applying "product service systems" to corporate environments.  He was inspired by a Boston Globe article, The Leased Life, on how people should share products across their communities. Many people purchased tools and other things they rarely use, causing an unnecessary strain on their budgets and the environment.   The globe reported that this has been recognized and Web sites have started to facilitate these transactions.  This is another example of the potential of Web 2.0.

Marc wrote about how this practice makes sense for more efficient use of services inside the enterprise and I agree. He also noted that today’s collaborative tool sets can facilitate these internal marketplaces.  Enterprises would have to modify their cost structure and accounting to facilitate these exchanges but that should not be too hard.

However, making people aware of the services and arranging for micro-efforts and the associated micro-accounting would have potentially difficult with older technologies. However, just as on the Web with Web 2.0 sites, the transparency within enterprise 2.0 platforms can also make these internal micro-markets for service exchange more accessible. 

Now that the right tools are available the remaining factor to make this work is the ability to understand the value of these exchanges and the vision to implement them. In a market where employees are asked to continuously do more with less, an internal services market for under-utilized resources should appeal to most executives.  Thanks to Marc for making the suggestion. You should check out his blog as there are a lot of other good ideas there. 

BBC Elevates Social Media for News Creation and Monitoring

According to the Guardian (see BBC tells news staff to embrace social media).  BBC news journalists have been advised to use social media as a primary source of information by Peter Horrocks, the new director of BBC Global News. He took over last week and said it was important for editorial staff to make better use of social media and become more collaborative in producing stories. They quote him, "This isn't just a kind of fad from someone who's an enthusiast of technology. I'm afraid you're not doing your job if you can't do those things. It's not discretionary."

I would agree. Getting material for articles is one of several ways that traditional television news media needs to make use of social media to survive the social media onslaught. For BBC news editors, Twitter and RSS readers have now become essential tools and aggregating and curating content with attribution are essential skills. In addition, BBC's journalists have to integrate and listen to feedback for a better understanding of how the audience is relating to the BBC brand.

At Darwin, we have been talking with a number of major traditional media organizations about using the Darwin Awareness Engine™ to help with their news harvesting efforts. It allows you to see what is going on around a topic and find the unexpected, as well as the news breaking in real time.

The BBC also created a social media editor post in October. This is another related trend I have reported on here (see Mainstream News Take on Social Media Directors.  The Guardian concludes by noting that as technology is changing the nature of journalism, the BBC is trying to keeping up with the pace. Horrocks is quoted again, "If you don't like it, if you think that level of change or that different way of working isn't right for me, then go and do something else, because it's going to happen. You're not going to be able to stop it."

 

 

My Favorite Tweets for February 15 - 28 2010

Here is the eleventh in a new series of posts that provide access to my favorite tweets that contain links to useful information.  Some of these I did to link to things I found useful and others are RTs that I want to save for the same reason. Since Twitter archiving is an oxymoron, I am now going to post my favorite links for the month so they can be easily accessed later. I will repeat this once or twice a month depending on volume.

I spot tested the reduced shortened urls and they all should work. I hope this is also useful for you.  Let me know your favorite tweets for the month.

Also see the Darwineco favorite tweets.

A framework for social learning in enterprise from @jonhusband http://bit.ly/cYqDEB >good read Feb 28

RT @johnjambrose: Companies trying to bar Twitter, Facebook, should look at U.S. military. http://bit.ly/dzvDMZ Feb 28

IBM's Data-Sifting Shortcut http://bit.ly/bJ91Y6 Forbes Feb 27

Australians: Biggest Users of Social Media Worldwide http://bit.ly/9fSr12 via @psfk 10:32 AM Feb 27th via TweetDeck

RT @socialmedia2day: Moving beyond the industrial society http://bit.ly/bM2pxC #socialmedia Feb 25

Twitter's Big Secret... It's Hard Work http://bit.ly/bK5G0g > agree Feb 25

from @@sympmarc Blog Post: Wired Magazine 18.02: Atoms Are the New Bits http://ow.ly/1bjwG > good read Feb 25

10-Step Content Strategy http://bit.ly/9oKr8Q via @SBoSM > useful Feb 25

from @joemckendrick Communications Anarchy’ in Global 100 w Multiple Social Media Approaches http://bit.ly/ddMNVZ about 12 hours ago via TweetDeck

Only 50% Of Twitter Messages Are In English, Study Says http://tcrn.ch/aq1Hde via @SBoSM Feb 24

5 Lessons Learned About Enterprise Collaboration http://bit.ly/bQOtGo Feb 24

RT @ceciledemailly: "Toward Enterprise 2.0" report out! summary http://bit.ly/9gUj6m, get it http://bit.ly/bYkbcv #E20 Feb 24

 5 Ways to Market Your Business w LinkedIn http://bit.ly/aRto9Q via @SBoSM 3:47 PM Feb 23rd

Twitter Hits 50 Million Tweets Per Day http://tcrn.ch/ckyu7K > when will it stop? 3:23 PM Feb 23rd

RT @ITSinsider: Fresh, excellent e20 research available from @ceciledemailly. check it: http://is.gd/91086 #e20 12:34 PM Feb 23rd

via @marciamarcia: Naps Clear Brain's Inbox http://j.mp/brain-inbox > agree http://bit.ly/12Wizd 11:26 PM Feb 22nd

5 Twitter Management Tools http://bit.ly/bi2lUQ via @SBoSM 5:25 PM Feb 22nd

RT @ariegoldshlager: [Innovation] The Future of Contemporary Buggy Whip Makers http://post.ly/Oy1W

via @GeorgeDearing: Yammer story on how freemium can work if done right. 10%-15% conversion from free to paid http://bit.ly/aAGN1r 4:15 PM Feb 19th

How Bloggers Should Use Twitter http://bit.ly/afC72e via @SBoSM 2:05 PM Feb 19th

PC Makers Ready iPad Rivals http://bit.ly/9yJgXx WSJ 10:22 AM Feb 19th

RT @mariaazua: Cloud Computing Interview today http://bit.ly/cltnTc 10:37 PM Feb 18th

39 excellent Social Media Tools http://bit.ly/cCigjV 5:11 PM Feb 18th

a case for multiple Twitter accounts http://bit.ly/bR0nkp via @SBoSM 3:54 PM Feb 18th

less than one third of small businesses considering the cloud http://bit.ly/9iG7aR 2:57 PM Feb 18th

RT @VMaryAbraham: Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn http://bit.ly/bPDd1r Feb 17

RT @SBoSM: Facebook surpasses Google as top traffic driver to portals: http://bit.ly/b9fRHz 4:40 PM Feb 15th

Olympics as World's Largest Social Media Experiment HBR http://bit.ly/d4Kk6D via @SBoSM 2:59 PM Feb 15th 

Images of New Orleans Neighborhoods Part Three: Lower Decatur Street Area

This is the third in an 18  part series over the next few months of images of New Orleans neighborhoods taken in February 2010 the weekend before the Super Bowl victory and two weeks for Mardi Gras. I certainly did not have time to cover them all but this series will provide a glimpse of the city that I hope you will want to visit.

This is a subset of the Lower French Quarter, the quieter part of the French Quarter.  On the lower end of Decatur there are some good bars and causal places to eat, such as Fiorella’s and Coops Place, that are much less tourist oriented than what you find in the upper French Quarter.  There are also some good coffee shops and late night places. It is close to the music clubs of Frenchmen Street. I also included the adjacent lower French Market.  You can click on an image to expand it. 

                           
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Paintings of American Breakfast - Version Six

Here is a 18" x 24" acrylic painting of an American breakfast with two english muffins, bacon, breakfast fries, and two eggs over easy. It was served at the Copper Beech Inn in Ivoryton, CT and was delicious. This is the seventh in a series of breakfast paintings in various countires. More to follow.

 

Social Media in the Inc. 500: 2007 - 2009

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth conducted a study on social media by Nora Barnes and Eric Mattson on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. All interviews took place in October and November of 2009. The 2009 study looks again at the Inc. Magazine 500 social media usage for the third consecutive year, allowing for a longitudinal study of corporate use of social media.

In 2007, the study found that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional and larger Fortune 500 companies in their use of social media. For example, with blogs, the 2007 some research showed that 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500. This difference continued in 2008 with 16% of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39% of the Inc. 500. And it appears the Inc. 500’s lead in blogging will continue in 2009 with the Inc. 500 now blogging at a rate of 45%.

This research shows that social media continues to penetrate parts of the business world at a fast rate. In all three studies, questions looked at with six prominent social media (blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards and wikis).  In 2009, several new tools were added including Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and MySpace.

Social networking continues to be the most familiar social media tool to the Inc. 500 with 75% of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in 2008). Twitter’s has captured “share of mind” in the first year of being studied with sixty-two percent of executives reported being familiar with it.

Looking across the three years, social networking and blogging have have continued to grow in adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that 52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.

Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy and 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008). In addition, as they ramp up their usage, the Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by their employees.

This is consistent with other studies I have seen in the past two years. It is nice to see the continued increase in social media use by business. It also makes sense. 

My App Gap Posts for February 2010

Here are my AppGap posts for February. I am also writing in another Corante blog, FastForward (see right side bar for links), The AppGap posts began toward the end of January 2008.  Here, I am primarily doing product commentaries with a few other things thrown in. Below are the ones for February. There will be more in March.

Cisco Launches Its Second I-Prize Competition

Webtrends Promotes Openness in its Product and Company Strategy

Examples of Webtrends Move to Increased Openness

YoolinkPro Provides a Useful Combination of Social Media Features Designed for Enterprise Adoption

Cubetree Moves Forward with New Features and Funding

Central Desktop Releases its 2.0 Version

Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV? - Tim Dillard

Social Media is moving into television on an increasing basis as I have covered a bit on this blog. This is the theme of a post by Tim Dillard on TheNextWeb: Will 2010 be the Year of Social TV?  For example, fans of certain TV shows from different time zones are saving the latest episodes of their favorite shows and then arranging common viewing times with their friends to watch the shows whilst discussing the action together on Skype,

The shows themselves are also launching efforts, sometimes with mixed results. In the UK, high profile post-apocalypse drama, BBC's 'Survivors', launched with stream of tweets from 'survivors'. They were supposedly trying to get messages out to a world in which most of the population had been wiped out by a mystery virus. However, the effort did not last. In another failed case, Fox tired integrating Twitter during reruns of sci-fi series 'Fringe' in the US. It got criticism almost immediately from the show's fans by swamping the screen with tweets from the cast and crew of the show, thus obscuring much of the action. Sounds like those tweets do blast you with multiple tweets in a row, except even worse.

It seems the most successful efforts so far are user generated. For example, with Twitter, real-time conversations about TV shows at the shows are broadcast live are linked together through the use of hashtags.  This is the same with online communities. The television shows will need to move better in this direction by listening to their viewers and being creative. 

My FastForward Posts for February 2010

Here is the monthly listing of my Fast Forward blog posts. I find it helps me with an archive and hopefully is also useful to you. There is a separate category for these summaries in my right side column on this blog. There will be more in March.

Details on Enterprise 2.0 in Operation in Haiti Relief

Collaboration Goes Mobile in 2010

Social Media Usage in the Inc. 500 in 2009

Creating an Internal Services Market Facilitated by Enterprise 2.0 Platforms

BBC Tells Staff to Get with Social Media

The Best Connected Individuals May Not be the Most Influential

 

Social Media Marketing Continues to Move Forward

Alterian has conducted its seventh annual survey on online marketing. This year’s sample covered 1068 marketing professionals worldwide. It found that 66 percent of respondents will be investing in social media marketing in the next 12 months. Where is the money coming from in an ear of tight budgets? The survey found that 40 percent of those investing in social media marketing said they would be shifting more than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards funding their social media marketing activities. This supports other statistics from the Alterian survey that found that the majority of respondents (67 percent) feel social media is either ‘increasingly important’ or ‘critical to success.’ I have seen similar results in other studies and through my own experience. 

The survey also found that 36 percent of respondents are investing in social media monitoring and analysis tools. It is a growing field and I have discussed a number of them on this blog. This is a significant percentage, considering the maturity of the channel. It appears to reflect a growing understanding that a social media marketing strategy needs to be based on listening to customers and prospects and its ROI needs to be measured. However, the 64 percent who are not planning this investment may be left behind, as you need to see what impact your efforts achieve, as well as what customers are saying about you.

The research also explored the importance of customer engagement, a critical component to success in the opinion of many, a view I share. It found that over half of respondents (51 percent) are placing a ‘fair’ or ‘significant’ amount of effort on moving from a campaign-centric direct marketing model towards multi-channel customer engagement – in fact only 7 percent are making no effort at all.  This is good news.

The Web and social media continues to change marketing, whether it is for products or politicians. The same holds for traditional news media as many long time news providers have found out too late. It appears that some marketing professionals have awakened to this change and are making steps to take advantage of it. 2010 will be an interesting year for business applications of social media, both inside and outside the enterprise.