RT @HarvardBiz Five Tips for Smarter Social Networking #socialnetworking #socialmedia by John Hagel III and John Seely Brown | 8:00 AM January 31, 2011 We are all trying to figure out how to get more value from online social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Most of us are just skimming the surface in terms of the potential these networks offer us as individuals. Practices are still evolving, but here is some brief, and often contrarian, advice that comes from our decades of experience studying networks and the way people act within them: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Of course, individuals should tailor this advice to the specific circumstances of their work and employers. Come to think of it, we framed this advice with individuals in mind, but it applies just as much to institutions. What do you think?
5 New Paradigms for a Socially Engaged Company Soren Gordhamer is the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference, which brings together staff from Google, Facebook, Twitter and Zynga with others to explore living with awareness and wisdom in our modern age, at the end of February in Silicon Valley. He is SorenG on Twitter. The age of social media is not just changing our personal lives, but is increasingly affecting how business is conducted. No longer satisfied with strictly top-down models that view employees as cogs in a system, businesses are quickly adapting to a new paradigm that emphasizes connection, collaboration and innovation. When people in companies and teams feel engaged, the benefits are significant. Companies are realizing that it is not enough to get people to show up to work; the real challenge is creating cultures that enhance creativity and innovation. 1. The answer was to create a culture of happiness that would naturally overflow into all of the company’s communication. 2. 3. 4. Old Paradigm: “Do what is normal.” 5.
5 Social Media Lessons Learned from Whole Foods As a company, Whole Foods has impressively embraced social media more than most, gathering over 1.2 million followers on Twitter and 123,000 fans on Facebook in the process. While it is easy to understand why a relatively young company or one started by a tech-savvy founder would so completely embrace social media communication tools, it is quite a bit more remarkable for an almost 30 year old established brick and mortar company with roughly 50,000 employees and over 270 stores worldwide to have done so. I recently visited the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas to meet with members of their new media team, including Bill Tolany, the company’s Senior Coordinator of Integrated Media, and Winnie Hsia, who oversees the @wholefoods account. I wanted to know how Whole Foods integrated social media tools into their communications strategy, and what lessons had they learned from doing so. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. My visit to the Whole Foods headquarter came at an interesting time. Conclusion
The Three C’s of Social Networking: Consumption, Curation, Creation Over the years, social networks have lured us from the confines of our existing realities into a new genre of digital domains that not only captivated us, but fostered the creation of new realities. As George Bernard Shaw observed, “Life is not about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself.” Such is true for social networks and the digital persona and resulting experiences we create and cultivate. On Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, et al., we were attracted by the promise of reigniting forgotten relationships and enamored by the sparking of new connections. With each new connection we wove, we were compelled to share details about ourselves that we might not have divulged in real life. Our concerns of privacy or the lack thereof, now requires education. The Social Genome The activity that defines the social web is as diverse as its personalities of its inhabitants. Two and a half years ago, Forrester introduced Social Technographics. The 3C’s, Consumption, Creation, and Curationz
Ten Mindful Ways to Use Social Media For the last two years, I have provided a daily wisdom quote through a Twitter account called Tiny Buddha. Since the follower count has grown by leaps and bounds, people have suggested I tweet more often throughout the day. I’ve realized, however, that the greatest lesson we can all learn is that less is enough. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. Twitter, Facebook, and social activism At four-thirty in the afternoon on Monday, February 1, 1960, four college students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. They were freshmen at North Carolina A. & T., a black college a mile or so away. “I’d like a cup of coffee, please,” one of the four, Ezell Blair, said to the waitress. “We don’t serve Negroes here,” she replied. The Woolworth’s lunch counter was a long L-shaped bar that could seat sixty-six people, with a standup snack bar at one end. By next morning, the protest had grown to twenty-seven men and four women, most from the same dormitory as the original four. By the following Monday, sit-ins had spread to Winston-Salem, twenty-five miles away, and Durham, fifty miles away. The world, we are told, is in the midst of a revolution. These are strong, and puzzling, claims. Some of this grandiosity is to be expected. What makes people capable of this kind of activism? This pattern shows up again and again.
The Case For Social Media in Schools A year after seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Delmatoff started a pilot social media program in her Portland, Oregon classroom, 20% of students school-wide were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades had gone up more than 50%, and chronic absenteeism was reduced by more than a third. For the first time in its history, the school met its adequate yearly progress goal for absenteeism. At a time when many teachers are made wary by reports of predators and bullies online, social media in the classroom is not the most popular proposition. Teachers like Delmatoff, however, are embracing it rather than banning it. They argue that the educational benefits of social media far outweigh the risks, and they worry that schools are missing out on an opportunity to incorporate learning tools the students already know how to use. What started as a Facebook-like forum where Delmatoff posted assignments has grown into a social media component for almost every subject. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
10 Apps for Monitoring Social Media The benefits of listening to or monitoring Social Media are growing at a break neck pace. Social media is the fastest way to reach out to people. For instance, if you’re looking to get open positions filled in your establishment, there’s a high probability of getting the word out quicker via social platforms. When you send out a tweet with a proper hashtag, say “#jobs”, the chances of it reaching more people is highly likely. Hootsuite Hootsuite Arguably the king of social media management tools, with an arsenal of features under its hood. Multiple users can tweet from the same account helping you to rotate members of your customer support team working on shifts. CoTweet CoTweet A lot of features that have now become standard features in major social media tools emerged from CoTweet. You can also add notes to the conversation, add them to lists and see their social media influence with their Klout rating. SocialOomph SocialOomph social mention social mention Postling Postling TweetDeck TweetDeck
The Best TED Talks To Make Use Of Social Media TED has been regaling us for years now with inspirational speeches about just about every important topic there is to talk about. And throughout that time, more than a few TED speakers have chosen to talk about the internet, social media and how this will shape our future. So, here we are, everyday citizens of the world with an itch to do something amazing with the internet we’ve created. Let’s see what TED can inspire us to do to with it. This list of TED speeches features quite a few of the leading thinkers in social media, some of whom have also written free ebooks on social networking. Lalitesh Katragadda: Making Maps To Fight Disaster, Build Economies Before looking to the future, lets look at a success of the past. Ethan Zuckerman: Listening To Global Voices Ethan Zuckerman describes how, despite social media opening up information channels worldwide, humans tend to flock with people who are similar to themselves. James Surowiecki: When Social Media Became News