IGC Social Network

This is the last of the three part IGC marketing strategy series. This time we are indulging in social media usage in a work environment.

Social networking has made lines between our personal lives and professional lives hazier every day. The intentions of social networking were to bring people together. Now that more and more organisations are becoming involved in social media it has become another business tool.

Social networking brings individuals and organizations together in a way that has never happened before. When you join a social network, you aren’t alone; you also join other people’s networks. This is called a ‘social graph’. A social graph has been described as ‘the global mapping of everybody and how they’re related.’

While there are a number of social networking websites that are considered a general network and have no specific focus. There are an increasing number of niche networking sites catering to different activities and ideas. These types of groups focus on a smaller part of your social graph.

Implementing a social network for this event will enable staff to have an ongoing group conversation with a specific agenda which can become very beneficial to everyone that is involved. Through this smaller median, people are able to post problems, solutions, network and socialise with others that have similar interests.

With any new implementation that requires change, adopting, using and sustaining it depends on the culture of the collective group. The strategy depends on the current communication lines and formalities. The social tools will just reflect how they operate.
Here are some basic strategies that need to be applied in order to build the foundations of a successful Enterprise 2.0 implementation.

Focus on the User Experience
This is the most important part. In order to have a high adoption rate, the social network needs to be enjoyable to use, with the focus still being on the organisation. If the application is not enjoyable, people will be discouraged from participating. If it is not on focus it won’t reach its intended goal

Provide Opportunities
It is important to provide opportunities for members that they would not have if they weren’t part of the network. This will help create incentive to join and provide opportunities for the ones that are already part of the network. Job listings, specials on products and parties are some examples of what could be implemented.

Embrace the User
When creating a social network targeted at a small market, it is important to not try anything radical. Instead it needs to focus on what people look for in a social network. It has to cater to the members needs and be convenient and easy for them to use. This should also be a medium where new members are easily able to meet other and make friends easily.

Announcements
It is important that the new social network be regularly used to announce the majority of events to guarantee continuous use. By doing so will show its importance to non-members.

IGC Wiki Strategies

Our last post was about micro-blogging strategy and it’s important for the 34th IGC congress. This time we will engage in enterprise level wiki’s.
A wiki is an online platform that enables the users to share, edit and update information related to a topic.

By creating a single location for everyone online to interact, it will be maximise the information generated and stored. A wiki can help build library of knowledge, enabling members to share and take and share their information back home.

Below are some simple strategies that can increase the amount of information contributed.

Encourage Participation
Wiki’s enable users to easily communicate and discuss topics. By asking visitors to contribute with information they have gathered from the conference, they could extend their knowledge gained from the different events.
Provide general information and answer FAQ’s
Have information such as schedules, speakers, organisations attending, and sponsors. Having all this information in the wiki will bring more traffic to it which will increase the participation rate. Having a FAQ will reduce the chance of the same question needing to be answered multiple times. Additionally have staff available to answer questions.

Promote the Page

Just having a wiki page won’t get participants to visit. It is important to create awareness before and during the event. Applications such as Facebook, and Twitter are easy and free to use to promote the webpage. Not everyone will be following IGC on social media sites so real life promotion is also needed. Posters and flyers are both cheap and easy ways to do this.

Have a Hierarchy
With any decent collaboration in a large scale, there needs to be a leader and people to help them. Having an admin and moderators enforcing rules and guidelines will give the wiki a sense of civility and weeds out the trouble makers.

Authenticate Users
In an enterprise level wiki, there shouldn’t be any anonymity. Any modifications should be transparent and traceable to ensure authors get credit for their work and will detract troublemakers, as citizens of the internet, we all know troublemakers love to hide behind their computer screens.

ICG Micro-Blogging Strategies

The International Geological Congress (IGC) is one of the most important global geological conventions. It is held once every four years and attracts thousands of delegates from all over the world. The 34th IGC is being hosted by the Australian Geoscience Council (AGC) and will be located here in Brisbane. The AGC is the peak representative body for geoscientists in Australia. This convention will be an assembly of geoscientists, students, organisations and some members of the general public, all here to discuss and exchange different topics and researches in their field. This forum will not only provide the opportunity to examine the geological problems and the recent developments in this filed but it will also help to attract more young people to consider careers in the geosciences.
A large event such as this requires hundreds of thousands of dollars to market in a conventional manner. That is why it is important to focus on using the free tools of social media. The youth of the world are all connected via social media which makes it an amazing media to reach the geoscientists of the future.

Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have become very important in the lives of young people around the world. It can be a very rewarding approach to utilize these available tools.

Blogging Strategies

When utilising these great tools it is important to have a solid strategy if you want to succeed. But by aimlessly using these tools without a goal, you could squander these great opportunities.A good strategy is to write often, stay focused, and include relevant links to increase readership strategy. Here are some others

Micro-blogging
Micro-blogs are mini posts or updates that can be sent instantly to blogs. There are a number of services for micro-blogging but the main one is Twitter. Facebook also has micro-blogging features with status updates.

Live updates
The biggest value micro-blogging provide to events are live updates. As the even unfolds readers will know what is happening at the scene. This experience can be combined with photos. By taking advantage of this, you can give updates to people all over the world. This is a great option as micro blogging has become very easy with the use of smart phones.

Customer Interaction
Using Facebook and Twitter is a good way to interact with your customers and create relationships between company and customer. But the consumer experiences increase 10 fold when the user actually replies to customers and have a conversation with them.

The ROI of Social Media

Return on investment (ROI) can be defined as, ‘A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.’(Investopedia)

Basic ROI formula:

This definition may be suited for most applications, but this form of measurement is not accurate when looking to measure the ROI of social media. With the increase of web2.0 tools being used by organisations, there is a greater need for measuring the return on investment on social media.

The question still lies. How do we measure it?

Many executives and CEO’s want to know the ROI in terms of money. Social media does a lot more than just generate money or increase of traffic on a webpage. With social media you can engage employees and customers, develop new sales opportunities and reach target markets.

Here are some formulas that can be used to calculate ROI

1.ROI = (revenue – investment) + targeted engagement (new clients) / investment * 100.

This method will determine how many leads the social media campaign has established. This can also be used to measure advertisement campaigns as well as social media sources.

2.ROI = (revenue – investment) + employee retention / investment * 100.

By engaged employees, profitability and productivity will increase as more staff will be satisfied and willing to keep working for the organisation. If your employees like the organisations business practices, chances are customers will too.

3. ROI = (revenue – investment) + customer engagement and idea generation / investment * 100.

Engaging customers build customer loyalty and brand awareness. It also makes customers feel they are more connected and that they are dealing with real people.

I would like to end with a great video on the ROI of social media.

Reference
Definition- Return on Investment
Social Media ROi for Idiots
Social Media ROI

Travelling a Risky Road

Large organisations are slowly embracing web 2.0 into their corporations, allowing employees to collaborate in online communities and to share and create content with then and fellow employees and customers. Social media mediums such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming the face of organisations. With many organisations there will be disagreements between employees and harsh words may be said, especially on the internet. As well as this there is also the risk of losing confidential information and loss of company reputation. Having a legal issue being imposed on your company can consequently derail the organisations.
Imagine what could happen if classified information leaked from within the organisation to the world just through a simple post on a social media website.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Fiji, Asia, USA and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1911 by the government and now has over 45,000 full time employees.

Information confidentiality
Social media has allowed people to post on the internet from virtually anywhere. This could be very dangerous to an organisation that deals with customer’s money and privacy. Disgruntled banking staff using Twitter or Facebook may inadvertently disclose sensitive information via sources.

Risk of repudiation
Banks are one of the least trusted industries (yet people still put money in banks). Mistrust towards financial institutions has only been reinforced by what has happened in the last few years. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to come across as a trustworthy organisation. With consistent use and actual interaction with customers. The Commonwealth Bank is positively promoting the public image and reputation.

Many banks overseas have embraced social networking. The Australian financial industry is highly regulated and the banks are hesitant to adopt social network for fears of legal risks. Teale Shapcott writes about some of the risks, but also some benefits of social networking for banks in her blog.

Reference
Commonwealth Bank Facebook
Commonwealth Bank Twitter
Social Media Legal Risks for Australian Banks

The Rewards of Risk

Enterprise 2.0, is an idea be used to enhance your business goals or can have negative effects on your business. When deciding when to implement Enterprise 2.0 into your, there are benefits and risks that need to be considered. There have been many cases of when an organisation have implemented Enterprise 2.0 and failed. Organisations need to learn from these mistakes and have to make sure they never happen in their own organisation.

The video by IBM is obviously trying to sell their product but it does have many good points to consider when converting into Enterprise 2.0. Using these to your advantage can give your organisation the upper hand and a competitive advantage over other companies.

The article “The ROI of Enterprise 2.0” provides 4 great reasons why organisations should adopt Web 2.0.

More Effective Work Across Time and Distances
Many organisations have employees in multiple locations may it be because of offshoring or outsourcing or maybe because they are an organisation that need to be in those locations. Anyways, organisations are spread out. Instead of only being able to work from 9-5 these organisations are able to be in business close to 24hrs a day.

Better Engagement and Connection between Employees
With employees spread all over the globe, it becomes hard for them all to interact. With the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Wikis’, employees and employers can effectively communicate from in front of the computer.

Ability to Capture Baby Boomers’ Deep Smarts
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get knowledge from the older employees and have a great way to store it and improve on it? A Wiki page is a great way for them to store this information and for others to improve upon it. In a large organisation, thousands of employees could be editing the same wiki by supplying information and improving it.

The Ability to Engage Gen Y Workers
Gen Y has grown up with the internet and are heavy users of Web 2.0 technologies. They will be more comfortable communication within these collaborative environments.

With all the advantages of Web 2.0 there is also some potential risks of Web 2.0. What if an employee decides to expose sensitive infomation or abuse other employees? Loss of control over new technologies can quickly become a backfire for organisations, particularly large ones. You know what they say, ‘the bigger they are the harder they fall’.

A problem of all Web 2.0 applications is information security. Because wiki’s and blogs are public, many company secrets or vital information can become leaked. For more information on the risks of Enterprise 2.0 projects, Dion Hinchcliffe has written great blog post on ZDNet on the ‘14 Reasons why Enterprise 2.0 Projects Fail’.

Reference
The ROI of Enterprise 2.0
Web 2.0 Goes to Work for Business
14 Reasons why Enterprise 2.0 Projects Fail

Organisations Utilising Web 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 is getting used and implemented by a wide range of companies and organisations to update and improve their systems between their staff and customers. This week’s blog post will examine examples or organisations utilising Web 2.0 applications to their advantage.

Sperry Top-Sider was founding in 1935, Massachusetts USA, by Paul Sperry. It is company that specialises in shoes and apparel.
The Sperry designed is synonymous with wealth and oozes class. The Sperry look has withstood the test of time and is still popular today.

Sperry has been focusing on customers and having a better interaction with them through social media. The majority of Sperry’s customers are an older generation and whom we tend to associate the shoes with. To appeal to the younger generation they, like many other organisations have engaged social media. With the fast rise of digital social media, Sperry has jumped on the wagon and use mediums such as Facebook and Twitter as an opportunity to actively communicate with fans. On these platforms Sperry holds competitions and has exclusive deals which are an incentive to follow them. By actively keeping in touch and offering special deals, their fans feel more engage and more important which will make them stay loyal to the brand.

Lifebushido is an organisation founded in 2006 by Steve Kantor. The organisation is essentially a network of people that engage in part time work from home with flexible hours. There are employees all around the world which makes online communication essential.

To efficiently collaborate with each other they have created a wikispace page with all essential information, including job positions and all you need to know about the clients. By using a wikispace, it gives people responsibility with how it is used and disintegrates the traditional hierarchical communication structure which makes people feel more comfortable talking to their superiors and senior staff. A major benefit of a wikispace which Lifebushido has recognised is the ability to edit it from anywhere. With a small international organisation it is great to have a medium where everyone can easily communicate.

Reference
Sperry Topsider Facebook
Sperry Topsider Twitter
Lifebushido
Lifebushido Wikispace

Return to the World of Blogging

For me personally blogging started in March 2011 where I undertook the unit Web 2.0. I was unfamiliar with the blogging concept. I had never written one and I have only ever visited a few. As soon as I started I felt more confident and with every blog post, by the end of the semester I was pretty confident in my blogging skills and ended with a good mark.

What makes a successful blog? Personally I find that the way it is written and the usefulness of the content has a strong influence on its success. By having a well written and informative blog it will capture the audience’s attention and make them think, “Hey, this is actually pretty good. I’ll visit this blog again!” Additionally I found an interesting post, ‘14 Traits of Successful Blogs‘ where the author describes what he believes to be the best traits of a successful blog.

I would like to achieve a keen readership throughout my blogging journey. I want to be able to provide quality and unique content that will give the readers a small overview and various enterprises they may not have heard of. I will be using this blogging opportunity to be a part of this community and to become a better blogger. As mentioned before, I want to create a blog with interesting topics, ideas, and to share my interests. I will help this cause by reading the lectures and going online to do my own personal research.

Having unique content that others may not have heard of is always useful as it introduces the reader to a different environment and hopefully leave them wanting to explore some more. Trying to create a quality blog is the first step in obtaining readership. The target audience is my fellow Enterprise 2.0 classmates. To encourage them to read my blog I will post a link on Twitter frequently and comment on others blogs.

I do not usually read blogs but I have come across some pretty interesting ones on my time on the internet. Cool Infographicss is one of them. Cool Infographics is an awesome blog where you can find very interesting Infographs on a wide variety of genres. It will appeal to everyone even without a specific theme. Every time there is a new post it makes for a very interesting read. I would recommend everyone the check it out!

Reference
Cool Infographics
14 Traits of Successful Blogs

Imgur- Lightweight model and cost effective scalability

This ‘Lightweight model and cost effective scalability ‘pattern is about doing more with more with less. Being able to scale with the demands of the customers is important for any business. Lightweight model and cost effective scalability is something that can also be implemented in everyday lives as well. Tim O’ Reilly states that “scalability in web 2.0 applies to business models as well as technology. Changes in cost, re-usability, process, and strategy mean much more can be done for less. Therefore, adopt a scalable, cost-effective strategy encompassing business models, development models, and technology to deliver products to market faster and cheaper without sacrificing future growth”.

Imgur is an online image hosting service founded by Alan Schaff in 2009. It offers simple, free image hosting to the masses, with 634TB of images uploaded in the past 30days alone. It was created as Alan was fed up with the usability problems encountered in similar services, which the creator describes as “bloated, confusing and annoying”. The website became a sensation following its rise to popularity on social news websites such as reddit and Digg.

As mentioned previously imgur was founded as an alternative to the competitors as an easier, faster option. Since the creation of imgur, its competitors have made their applications simpler but still have a lot of clutter with their products and advertisement.

Imgur is a public website that does not require a login (unless you want to make an account) therefor images such as gore, harassment and pornography are not allowed.

Tinypic, Imageshack are two competitors that also provide free image hosting, both generate revenue and require a captcha before generating the image. Unless you create an account your images are public for all to see.

Reference
Wikipedia. 2011. Imgur. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imgur. [Accessed 19 May 11].
Timothy Nichols . 2009. Imgur interviewed by Technology News Examiner . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.examiner.com/technology-news-in-national/imgur-interviewed-by-technology-news-examiner. [Accessed 19 May 11].

DI.FM

Leveraging the long tail is another core patter of Web 2.0. The ‘long tail’ was popularised by Chris Anderson in October 2004 in a Wired magazine article. The long tail refers the the amount of property that a large portion of the population rests within the tail of the distribution. Tim O’Reilly explains it as
“The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.”

Online radio is not a new technology; the first online radio broadcast was by a Seattle and in 1994 but it first gained mainstream attention in the late 1990’s. As internet speeds increased so did the sound quality of radio stations. This lead to an influx of new listeners in the millennium. In 2008 in an Arbitron survey show that 1 in 7 people between the ages of 25-54 listen to online radio.

DI.FM is a radio station that caters to electronic music fans. It provides a variety of genres from Hard Dance to Chillout. It is a destination for all your electronic musical needs. In 1999 Digitally Imported ( DI.FM) was created, it initially catered to house, eurodance and trance fansbut over the years has progressed to provide over 20 different genres of electronic dance music (EDM).

There are hundreds of online EDM radio stations. DI.FM can be compared to Google in a sense that, they provide a wide array of products or genres, subsequently there is no need to use anything thing else. There are hundreds of radio shows hosted by the world’s most popular DJ’s and producers. Shows like Tiesto’s Clublife and Armin Van Buuren’s A State of Trance have millions of listeners around the world. A State of Trance consistently has over 20 million people around the world tuning in weekly.

DI.FMs success came from an understanding of what Chris Anderson refers to as the long tail, the collective power of the less popular genres make up a significant amount of the overall listeners whereas most competitors limit their listeners to only a specific genre.

Reference
Wikipedia. 2011. Imgur. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_radio. [Accessed 19 May 11].
DI.FM. 2011. DI.FM. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.di.fm/. [Accessed 19 May 11].
Arbitron. 2008. Radio Digital Platform. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.arbitron.com/downloads/digital_radio_study_2008.pdf. [Accessed 19 May 11].