How to Be a Social Media Change Agent/Provocateur

Very good, in depth interview with Josh Bernoff of Forrester on how to be a successful change agent implementing Social Media strategies at your business.

C.K. Prahalad - The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks

I was reading some BusinessWeek articles when I stumbled upon these video interviews with C.K. Prahalad. I thought he made some very important points on the importance of social networks and their impact on product and services innovation. I have been a long-time fan of C.K. going back to my days at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business where I was able to hear his lectures on Strategy and Innovation often. C.K. Prahalad has a new book: The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks.

Ning's Infinite Ambition -- Viral Networks -- Viral Expansion Loop -- Social Networking Start-Ups | Fast Company

Fast Company's Adam L. Penenberg wrote a very interesting article on Ning and its potential as the next step in social media networks. The obvious appeal of having ones own social media site dedicated to their own interests and passions is quite compelling. It will be very interesting to track and monitor as it evolves and to determine if the Viral Expansion Loop plays out as anticipated. If it does, the customer segmentation insights and ability to focus marketing communications to a tight group of interested consumers will be very compelling for CPG companies and many, many others.

Ning's Infinite Ambition -- Viral Networks -- Viral Expansion Loop -- Social Networking Start-Ups | Fast Company

ForeSee Results - True North

I am speaking at ForeSee Results - True North Conference in Ann Arbor, MI. I am speaking on "Keeping Management's Attention on the Customer." Should be an excellent conference. Small and very focused on online customer satisfaction and its impact on the purchase funnel.

I have used ForeSee Results for several years. The online customer insights are extremely helpful for designing new web properties, redesigning your current sites and truly understanding the voice-of-the-customer.

From a strategic perspective, it is very important to not only understand behavioral metrics and analytics, but also qualitative (like ForeSee Results) and competitive. The next area to uncover is engagement metrics....more to be discussed later.

Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 - The Richter Scales

Very funny video on the impact of yet another bubble in Silicon Valley.

They Call Me Air Traffic Control

I have been working on developing enterprise services specifically related to social media and interactive marketing. A major part of this effort is educating our brands by running webinars and in-person meetings between potential vendors and our brands. I have been described now several times as "Air Traffic Control" for these programs and service providers. It is both fun and challenging to keep all the pieces moving in the right direction. It is most gratifying when brands begin using some of the enterprise services and implement best practices. Enterprise services that have already been put in place include: enterprise web platform, metrics & analytics, online customer satisfaction, email marketing, and reviews and ratings. More to come...

Friending, Ancient or Otherwise

Moving from long emails to Twitter may be instinct driven in the human race. The question is, what is next? How will communications evolve from here? Mind-to-Mind? A distinct possibility...

Read this New York Times article to learn more.

Information R/evolution Video

Another excellent video from Kansas State University Ethnographer Dr. Michael Wesch.

Here are some reference websites to check out after you watch the video:

Michael Wesch YouTube Channel

Kansas State University digital ethnography working group

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

The history of Web 2.0 in 4 minutes and 31 seconds. All I can say is WOW!!!

Marketing@Google: Mohanbir Sawhney - Marketing As Conversation

Mohanbir Sawhney is a brilliant marketer who presented on Brand Building and Brand Strategy at Google. Very insightful discussion. He brought up a key point/issue right a the beginning of the presentation - Contextual Marketing. As he states: his 12 year old daughter does not understand why Google does not know who she is. For example, when she enters a search term are the results appropriate for a 12 year old girl or are they the same for everyone. I think we know the answer. Contextual Search, Contextual Marketing - the next Google or competitor opportunities.

The focus of the presentation is engagement and emotional connection between brands and consumers and how digital media and interactive marketing can enable and enhance this relationship.

Twitter

Twitter is an amazing and fun social media tool that traces its roots to mobile texting, thus the 140 character limitation. Twitter also has several fun and interesting services that have been built. Here are but a few:

• Tweetscan - Scan public tweets. Great for seeing what people are saying about your brand, product or service.
• Summize - Scan public tweets. Another service that allows you to see what people are saying about your brand, product or service. Also has a few more bells and whistles.
• Twittearth - This is a very cool tool that provides a 3 dimensional view of the earth and shows tweets geographically in real time as they are written. I like the little Twitter representations of people as well.
• Twitter Blocks - Shows the people you are following and who they are following and who is following you. Very cool graphical view.
• Twitter Fan Wiki - But if you really want to explore, go to this Wiki and check out all the Mashups.

Here is a fun and informative video on what Twitter is - "Twitter in Plain English"