Timi will share… | Social Business Strategy

…analysis on social business, interactive media, games, e-democracy, poetry, food, passions

February 17, 2012 • 5:01 pm 0

Weekend reads: On social business maturity, content marketing, blogging and revolutions

I must admit that my heart skips a beat whenever interesting articles find their way to me. The end of the work week has brought some good catch on social business maturity, the crucial role of content marketing and engagement, and the ultimate ROI of social media, in particular, blogging — changing behaviours — , which in this case, contributed to a revolution.

The posts on engagement and content marketing describe exactly my recommendations to two clients of mine this week. Once you go social (and it’s no longer a question of if, but how), it’s a continuous effort. It’s not like advertising with a start and end date. It’s about feeding your network and engaging with them, which means, you must think in terms of increments, of addressing recognised needs or opportunities, but always, with the end goal of mind.

Anyhow, looking forward to reading these posts this weekend.  Hopefully I’ll be able to do that in between trying to teach my just-turned toddler to drink from a cup (even just drinking more would be a good acceptance criteria already), doing my taxes, and playing Skyrim (fingers crossed). Enjoy!

  • Content: The New Marketing Equation by Altimeter Group Network on SlideShare – This is a presentation of their latest report. I like this as it once again underscores how content marketing within the social business framework is NOT advertising. It’s not about one-off campaigns.  Real engagement needs continuous investment.  On their slideshare description: “Content marketing requires a shift in company culture, resources, budgets, partners and strategy. Rebalancing is critical to achieve these goals. The choice is whether to rebalance now, or later when the battle for attention may become even more difficult than it currently is.”
  • Jeremiah Owyang weighs in on the above report on his blog: Beyond Tools, Marketers Must Focus on Content
  • So does Brian Solis in a more elaborate post: Report: Content and the New Marketing Equation

Filed under: Digital worlds, e-democracy, Politics, Social / online media analysis, social business, Strategy, , , , , ,

January 8, 2012 • 3:14 pm 0

Crowdsourcing turns Philippine tourism’s new slogan into a meme

An ad used in More Fun in the Philippines campaign

Prison. More fun in the Philippines.

The Philippines Department of Tourism’s (DOT) new slogan “It’s more fun in the Philippines” is getting a life of its own. Although debates have been sparked (the slogan is the same as an ad in Switzerland in 1951), I think netizens are largely approving it. The public has taken the slogan and made it its own as seen by numerous ads / tweaked slogans sprouting on Facebook and Twitter. Some of the first images coming up on a Google search range from breathtaking nature shots to slices of Philippine life and humour to political and satirical messages. My interest in it lies primarily on the fact that it’s now becoming an internet meme: it’s a case where crowdsourcing has transformed a good slogan into a living one. A more valuable point of critique for me, though, would be whether the DOT and its ad agency integrated social touchpoints during the campaign development process, and if it actually planned for the public to get on board the campaign by mashing up the slogan. The previous slogan in 2010 was a social #fail, which I extensively blogged about.

Kisses. More fun in the Philippines.   Planking. It's more fun in the Philippines.  Social climbing. More fun in the Philippines.  Biking. More fun in the Philippines

Below is a comment I made on a friend’s Facebook Wall where the issue of originality was raised.

 
”in my opinion, the originality issue is not as simple as critics are portraying it. in this day and age, i think even the concept of originality is changing. it has become increasingly easy to share, mash-up and produce hybrid ideas, which in their own right can be considered ‘original’. maybe dot didn’t do its research more extensively as netizens could easily do (the advertising campaign development process in many countries still lag in integrating social touchpoints), but that doesn’t make them guilty of stealing.

the slogan itself “it’s more fun in the (country)” is so basic and resonates with people’s own experiences, that it’s difficult to tweak it. it’s this basic character, i think, that makes it a good slogan, because you can easily and creatively craft it to the philippine context. so, it might be based on another country’s slogan, but we can execute it differently. just like how the ads are being made by the public now. they’re taking snapshots of life in the philippines and basically saying ‘mas masaya sa pinas’ (which i think is what all pinoys abroad swear by). i think crowdsourcing the ads themselves is what will breathe in new life in this ‘unoriginal’ slogan’.

if i were to critique the campaign, it would be less on the merits of the slogan itself, and more on whether the dot integrated social touchpoints throughout the development of the campaign. i think that was one major flaw of its predecessor (‘Pilipinas kay ganda’). it could’ve leveraged the wisdom of the crowd, but it didn’t. i blogged about this in 2010 if you’d like to read ;-) http://socialbizstrategy.com/2010/11/24/case-study-philippines-tourism-campaign-rebranding-couldve-harnessed-the-wisdom-of-crowds/

i love the way it’s now being adopted by the public and making it their own. like this album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150506686457290.390771.501807289&type=1
 and even the political and satirical ones — those are welcome, too. they extend the campaign into the public consciousness and bring in authenticity in my view. might be an undesired result by dot, but they can’t really do anything about it.”

Filed under: Culture, Digital worlds, Philippines, Social / online media analysis, , ,

July 17, 2011 • 3:01 am 0

Twitter at five: 200 million tweeps, 350 billion tweets a day (Infographic)

Five years ago, you would’ve been called a twit if you insisted that the words ‘tweet’, ‘follow’, ‘reply’, and ‘mention’ were associated with a blue bird.

I joined Twitter on Sat Dec 20 10:37:41 +0000 2008. I postponed joining for a long time because then, I lived on Jaiku, which I joined on June 9, 2007.  My Jaiku stream is still online, and reading it brings back a lot of memories. http://delunna.jaiku.com/ But after switching to Twitter, I never got to go back again to Jaiku.

by visually via

//  

Filed under: Digital worlds, Social / online media analysis, , , , , ,

June 30, 2011 • 2:09 pm 1

Social Business Series 1: Social media behaviours around the world

[Note: Aside from blogging about the impact of social media in society, I also want to popularise the concept of Social Business. I’ve decided to post regularly about a series of topics related to ‘Social Business’, which will be a combination of curated information and reflections about my own experiences as a freelance Social Business Analyst / Strategist. I hope to explore the different aspects of Social Business and help you gain a better understanding on how to optimise social and network productivity in an organisation. In this post, I'd like to give an overview on social media behaviours and underscore the importance of knowing your target audience.]

Social business as a concept and framework is, first and foremost, an acknowledgement of the profound impact of social technologies on our culture, the way we communicate and the way we work. Secondly, it’s a recognition of the potential of social media and networks for consumer engagement, workforce engagement and change / operations management.  Last, but not the least, it is a framework for effecting genuine and holistic transformations in organisations.

Global social media behaviours 2010/2011

Global state of social networking

Know thy customer
The holy grail of social media is – surprise, surprise – not media but social. By social I mean people and the networks they participate in. Before an organisation should even attempt to create a social media campaign or set up account profiles across social web, it should first be clear about its audience and their socialgraphics. This means having an in-depth knowledge of what people do online, where they converge, what they talk about, who they talk to and trust, and how they connect with each other. These are fertile grounds for consumer/user insights, which are fundamental in any online business. If there’s anything that best practices in online and social business have taught us, it’s this: don’t cut corners in project activities aimed at attaining a real understanding of the local market.

But since digital and social technologies are helping us live in increasingly proximity with each other, we must  also complement local knowledge with a global perspective on how consumers use social technologies.

To get you started thinking about Social Business, above are two very relevant infographics on global use and adoption of the social web. The first is a 2011 global snapshot of social media activities in Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific (using the GlobalWebIndex, Comscore and Nielsen). I got this from Michael Brito‘s brilliant blog for his book, “Smart Business,  Social Business”.  (More details in the later part of this post.) The second is from GlobalWebIndex that visualises the global state of social networking in 2011.

While you would naturally have to conduct more local and group-specific research on your target customer’s social and online behaviour, global statistics always come in handy for comparative analysis or as a springboard for deeper investigation. Always be on the look-out for information that shows interesting trends in social network growth, adoption, and engagement that can reveal insights on customers’ relationships and their ever-evolving user behaviour.
Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: campaigns, Digital worlds, Ideas, Philippines, Social / online media analysis, social business, Strategy, User experience, , , , , ,

June 9, 2011 • 10:34 am 2

A smart infographic for Social Business

Back from a month-long holiday in the Philippines and now faced with a huge backlog of brilliant posts to read from my favourite thinkers and writers. Thank goodness for smart infographics such as this one by Michael Brito, which set my mind again on the fundamentals of Social Business. It has inspired me to start working on one myself. It’s not only an essential for presentations, but also a good mind exercise for checking ones thinking and challenging ones notions about Social Business.

Thanks to advocates of Open Research, Creative Commons and the Open Web for continuing to share knowledge and insights freely – and beautifully, too ;-)

And if you like this infographic, then maybe you’d like the book, too. It has genuinely piqued my curiousity. In this case, it’s an effective tool for promoting the book! [I hope Headshift and Lee Bryant will publish a book on social business, too.]
The Social Business Book
The Social Business infographic created by Online MBA

Filed under: Digital worlds, Social / online media analysis, social business, , , ,

April 21, 2011 • 2:32 pm 0

Social web and social change: from the personal to the political and back again

[Originally published in Munting Nayon Magazine for the Filipino community in the Netherlands]

I’ve been writing a lot about how the social web has become an inherent part of this generation’s politicisation and mediation of the world. Actually, it’s helping everyone of all ages from all over to see the world from different perspectives in ways that are fast, easy, and in most cases, real-time. It’s contributing profoundly to the development of a networked way of thinking, observing and doing. For example, social technologies help expose people to various societal problems and current events, so much so that local issues become global concerns. This has become evident in the way we’ve experienced the social uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and all across the Arab world. Likewise, it has impacted how natural calamities are seen and reported, and its stories documented, shared and remembered. The recent natural disasters that devastated New Zealand and Japan attest to this new way of understanding and mediating the events that happen around us.

Whether suffering and tragedies are turned into mere spectacles is another matter. By the same token, though there are various levels of accessibility to the social web, it’s not a part of the everyday life of the majority of the world’s poorest sectors. However, what many critics of social media miss is that while the media and tools are new, the social is not. Neither is the end goal of transformation. For this is ultimately one, if not the most compelling aspect, of the social web’s existence and development: mediating and remediating our experience of the world and our relationships, and changing ourselves in the process.

Here are a few of my favourite examples of how the social web is interwoven in our day-to-day political, work or personal experiences. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Digital worlds, e-democracy, Ideas, Philippines, Social / online media analysis, , , ,

March 23, 2011 • 3:09 pm 0

Motherhood: How does a new mom carve out her niche in the workplace when returning to work?

I posed this question on Quora some time ago and got some great response. The context:

A lot of moms going back to work find it challenging, if not difficult, to claim back the niche they carved out for themselves in the workplace. I think many feel the need to prove themselves once again, especially those who led a very hectic career before giving birth. But as every mother knows, it’s a different ‘now’ we’re dealing with. How should one go about returning to work and striking a balance between career development and raising her child?

After having just read Tamar Weinberg’s post on her ‘must-have tools’, I decided to share an answer myself. ;-) I found her post so helpful, I just have to spread the goodness. I bet you will, too.

“I’ll just focus on some ways that can help moms get organised and be more productive. There are a lot of tools – online tools especially – that can make the transition better. Think of time and task management tools, invoicing, and communication and collaboration tools. For those involved in online business or are entrepreneurs, Tamar Weinberg (internet/community/social media consultant and author who’s a work from home mom) wrote an awesome blog post about the online business tools she uses to make her more productive: http://www.techipedia.com/2011/business-owners-web-toolbox/

Some of it are naturally quite specific to the work she does, but you can easily find personal use cases for most of the tools she listed.”

Filed under: Digital worlds, social business, , , , ,

February 18, 2011 • 11:37 am 2

Digital and social activism: no small change

The social upheaval that exploded in Tunisia and Egypt is spreading across the Arab World. At the time of this writing, dissent is snowballing in Libya, Bahrain and Iran.

In the wake of these extraordinary events, a myriad of discussions on the role the Internet and the social web has emerged. Cyber-utopians are praising Twitter and Facebook to the heavens; cyber-sceptics are pooh-poohing the contribution of social networks in spawning social change.

While I would never use ‘Twitter revolution’ or ‘Facebook revolution’ to describe these social uprisings, I would also neither dismiss nor trivialise the role of social media in social transformation. Social media is not the alpha and omega of causes and revolutions, but it is an inherent part of this generation’s politicisation and experience of social change. Instead of simply shrugging it off, real critics (and not cynics) should call for a more thorough review of how exactly the social web was used by the groups and organisations behind these movements just like what the Meta-Activism Project is doing.

Social media allergy
I’m struck, though, by the growing allergy to the idea that social platforms can help carry out democratic change. It’s one thing to cast a critical eye and not romanticise this notion, but it’s a totally different story to be cynical and outright dismissive. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Digital worlds, e-democracy, Ideas, Politics, Social / online media analysis, , , , , , , , ,

February 18, 2011 • 2:51 am 0

“Social business design means humanising the enterprise”

Social business design is about humanising the enterprise by creating structures that have both intimacy and scale: doing the right things (effectiveness) and encouraging positive behaviour and talent. How do we create this new ‘business operating system’? Lee Bryant of Headshift gives us some basic pointers and insights.

Filed under: Digital worlds, Social / online media analysis, social business, Strategy, , , , ,

January 18, 2011 • 10:11 am 1

The Dot Loop, the simplest process possible • Intense Minimalism

The Dot Loop, the simplest process possible • Intense Minimalism.

Taken from http://intenseminimalism.com/2010/the-dot-loop-the-simplest-process-possible/

This is a stimulating read on the Dot Loop model, embodied cognition & Agile methodology. Do-Observe-Think is fractal: a simple, complete & powerful process of knowing-doing/perceiving-behaving that exists on different levels. Think of how this impacts project flows, design, learning…everything acually. The more I think about it, the more I realise how intensely personal it is. Well, it manifests as biological and neurological processes, but what I mean is that one doesn’t have to look far to see its implications. You don’t have to think in terms of projects or organisational workflows. Just take a look at yourself. When conflcts or problems arise in our lives, it can often be traced back to a break in the loop. For example: failure to give and receive  feedback, and the inability to assess or measure the gravity of a situation; lack of planning or understanding; and not acting on the solution, not intervening on time, or refusing to change.
Love it when I realise that the things I need have always just been within my reach.

Filed under: Digital worlds, Ideas, Social / online media analysis

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analyst, poet, dream-dweller. a.k.a. 'delunna'

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