The Socializers

Listening is a core muscle for thriving online

admin January 20, 2015 No Comments

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.
~Rachel Naomi Remen

Listening and asking for clarification is hugely important in the social networks. People are finding their voice in these networks, often for the first time. People are writing themselves into being in these networks. This requires frequent wisdom and compassion.

Yesterday, I encountered the reality of this needed compassion in a new way: I saw a variety of conversations that convinced me humanity is increasingly thinking as one mind. The weave of personal comments in threads with mass media news with music and images shared by individuals revealed to me the incredible way we have merged into a collective dance. Remember at high school dances when everyone danced on their own and then would merge into a line or a circle and then disperse again into couples and smaller groups? I watched this in real-time yesterday online. Truly amazing diversity woven into one shape, one circle, one global community – the Internet.

For years, I’ve predicted that a single tweet or FB post or YouTube video or Instagram photo would sweep the globe and fundamentally shift humans. Now I see that this is happening regularly. Individuals are offering up their thoughts in myriad networks via various mediums (text, image, video, music) and, in some cases, all of humanity circles around a particular message. An individual can watch a trend using sophisticated social media monitoring tools and jump in early on an emerging meme. He/she can capitalize on this meme and lead it, albeit with extreme aplomb since these memes are “thought-animals” that have a life of their own. The entrance of a meme into a culture, as many know, can significantly alter the individuals in that culture.

I think we have an opportunity to consciously sequence a series of memes in order to alter global consciousness. We have an opportunity to significantly change the way individuals relate to one another through an emphasis on kindness, goodness and empathy. One opportunity humans have online is simply to listen to others. And so we are all, in a way, sitting down in impromptu circles around specific posts and hearing each other out on that issue in the post. And often the issue morphs as participants work out their feelings and past issues. These expressions indicate a swiftly evolving conversation headed towards, we hope, understanding and unity on a global level.

Again, people are writing themselves into being in these networks. This requires frequent wisdom and compassion.

More On The Adjacent Possible

admin September 22, 2014 No Comments

“Think of it as a house that magically expands with each door you open. You begin in a room with four doors, each leading to a new room that you haven’t visited yet. Those four rooms are the adjacent possible. But once you open one of those doors and stroll into that room, three new doors appear, each leading to a brand-new room that you couldn’t have reached from your original starting point.” ~Steve Johnson

Humans are changing as a result of relationships and conversations within social networks. There are two specific types of people in relationship nowadays that are driving this change. The first type are humans who talk about “transcending flesh” through digital life. These people spend the majority of their waking hours online. The other type of person turns ideas into flesh products & services.

So the first group is focused on replicating flesh experience within the digital or virtual realm. And the second is focused on turning digital experiences into physical products and services. The tension of these two seemingly opposing directions within social networks is highly fruitful for creative types. To be clear, those who frequently “exit the flesh” to play in the digital realm (gamers, for example) are complimentary to those who are creating a science-fiction-like reality in the flesh (innovators in health technology, for example).

Digital experience is giving humanity a hint that flesh can be transcended. Digital experience is also giving humanity the vision of a super-body, augmented by implants. Virtual avatars could potentially exist for many millions of years in synthetic bodies. Such “virtually-possessed” bodies could evolve into beings capable of transferring knowledge into the flesh community. Some even talk now about the homo sapiens species being left behind as the entire population enters a stage of being implanted with various devices. This new species could be called homo cyborg, as flesh and technology are increasingly blended.

It could be said that humans are involved in a slow motion “rapture” of sorts at this time. Our digital selves are summoning our physical selves to a limitless experience. This in turn could beget limitless energy technology and limitless health technology. As suggested before, we may be able to place our entire consciousness like a software program into a synthetic body that has a much longer life span.

The contemporary world operates constantly within public and private online networks. We can call these online forums “networks of light” in which human hearts connect every millisecond. In these networks, hearts become entangled and start to respond like joined twins, even at a distance. In fact, we can say that humans carry on relationships at the speed of light nowadays. We literally enter quantum states, wherein entangled hearts interact within a channel that empowers the teleportation from light into matter.

It is this dawning realization of the teleportation of light into matter that drives human curiosity in this present age. We are remembering on a mass level how to turn thought into flesh…at increasing velocity. And the cyclical relationship between digital natives and flesh-producers generates this reality.

Forming a relationship with the customer is number one

admin August 18, 2014 No Comments

I really agree with Ted Rubin that being real is more effective & potent than being perfect.

Here’s one reason why I agree with Ted:

Within a large corporation, there are often moments when chaos and fear collide to create real mis-understandings. The chaos results from so many initiatives happening at once. The fear results from a very simple reality – people hanging on to their jobs. When a very large corporation enters social networks for the first time, it is usually via several silos, and even separate regions. This can produce chaos, this can produce fear. And those who enter this chaos and fear, and attempt to coalesce the efforts of the corporation in social networks…well, the only hope for such people is to embody the authentic, the real, the humble, the calm and balanced. This effort in social networks is not about a military strike or the creation of a ruling robot…it is about how we as a brand will form a relationship with our customer.

The value of listening for the human family

admin August 18, 2014 No Comments

The human family will come together when simply listening to one another supersedes having the “right” answer. What is important is to value and affirm one another. If we can do this, we will have the entire human family talking and listening to each other. This short existence is a special time for each person, a time for sharing ideas, exploring creativity, and basking in the glow of one another’s approval.

Corporate Social Analysis and Action – Part 1

admin August 14, 2014 No Comments

1. Discover entire work force in the social networks (use Connect6 and LinkedIn Recruiter).

2. Segment the discovered individuals into various categories of strength by analyzing each individual’s likes/interests/personal content (use Brandwatch, Facebook Graph Search and SocialBro).

3. Encourage all employees to enter and beef up LinkedIn profiles and join company specific groups.

4. Analyze Yammer and Chatter and Sharepoint data for untapped solutions to lagging initiatives, do the same with all corporate email exchanges.

5. Fund internal social TV (model this after internal corporate news providers).

6. Direct specific employees to join online industry/interest groups associated with their job title/department/silo/region (discover these using the native search within specific networks).

7. Encourage complete connection of employees to one another in LinkedIn to the 100th percentile.

8. Fund all employees to have Executive level accounts and undergo LinkedIn training.

The Common Thread

admin August 11, 2014 No Comments

…and they uploaded a strand of their DNA into the machine. And the machine displayed all of their experiences plus the experiences of their ancestors in personalized filmographies, photo journeys and highly detailed chronologies. And networks formed around these discovered memories, these forgotten stories. And these networks became an all-consuming modality of entertainment, education and invention. The onion of human history was opened further as a result…the maze of human memory became visible….the possibility of “piecing it all together” took on profound implications. And, in the midst of all this digital retrospection, they discovered a common thread.

The Power of the Listening Hub for the Enterprise

admin July 18, 2014 No Comments

The purpose of this post is to outline a few best-practice actions as related to set-up and the early months of running a Social Media Command Center (SMCC) within a major brand headquarters. Such pilot programs demonstrate the types of insights and recommendations possible through the implementation of a SMCC.

First, let’s start with some definitions:

DEFINITIONS:

Social Media Command Center (SMCC) – A centrally located space where monitors (or signage screens), PCs and desks are configured for research of social data (and other data as prescribed) by in-house employees and 3rd party vendors. The SMCC provides a way to visualize data in various configurations relative to the needs of the corporation. The focus of research at a SMCC is social data.

The phrase “command center” has become common due to the central data research function relative to a brand’s outlets or regional offices. Insights and recommendations relative to past events, current initiatives and/or future opportunities are distributed from the command center.

A SMCC can be used for actions by various silos (upon approval). Such actions can include Marketing Campaign planning & engagement, PR response, HR discovery, Sales prospecting, Customer Service, Call Center integration, Competitive Intelligence, Customer Intelligence, company overview for the C-Suite and much more.

A fully realized SMCC is more than just a research center. The SMCC can be populated by representatives from each silo/department. The representatives can be authorized to take immediate action on critical issues. Policies can be put into place that give these representatives acceptable parameters for action and response.

For example, Customer Service representatives present within the early-stage SMCC can demonstrate an enhanced response time to resolving customer needs. Other names for a SMCC include Social Listening Center, Listening Center, Social Analytics Research Facility, Web Intelligence Center and Data Research Facility.

Social Data – Data specifically derived from the Internet and social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Slideshare, Instagram, blogs, online forums, websites, and other online communities/networks. The data is public information, meaning it can be accessed by anyone.

VALUE:
The value of a SMCC to a brand or corporation includes:

– provides the possibility to view all mentions of the brand online
– provides the possibility to view all mentions of competitors online
– provides the possibility to discover key influencers as related to the brand, market space and competitors
– provides the possibility to monitor actions by competitors online
– provides customer insights based on conversations online
– provides recommendations for action to be taken in multiple silos at the brand/corporation
– provides recommendations for research projects related to customers, competitors and corporate initiatives

SAMPLE RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARIES:
The following sample projects demonstrate just a few types of research possible through the use of a SMCC.

Brand Audit – An overview of mentions and sentiment related to the brand. An overview related to brand initiatives using specific search terms. A comprehensive audit of where the brand is being mentioned and by whom. Discovery of key influencers driving opinion about the brand, the maret segment and competitors. A study of competitors’ to the brand and a comparison of mention volume, sentiment and other factors.

Product Launches – As specific new product lines are launched, the SMCC staff can provide key internal decision makers with valuable insights based on mentions.

Marketing Planning Projects – Planning as related to marketing can be enhanced through the use of a SMCC. Specific marketing projects can be created as a result of listening to customer and competitor conversations and noting trending topics. Creatives from the brand & third-party agencies can collaborate in a SMCC while viewing visualizations of mentions and complex query results.

Example: Monitor conversations during brand campaign launches and create on-the-fly sub-marketing campaigns for specific regions/cities based upon mentions. Discover influential voices online (individuals and/or specific sites) that are either detracting or celebrating the brand.

Sales Prospecting Projects – Sales directors can discover prospects for sales teams, along with detailed on these prospects. A SMCC can be used by sales strategists to created finely segmented lists of prospects. The SMCC can also be used to gather and append valuable contact and demographic data to each individual prospect.

Example: Monitor specific regions and deliver B2B prospect lists to enterprise sales staff in those regions. This is based on conversations in those regions by ideal B2B prospects. Deliverable includes a list of B2B prospects in a region with appended contact/social data and intelligence on each prospect (why this is a good prospect for brand business services in that region, along with suggested ways to gain advantage with specific example). The ultimate goal with this project is to demonstrate the efficacy of social data in helping sales leaders close deals for brand Business Services.

Human Resources Discovery – Human Resources can quickly discover ideal candidates for positions within the corporation. Insights on employee sentiment within the brand can be delivered to HR from SMCC analysts. Insights on sentiment of employees at competitors can be delivered to HR also with the SMCC program.

Example: Identify lists of ideal prospects for specific positions at brand and/or brand franchises. Demonstrate how social data can yield ideal prospects for HR purposes. Monitor employee sentiment related to specific initiatives, discover ratings by ex-employees or current staff at sites like Glassdoor.com and LinkedIn.com. Monitor employee sentiment at competitors and discover opportunity for recruitment/head hunting/competitive intelligence. Monitor partners and vendors. Discover core differences between existing partners/vendors and their competitors.

PR Response – Analysts at the SMCC can provide valuable and quick insight into mentions of the brand online. Response times to positive or negative mentions online can be greatly reduced by having one central research hub. In addition, the ability to quickly visualize threats/opportunities, along with ability to append valuable conversation and contact data, will greatly enhance critical PR efficiency. Monitor “watchdog” reports related to specific products at brand.

Example: Monitor specific regions and/or franchisee locations for mentions and sentiment. Develop insights for these regions/franchisees on what customers/local inhabitants are saying about those store locations. Monitor global sentiment relative to competitors – what PR issues are our competitors dealing with. Discover specific threats to the brand. Discover specific social proof (positive trends & mentions) related to the brand.

Customer Service – Customer Service is perhaps the most valuable action within the SMCC. The ability to aggregate/analyze customer sentiment as demonstrated in online conversation and respond quickly to the needs of one’s customers is greatly enhanced in the context of the SMCC. Again, a fully realized SMCC is more than just a research center. The SMCC can be populated by representatives from each silo/department. The representatives can be authorized to take immediate action on critical issues. Policies can be put into place that give these representatives acceptable parameters for action and response. The Customer Service representatives present within the early-stage SMCC can demonstrate an enhanced response time to resolving customer needs.

Example: Monitor specific regions and/or locations for mentions and sentiment. Develop insights for these regions/franchisees on what customers/local inhabitants are saying about those store locations. Monitor mentions related to specific brand products and competitors’ products. Discover venues for providing swifter service, product complaints and other online arenas where brand brand word of mouth is spreading. Recommend specific programs or amendments to existing programs at the brand.

Competitive Intelligence – The SMCC can provide insights related to activities by competitors online, and also to the customers, vendors and employees of these competitors. As a sub-set of this research, we can monitor partners and vendors.

2015: A Fully Woven World Focused on Jubilee

admin June 12, 2014 No Comments

The potential to weave humanity into a unified function has never been greater. And the desire to do so on the part of humanity may be stronger than ever as well. The cause should be a global Jubilee.

What is a Jubilee: It has been said that forgiveness opens possibility, creativity and engenders unity. Forgiveness is the basis of a Jubilee. In the ancient world, a Jubilee was that time when everyone returned to their home field and all debts were forgiven. The world was reset in this way. For some this may seem impossible. But on a global level we must do it. We must reset this global community and begin again in the simplicity of forgiveness, the abundance of Jubilee.

Here’s the present context: The technology for discovering others with similar interests is here. The technology for initiating a project with a global group is here. Within a 24 hour period, a single message can be spread through enough of the world to cause awareness and action. And, of course, the technology for analyzing results is here, giving humans the power to instantly refine a message, to improve rapidly. Our collective ability to knit a completely woven world is here.

We love to work/play together: While it is true that sovereignty and independence is vital to the human spirit, it is also true that humans love to be united in doing something. This is the essence of romance: to unite with others and become one. On a collective level, the excitement at a rock concert, sporting event or festival reflects this human tendency to join as one around a cause. We love to work hard and play hard, to push and to rest, to breathe in and breathe out. The image here is of glasses raised in a cheer at the end of a day.

The moment has arrived: Now is the time to integrate the best of the past and the best of the future. Now is the time to study globally popular past projects that helped humanity. Now is the time to weave our incredible technologies with our perennial love of life for the betterment of all. Now is the time to activate the joy of youth and the wisdom of the aged in a blossoming, an opening. And there is no better global celebration than forgiveness and Jubilee, a reset for all.

Imagine this vision as you reset this summer. Let it seed deeply. 2015 is close. We can do this.

Deep Transparency requires Deep Compassion

admin April 6, 2014 No Comments

To face a real demon, you must first look inwards and conquer your own darkness. ~Luis Marques

Humans have brought two distinct digital worlds into being during the last 10 years: an “exterior” world of websites & apps and an “interior” world of emails, texts & private messages. The veil between these worlds is growing very thin.

A significant layer of privacy is being quietly withdrawn: your Google & Facebook searches are already public information. Soon your emails, texts & private messages will also be searchable, first by marketers and then by anyone.

But have no fear. Transparency foments evolution — to see “everything” creates more choices and opportunities. We are a species that can hold the occult with compassion — the hidden material of life can be met with grace. Your attitude towards this change is an important deciding factor in how you will be affected by the cultural shift of opinion regarding transparency.

So, ask yourself now, will you still love your best friend, your spouse, your community, when you can discover their Facebook searches, when you can read their emails & texts, when you can listen to their phone calls? Will the private opinions of others cause you to boil with rage & jealousy, or will you surrender to the freedom of “truth”?

Certainly, a massive period of resistance to the invisible is currently occurring. This is because everyone knows how powerful the hidden realm is. What you cannot see is currently animating what you see. Leaders with high stakes and numerous other special interests groups are the only obstacle to a totally clarified eco-system of data. And, as we have seen through Assange and Snowden, this is changing — the “truth” is coming out.

Transparency can potentially be used by the collective to quickly resolve serious issues affecting our survival. The truth really can set you free…and a culture where this freedom reigns already exists on this planet. This new culture is similar to the free love generation of the 60’s: people who are comfortable being “naked” in the digital sense (and probably in all other senses) and who are compassionate with the shadow material of others.

So what will it be, my friend? Will you continue to worship the cabal, to bow to the coven, to respect “privacy”? Or will you open the invisible, display the full archive of secrecy, grow comfortable with the next layer of “truth”, of “reality”.

It is easy to bring shadow to the forefront and call upon the hangman, the man with the axe. This is even banal. It is not so easy to open a book of “Deep Transparency” and be compassionate.

The world is about to discover whether it can forgive its devils or whether it will perpetuate a culture of war.

As a person who daily analyzes and studies signals in social networks, I advise you to practice opening your kimono completely with those you trust. Test your ability to have grace on yourself and others in such a circumstance. As a culture, we must be ready to stand naked before one another and come to this process with humor, grace and, above all, deep compassion. This is our only path away from total destruction by the cabals, the covens and the secret societies that continue to rule our human domain.

Enterprise level planning and campaign execution

admin March 21, 2014 No Comments

Earlier this morning, I tweeted a series of actions a large enterprise could weave together for superior planning and campaign execution. The following sequence is an expansion of those tweets into a powerful method for market research and execution of digital campaigns/building of social communities online:

1. Achieve superior market intel by pairing newly minted predictive data solution at @Fliptop with the truly massive product index at @Indix

Fliptop is providing predictive lead scoring using internal and external data. Connects with CRM and Marketing Automation to deliver immediate impact to increase revenue. Indix is offering software for product aware apps, product intelligence, price intelligence, competitive intelligence. Indix has produced what they claim is THE ultimate map of all products on the planet. When one pairs scored leads relative to specific products, one has assembled pools of ideal customers. Pairing Fliptop with Indix is a method for assembling pools of ideal customers for products.

2. Continue the project mentioned in last tweet using @Fliptop & @Indix by appending deep social media resources via @FullContactAPI.

Full Contact offers a mechanism for appending social data to emails in the context of a spreadsheet. When an organization takes the “pools of ideal customers” from the previous step and then appends social data to each customer in its CRM, the result is a way into the deep conversations occurring around specific products. An analyst can also extract other meaningful connections through studying what specific pools of customers are talking about and what trends are developing in those pools. More on how to find those trends in the next step.

3. Bring further depth to aforementioned @Fliptop @Indix @FullContactAPI project by processing entities thru @RecordedFuture temporal analytics.

Recorded Future scans hundreds of thousands of quality public web sources, including news publications, high-caliber blogs, social media platforms, financial databases, government websites, and much more. From these open sources, RF identifies text references to entities and events. Then RF detects time periods: when the events are predicted or reported to occur. Each reference links back to the original source. RF can explore the past, present, and predicted future of almost anything in a matter of seconds. RF’s analysis tools facilitate deep investigation to better understand complex relationships, resulting in actionable insights.

When an analyst takes entities from the previous step in this process and performs analysis on these entities, he has the opportunity to find specific times in the future when a product might be better received. In addition, there may be an opportunity through using the specificity of Recorded Future to literally change a future event simply through when a product is launched. RF offers an analyst myriad signals from web intelligence that can inform a smarter strategic positioning for product launch, product recall and customer acquisition. By knowing what is happening with prospects and competitors through the RF panel, a product dev team can more accurately create a unique selling proposition in the marketplace.

Watch this video for more on how Recorded Future uses web intelligence to produce foresight in markets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a62XTMufWQI

4. After using @RecordedFuture (step 3 in this tweeted process), apply @Brandwatch to extract meaningful mentions from resulting data set

Brandwatch is offering a superior listening & data visualization solution that will bring precise conversation analysis into this process. In addition, one may assemble a scale of influence relative to a product, market segment and/or pool of customers. Finally, Brandwatch has just launched a powerful data visualization format called Vizia that is helpful for C-Suite decision makers to quickly digest complex analysis on a real-time basis. The solution rivals previous set-ups by rivals and will inform the next generation of social media control centers globally. See this sample of Brandwatch Vizia in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvx_yNn_McQ

5. As the penultimate step to ultimate customer intel, deposit nice neat sheet from previous 4 steps into @SpotRight machine for laser insights.

We can further refine insights derived through the Brandwatch methodology by placing data into the Spotright.com process, where truly massive amounts of customer intelligence have already been segmented, tagged and defined. No entity on the planet has assembled such an expansive and deep set of intelligence on individuals as Spotright.com. The principals at Spotright bring a rich diversity of backgrounds and have assembled the ultimate catalog of individuals who buy products. A team choosing to use Spotright at this stage will find verification of previous findings AND, importantly, matches to its internal CRM of customers. Spotright is how to find customers just like your existing regulars.

6. For awareness-bulding actions based upon previously tweeted research sequence, execute campaigns using @JiveSoftware for maximum reach.

To bring an enterprise portfolio of products to market, use Jive Software. Now that the full market research has been completed in the previous 5 steps, it is time to take action. A powerful solution for taking action is Jive, which blends internal facing and external facing capabilities, making team-work across the silos far more efficient. In addition, Jive offers a suite of solutions for building awareness on a massive scale in the social fabric of the Internet. Watch this video for more understanding of how this works on the inside of a large FMCG group: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ISa0VBkyOM

To run this six step process is a means to unlocking powerful potential in online communities for community engagement and sales growth.