Dr. Umar Ruhi's List: Social Media & Enterprise 2.0 Digest

This analyst report from Altimeter is based on a survey of companies at various levels of maturity with their social media initiatives. It provides a gap analysis of social media policies and programs, and focuses on areas that need to be addressed even at firms considered as leaders in their social media practices. Special attention is paid to the area of organizational capabilities to handle social media crisis where the level for preparedness isn't up to snuff. Finally, a maturity model based roadmap is suggested for companies just getting started with their social media initiatives, and the benefits of establishing a cross-functional social media council or center-of-excellence are emphasized.

Value & Target Audience:
A very useful analyst report that should be read by all social media practitioners, and anyone who is involved with policy making around social media use in their companies.

In this blog post, Karthik Chakkarapani offers ten guidelines to facilitate the adoption of enterprise 2.0 collaboration tools. Building upon key best practices from six sigma and lean management methodologies, Karthik provides examples of systems and workflow features that can enable higher levels of adoption and continued use for enterprise 2.0 tools. In addition to operational directives, useful advice is provided on managing projects, institutionalizing governance, and cultivating innovation.

Value & Target Audience:
Technology and Change Management Professionals involved with the implementation or management of social computing projects will find this to be a useful reading.

In this very useful report written by Susan Etlinger of the Altimeter Group, the utility of social media metrics is discussed within the context of business objectives and key performance indicators . Based on different business objectives such as managing customer relationships, improving operational efficiencies, and fostering innovation, The report recommends different types of metrics and links the metrics to specific actions. It also provides several real-world use cases to explicate the need for such a framework.

Value & Target Audience:
Practitioners and Researchers involved with social media monitoring and analytics projects will find this framework as a useful template to follow.

In a summary presentation of his new book "Smart Business Social Business", Michael Brito discusses the importance of a holistic corporate social media program and highlights the elements that need to be addressed in the formulation of an effective social media strategy. He emphasizes the need to address issues and challenges in the three main areas of technology, process, and people, and notes that only through such a balanced approach, a gainful and productive social business transformation can lead to a collaborative social organization. Finally, he offers a list of 15 qualitative indicators that can be used to ascertain the level of maturity of an organization's social media initiatives.

Value & Target Audience:
Useful information for all social media practitioners and a good summary for people who haven't read the book or those considering to buy the book.

In this blog post, Jonathan Rick comments on the lingering problem of a consistent definition for the term "social media", and how this leads to problems while talking with businesses that are just getting started with social media. To overcome this issue, he suggests using examples of how other businesses have used social media to explain the potential of various tools and tactics. From online Recruitment to B2C sales promotions to public relations management, there are various business use cases that can be used to explicate the utility of social media tools and their effectiveness in business strategy. 15 such examples are provided in the article.

Value & Target Audience:
Useful examples for firms, especially SMEs, contemplating the use of social media and its applications to business.

While this whitepaper style article is primarily based on the product offerings of the Edelman group, it offers a good definition of what "Influence" by relating it to "context" of discussions in the social media world. It differentiates between the concepts of "popularity" and "influence" and also highlights how activity levels and engagement levels are two different metrics. Some tips to improve influence and engagement are also provided.

Value & Target Audience:
Useful information for social media practitioners and organizations planning to use social media tools in their public relations or marketing campaigns.

In this presentation, the speaker offers valuable recommendations for businesses that are in the early stages of adoption of customer-facing social media applications. Key take-aways include: i) mapping social media tools to business objectives, ii) engaging customers by catering to their specific needs (as opposed to standardized marketing tactics), and iii) assessing social media effectiveness using different types of awareness and engagement metrics (some examples provided).

Value & Target Audience:
Useful roadmap for practitioners involved in defining social media programs for marketing and public relations type initiatives.

This UBM sponsored virtual conference will highlight a variety of enterprise 2.0 use cases from internally facing applications such as expertise sharing and product development to externally facing ones such as marketing and sales. With an agenda driven by first hand accounts of real world implementations and lessons, the event should provide useful operational level guidelines as well as functional frameworks for strategy formulation.

Value & Target Audience:
Useful event for practitioners interested in enterprise social media best practices and strategy formulation.