As Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties (SF Goodwill) entered its 100th year of service in the Bay Area, they decided to reach out to Socialbrite for help in becoming a social organization – engaging the community and bringing on a new generation of supporters. Their new Web site, sfgoodwill.org, is more than just an update; it’s a top-to-bottom change from a brochure-style site to an interactive center for blogging, donating, volunteering, and more.

In “SF Goodwill’s big leap forward in outreach to the community,” JD Lasica covers 10 lessons learned and how decisions were made to go social. Lesson 1:

“Go all in. A lot of organizations want to tinker at the edges but are scared of more deep-seated change. SF Goodwill seemed open to institutional change that required new approaches and new thinking about how various parts of the organization interact with the public — and across departmental silos.”

Other topics covered: creating a strategy, tapping into your community of resources, going mobile, and embracing open source.

Social media investment on the front end does pay off. Time will have to tell just how much payoff SF Goodwill reaps. Nonprofits of all kinds are smart to watch what happens with SF Goodwill and to start thinking about getting on the social bandwagon.

More on Socialbrite: http://www.socialbrite.org

Philip West

November 15, 2011

Ubiquitous smartphones are making everyone a smart-shopper this holiday season. In “Mobile Devices Changing the Habits of Holiday Shoppers,” Shopper Sciences, a retail marketing firm, recently found that 42 percent of holiday shoppers will research products before purchasing and 34 percent will be reducing their physical visits to stores as online and mobile technologies make shopping from home – or anywhere for that matter – a snap. BusinessNewsDaily reports further on the findings:

“Shopper Sciences’ 2011 Holiday Shopping Survey found that 48 percent of consumers consider their smartphone a vital tool which they plan to use during this holiday season. The company estimates that the use of retail apps that can help consumers compare prices, find coupons and even pay digitally is up 300 percent from last year.”

So what does it mean for retailers? Consumers’ use of social media and mobile devices gives retailers a channel to offer bargains straight to their Facebook followers, push deals through sites like Groupon or Living Social, text-message exclusive offers, and utilize flash sales.

Despite the poor economy, American shoppers are sure to find a way to create the holiday experience – But now it’s a new game with more mobile product research and deal hunting and less waiting in early morning lines for the hottest product.

Philip West

November 10, 2011

Dan Schawbel, a Forbes contributor and author of Me 2.0, interviews group vice president of Gartner Research, Anthony Bradley, in “How to Become a Social Organization.” Web 2.0 tools aren’t just for socialites; savvy businesses are reaping the benefits of building a community around people and their needs. Bradley explains:

“Across all business functions, organizations are finding sources of good purposes like community-centric customer support, market-driven product design, product quality collaboration, social business process improvement, overcoming sales objections, and brand propagation. They are far too numerous to list. There also are good techniques for engaging people such as social incentives, gamification, real-world event piggybacking, etc. But if the purpose is lacking, they won’t really matter.”

So what’s it to your business? Bradley argues it takes good management – not just good technology – to utilize the power of mass collaboration enabled by social media.

Facebook and Twitter are not just means to push information or market your business. With careful planning, growing a community can become a business asset and means to get a following for your purpose, build relationships, collaborate to create content and new opportunities, and tackle challenges.

Social media gives new meaning to teamwork and a way for managers to tap into the collective community.

You can read more in Anthony Bradley’s book, The Social Organization: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees.

Philip West, November 9, 2011

In Social Media Examiner’s 4 Steps to Selling With Social Media the author tries to demystify social media in light of growing sales.

The insistence that  tracking   return on investment for social media requires attraction, conversion, retention and measurement.  As with most things this easy to say and harder to do.

The article attempts to provide a road map to accomplishing these four steps. It is interesting to note that many of the steps outlined for each step are the same steps that are needed in person-to-person interactions – strategy, consistency, offer value to convert into buyers.

It is interesting to note that the author claims that social media is in its infancy.  I think it is actually struggling through its teenage years but I do agree with the article’s assertions about the focus needed to succeed.

So rather than focusing myopically on flavor-of-the-month tactics, make sure that all of your social media campaigns include the formula of attraction, retention, conversion and measurement, and you will have a sustainable plan for success.

Constance Ard November 8, 2011

Google search has no doubt been a cornerstone of technology, the internet, and how we access information. But with Web 2.0 changing the way we find, use, and share information, will Google fall back like Jeeves and Yahoo search or will they seek a dramatic remodeling to the company’s core service? Jason Hiner weighs the sides in, “Can Google survive its blind faith in the algorithm?”

Controversy surrounded Google in the early 2011 news because of search results heavy with faux sites known as “content farms.” Not to mention how social media is more and more becoming peoples’ “home page” as their source for information and play. Google+ had early success, but what about the heart of Google search: the algorithm.

Some point to the systematic algorithm’s shortcomings as to why Google search results are often sketchy and inconsistent. Industries are popping-up solely to top search results with optimized sites and content farms thus serving as an ad-hub and business partner rather than turning out high-quality information.

Google’s Panda updates to the algorithm throughout the year solved some problems but it was a slow and clunky rollout of technology that didn’t leave a pretty picture. Hines explains:

“The problem with the algorithm (and artificial intelligence in general) is that it has no common sense or wisdom — at least not yet. Meanwhile, the systems that Google search is increasingly competing with for information discovery — social search and mobile apps — use the collective wisdom of the community or targeted experts to deliver better information more quickly than Google search, in many cases.”

Google is big. Perhaps it’s time they drop a heavy investment into social search. Will they adapt and continue to shape how we find information? Or will they fallback and be shaped by our social network of information-sharing?

–

Philip West

November 2, 2011

Social media can be a beautiful tool for bringing the masses together to share information and form ideas together. It’s no wonder that corporations have jumped onboard the social media train in an effort to harvest ideas. Unfortunately the corporate approach to social media, a.k.a knowledge management, does not work that well. The article, Social Media Versus Knowledge Management, on Harvard Business Review explains how the corporate mind bastardized a beautiful thing.

Used throughout the article is the analogy of knowledge as water. According to the authors both should flow freely and nature be allowed to gather it where it may. Anyone having ever worked in management knows that such nonsense is meaningless and structure must be invoked to see results. Hence, knowledge management (KM) was born.

As with any good idea, when left to a chain of command to produce, the ball gets dropped. The article explains,

“KM communities imply a hierarchical view of knowledge and are often assigned by job classification or encouraged based on work duties. Participation becomes prescribed, creating the type of “mandatory fun” that is the butt of many a Dilbert cartoon and TV sitcom. Social media allows communities to emerge as a property of the purpose and the participation in using the tools. This lack of structure creates the space for active and innovative communities.”

While the authors are correct in their analysis what is left of such innovative communities is unstructured data, the bane of many a top-level manager. By utilizing real-time decision making technology unstructured data can become a powerful tool. Instead of looking at social media and KM as structured and unstructured data (i.e. good and bad data) companies should be looking at how the two can be married sky-rocketing their business agility.

Catherine Lamsfuss, November 2, 2011

A recent article on The Guardian, Do Mobile, the Cloud and Social Spell the End of the PC Era?, reports on growing rumors that the PC is on its deathbed, or at least receiving hospice care. The article presents expert opinions and facts condemning the PC we all grew to love during the 80s and 90s to a comfortable end-of-life retirement setting.

At the heart of the argument against the PC is the explosion in growth of mobile devices, especially when combined with cloud and social networking. Examples of PC’s replacement are all things Apple, Android and Facebook. With impressive numbers backing up the claims presented it is clear that the PC is fading in popularity and mobile devices are gaining. As the article explains,

“While both mobile revenue displacement and growth are impressive, the real revolution is in the Mobile + Cloud + Social explosion. Why does Google ”give away” Android, both the OS and applications? Android is a Trojan horse that protects Google’s one and only business model, advertising, on mobile devices: Cloud + Mobile.”

No one can argue with the numbers that clearly show a shift in how people use the internet and the software and hardware required. But we are not quite ready to order the coffin for the PC. Yes, the PC’s days of being number one on the charts have gone, but that does not mean it can’t have a comeback. We believe Microsoft and others with millions invested in the humble PC are not willing to give up just yet. The PC will have to adapt to the demands of current users, but we see it as perfectly logical that the article’s perfect formula of mobile, cloud and social are mere accessories of the future PC.

Catherine Lamsfuss, November 1, 2011

As we’re winding down for 2011, predictions for 2012 from research firms are popping up in reports such as, “Tech to Get More Social in 2012, Research Suggests“. Not surprising, one of the predictions in the article mentions social-networking to be prevalent in all phases of IT oriented companies. The report gives special attention to cloud computing and its ability to speed up the process of software development.

The article explains,

“When changes can be made on the fly, companies can deploy once, and then adapt an application as business needs change or become clearer.” It is also envisioned that clever developers in networked environments, the prediction adds, will “challenge traditional systems integrators that are used to hiding behind billable hours and big bang projects.”

This research suggests that if companies want to stay competitive they will be forced to move in the direction of social networking in the workplace. If they can prosper with this technology, it makes good business sense to embark on the latest and greatest. It’s all about money, of course, and if a company can reduce their overhead and be more productive, then more power to them.

Sandy McIntosh

October 28 , 2011

Is Tumblr the next big thing for business in the social media realm? SocialMedia Examiner considers the issue in “Should You Be On Tumblr? Seven Business Case Examples.”

Fans love Tumblr for its ease of use and clean style. Growing quickly, its social sharing capacities rival those of Twitter and Facebook. However, writer Jim Lodico is quick to mention that Tumblr isn’t a panacea:

“Tumblr is not for everyone. The audience tends to be younger, so short, highly visual blog posts tend to do much better than text-intensive posts. If you have trouble obtaining quality photographs and video, Tumblr may not be for you.

“However, the quick setup and simplicity of Tumblr may make it a good choice for those who want to get a blog up and running right now. There is very little learning curve and although it doesn’t have the power of WordPress, it’s also much easier to use.”

The article examines the Tumblr projects of seven businesses, from Huggies diapers to Newsweek Magazine. The profiles are intriguing; check out these cases to decide whether your business is a fit for the Tumblr model. We think the right businesses could benefit.

Cynthia Murrell

October 26, 2011

Many have long been forecasting strong profits in the mobile sector. Business Insider reveals evidence of such growth with “Google Mobile Revenue Growth Boosts Stock.” Writer Jeff Pierce reports that Google‘s mobile revenue run rate has more than doubled since last year, when it sat at about $1 Billion per year. Now, its run rate is at $2.5 Billion per year. Google stock has responded with a 5% jump.

Is mobile the future of Google? Perhaps. The driving force behind this sector’s growth, of course, is the popularity of smart phones and tablets, a trend that is bound to continue rising exponentially. Naturally, this means the growth in mobile advertising revenue will continue to increase, as well. As Pierce notes,

“Google is showing the clear case for what mobile is going to do to the advertising markets. Companies who have been hesitant to jump in with mobile campaigns are going to be left behind in the dust. This years shopping season which starts in a little over a month will be unique with more utilization of mobile technology than ever before.”

Growth in mobile profits is a trend not to be overlooked.

Cynthia Murrell     

October 25, 2011