The Women Power in Business : Does MBA Count

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The Social Business Evolution : Products Vs People

[Source: OnlineMBA.com]

This social business infographic was created to illustrate the social customer’s impact on business operations. It also encompasses most of what is discussed in my upcoming book, Smart Business, Social Business. The infographic starts off defining the social customer and social business. The social business declaration is defined; and then discusses the three pillars that make up a collaborative social business – People, Process and Technology.

 

Marketers today are caught up in a jumble of buzzwords that mean very little.  It's a confusing time, but to get the marketing right, you need to start thinking about relationships first.  "It's not about selling something anymore; that might be the end result, but to get there, you need to work on the relationship.

Creating your social strategy is a four step process

1. Who is your audience?
2. Very clear goal
3. Action plan
4. Tools, tactics, techniques

Determining Your Audience

 Each user group who interacts with your brand  differs  by levels of participation. They can be broadly grouped into

Non Active Watchers: 52% of online users have watched YouTube, 42% have read blogs, 19% have downloaded podcasts

Sharers: 29% have used social networking sites, 28% have tagged online content, 21% have shared online content that they created

Commenters: 32% have rated a product, service or person, 30% have commented on a product, 22% have commented on newsgroup or site

Producers: 12% have created or worked on a blog; 11% have remixed content.

Curators: People that have edited a wiki - moderated a forum

Companies That Utilize the Social Web Well

According to  Readwriteweb  companies that use the Social Web well are:

Oracle:Prior to running Oracle Open World, Oracle changed its home page for two weeks.  The page asked for consumer feedback; community involvement was important enough to interrupt the normal flow.

H&R Block:When H&R Block realized selling was no longer working, they created a page on FaceBook to provide tax advice. They don't say "come and do your taxes with us," on FaceBook; they only offer advice.

Comcast

Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care for Comcast Cable uses Twitter to look for people talking about Comcast, 'tweets' them, and offers to help.

Skittles
Skittles has a page on FaceBook called 'Mix the Rainbow'.
It's created a spark and now the community is interacting with one another.  The company occasionally steps in with light and fun comments; never with sales talk. 
A recent series of messages on the Skittles wall:
Derek says:  Is it just me, or does there seem to be too many orange ones in the bags now?
Skittles says: Derek despite what you or the Internet may think, we can assure you there is no orange skittles conspiracy - red on the other hand...

Starbucks
Starbucks asks for suggestions on how to make the company better.  If you provide a suggestion, Starbucks CIO will discuss the idea on the site; it's not just a black hole that suggestions go into.  He explains the back end - or what has to happen on the technical level before they can implement the idea.

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Harris Ranks Verizon,Motorola, HP and Sony Biggest Tech Brands of 2011

Harris Interactive announced their Technology Brands of the Year in four major categories: Mobile Phones (Motorola), Consumer Electronics (Sony), Computer Hardware (HP), and Gaming (Nintendo).Verizon is named the Mobile Networks Brand of the Year among consumers according to the 2011 Harris Poll EquiTrend® study. The Following are the top ranked Brands across the Most Importtant categories. Overall, awards are given in each of 46 different categories.

• Mobile  Networks Brands .
  

Verizon, the highest ranked mobile network, received a score of 63.9 (on a scale of 1 to 100), followed by AT&T (60.1) and Clearwire (56.3).

• Mobile Phone Brands

Motorola (64.4), buoyed by strong familiarity and a significant improvement over 2010 scores, led the mobile phones category, followed by HTC (60.6) and Sony Ericsson (59.8).

Nokia was No. 4 (59.5) and Apple, ranked just above industry average, was No. 5 (59.3). 

• Consumer Electronics Brands

Sony (74.7) continues to be the market leader in consumer electronics, closely followed by Samsung (69.5), Panasonic (67.3), and LG (67.3). All four leaders, particularly Samsung and LG, gained ground in 2011, narrowing the gap in brand-equity scores. 

• Computer Hardware Brands

 Hewlett-Packard (69.9) ranked highest in the computer hardware category, followed by Apple (68.3) and Dell (64.1)

The entire research reported can be downloaded here

About the Methodology

The EquiTrend® study evaluates measures including: Equity, Consumer Connection, Commitment, Brand Behavior, Brand Advocacy, and Trust.
 Harris Poll EquiTrend® study was conducted online among 25,099 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over between January 11 and 27, 2011. where1,273 brands were rated in 53 separate categories. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings. Data were weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. population of consumers ages 15 and over on the basis of age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, region, and income, and data from respondents ages 18 and over were also weighted for their propensity to be online.

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49% Mobile Users Use it as " Online Shopping Tool"

Mobiles  today have become truly omnipresent in our lives..  and  a recent research study by  Performics and ROI Research reveals that Mobile  is increasingly being used as a tool for online shopping research as well as making a purchase online

Nearly one-half (49%) of mobile searchers—people who use the mobile Web at least weekly—say they have made at least one purchase via mobile device in the previous six months

The most popular purchases via mobile are in the entertainment category (32%), followed by apparel goods (31%), electronics (25%), travel (22%), and consumer packaged goods (CPG) (20%). 

76% say they have searched the mobile Web in the previous six months to find information on entertainment, 68% for have done so for electronics, 61% for apparel, and 57% for CPG.

The research shows how Mobiles are today becoming increasingly  all pervasive   The use of mobile search at home topped the list with 81 percent reporting evening use, 80 percent reporting weekend use and 59 percent reporting use before work

How mobile Users  Search Information

• 84% search for local retailer information (phone, address, hours) and 82% find online retailers.

• 73% find a specific manufacturer or product website.

• 71% learn about a product or service after seeing an advertisement. 

• 68% find the best price for a product or service.

Overwhelmingly, satisfaction with and adoption of mobile search rang true throughout the study

• 75 percent said mobile search makes their lives easier
• 63 percent said access to mobile search has changed the way they gather information
• 32 percent said they use mobile search more than search engines on their computer

These  findings are  from The 2011 Mobile Search Insights Study, based on a survey of 502 people who use mobile phones to search the Web at least once a week.

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Consumer Spending On Facebook To Reach $1.2 billion

Industry experts suggest that the volume of transactions for physical goods on Facebook will top $250 million in 2011.As  Facebook user base nearing 650 million, Facebook Credits has been gaining traction as a virtual currency, and everyone from Warner Brothers, to JC Penney, to Brooks Brothers setting up shop, 2011 appears to be the year that social commerce reaches the tipping point.
According to Research by  Social Times Pro 

• Social commerce is inclusive of Facebook storefronts, but the larger revenue opportunity extends beyond the social network to retailers’ own sites, mobile devices, as well as startups launching new content and commerce platforms.

•  Facebook sales represent less than 10 percent of monthly revenue for a majority of retailers currently operating storefronts on the platform. There are still significant risks and barriers that will prevent that percentage from reaching double-digits within the next 12 months.

•  Projections for retail revenue generated from Facebook commerce in 2011 are closer to the $75 million to $100 million range.The most bullish estimates of 2011 consumer spending on physical goods on Facebook go as high as $1.2 billion.

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