From the category archives:

Social Media

Restaurants finding Twitter a cheap, effective marketing tool

by Erik on June 29, 2009

in Interesting, New Tech, Social Media

I was having a discussion the other day with one of my employees about the benefit of twitter and how it can be utilized in a business setting as a value-adding marketing tool. He was not so convinced. He could only see twitter as a way to tell people what you were doing at any given moment. “I’m sitting on my couch” or “I’m going to the bathroom!” were his tweet examples to show the inanity. He was all about what you could do with Facebook – in his eyes – a much richer experience.

I think the twitter and micro-blogging phenomenon is a lot more telling about social media in general than most would give credit for, and if you can find a way to use this tool to your advantage, you’re instantly ahead of the pack. At least for now.

What can you do with 140 characters or less, the length of each tweet? A lot, restaurants are discovering - everything from posting daily specials to luring followers with offers of free appetizers to offering a glimpse of kitchen life. It’s all good for business.

“It’s instant and free marketing,’’ said Chris Barr, a manager at L’Espalier, which joined Twitter this month.

Restaurants are starting to sign on by the dozens, inspired, perhaps, by the success of Kogi, a Korean barbecue taco truck in Los Angeles that gained national notoriety by tweeting its whereabouts. In February, Newsweek called it “America’s first viral restaurant.’’

[via The Boston Globe]

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Tech Payoff for Companies Remains Elusive, Study Finds

by Erik on June 22, 2009

in Markets, ROI, Social Media, Technology

A recent post to the New York Times Bits blog has a very news-worthy byline. “A new economic index paints a disheartening picture for technophiles — at least the ones inside corporate America” it reads. The article continues to paint a bleak picture for firms that are investing hundred’s of millions of dollars into technology and enterprise systems with the hope that there will be huge returns on their investments.

The Shift Index, developed by the Silicon Valley research unit of the consulting firm Deloitte, tracks a wide range of measures of economic performance, going back to 1965. But two numbers really jump out. The return on assets for United States companies has dropped by 75 percent over that span, while labor productivity has more than doubled.

Return on Investment

I don’t necessarily agree with the assertions of this article. It is true that technology investment is one of the many investments firms can make that are extremely difficult to calculate returns for, but it is not impossible.

There are many reasons for these difficulties since these systems can increase revenue and decrease expenses in intangible ways… Some changes also take place over such large periods of time that they are difficult to track, and with poor data sets on previous systems it can make comparison difficult – or nearly impossible – between the two.

BUT–I would also add–that the main return that is (1) primarily realized, (2) not always calculated, and (3) present in the Shift Index is…  the human element. Technology allows labor productivity to increase, allowing people to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently. It can be difficult to calculate a concrete figure on this efficiency bump, but it is clearly present.

Information is Key

The efficiency increase mainly involves the use of information and business intelligence, and this magnification effect allows employees of firms with large technological investments to make better decisions during their daily functions.

The good news, according to John Hagel, co-chairman of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge, is that companies typically have a solid technology foundation. But technology investment, he said, has been overly focused on an industrial-era model. “It’s been all about standardization and automation of business processes,” he said. “Until and unless companies learn how to harness knowledge flows, the impact of the technology will mainly be continuing competitive pressure.”

A part of the answer, Mr. Hagel added, is the smart use of social networks and other online collaboration tools. “There is a completely different set of values that information technology can drive, connecting and communicating with the outside world, both partners and customers, which can translate into competitive advantage,” he said.

Competitive advantage in today’s marketplace will come from information. Social networks, information sharing, analysis, and hyper segmentation will mean the difference between Fortune 500 and top-performing Fortune 100 firms.

Speaking of online collaboration tools, check out the Jam sessions at IBM – a leading competitor of Deloitte.

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The experiment: IBM social media ‘Jams’

by Erik on June 19, 2009

in Business Logic, IBM, Information, Interesting, Social Media

Today I received a short note from Adam Christensen re: IBM Jams… He pointed me to his case study on the most recent InnovationJam. I really like the concept behind the case, as I believe the argument is quite often true… How many companies are doomed to failure when implementing new innovative technologies that are grounded in social media?

In short, here’s the main point: too often social media is taken on as a stand alone experiment devoid of a proper value statement and not rooted in the business model or organizational mission. And just as I said in a prior presentation that social media in conflict with corporate culture is doomed to failure, so too is any social media project without regard to what business you are actually in.

And with the right corporate culture, you can end up with results like IBM: 150,000 participants, 46,000 ideas drilled down to 10 unique business ideas – from those ideas IBM created 10 mini business units – each funded with $10 million. A total of $100 million invested and with complete buy-in from all of the stakeholders of the firm.

In one word: Wow.

One of those business strategies IBM is implementing, which also happens to be the overall corporate strategy, is the Smarter Planet agenda.  “The gist is, the major systems that make the world work – financial, health, food, traffic, energy, etc. – are all largely broken and in need of being fixed. And the solutions to those problems have a big technology underpinning.”

Check out the Smarter Planet blog here.

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