Using social media to enhance conference management to help INB get started

Using social media to enhance conference management has been a norm. Here are some of the ways of how social tools have helped with conference management.

1)  Help attendees connect with each other.

Whether for the purpose of making business connections, making friends or building brand exposure, conference networking is key.

2) Broaden participation

Social media platforms provide a unique, zero-cost marketing opportunity to expand conference participation beyond the confines of a venue. Even if the event is offline, the conversation can be around online in real time like in twitter or Facebook.  This offers a unique opportunity for people to interact who arent at the event. You can also broaden conference participation on social networks with commenting on the conference’s Facebook Page, answering questions posed by speakers, tagging pictures and encouraging attendees to vote by “liking” the best wall posts.

3) Encourage attendees to share information

A great wealth of information can be garnered by using social media platforms during your conference. A great example will be foursquare. Setting up a Foursquare venue at a conference, event or trade show, and encouraging people to check in, lets the organizer see which areas of the event are most popular and lets attendees find each other and meet easily.

Conclusion

Social platforms help facilitate and encourage attendee participation. Facebook  is used to create polls, allow for public comments and encourage suggestions from attendees on how to improve the event. Organizers also encourage attendees to micro blog, which gives readers the opportunity to experience the event from numerous vantage points.  Social media creates social attendee lists, starts conversations, encourages meet ups, and allows conference organizers to react to issues immediately. Incorporating social into our conference simply makes the experience better. Whether customizing your conference on the fly to meet the needs of your audience, creating media buzz or engaging participants, one things is clear: social media has revolutionized events. If done right, your conference or event can become a global experience.

References:

Social media events

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IGC social networks

What is a social network? Take a look at the video below

These strategies can also be used for larger events and organisations such as the 34th International Geological Congress (IGC). This congress is the leading global forum for Earth sciences. This forum is an event which facilitiates international geoscientific collaboration and development standards. Through wikis the IGC will be able to attract and faciliatate communication between IGC, deleagates and students

The strategy is to integrate social media into IGC  marketing and communications plans. It’s important for the organization to understand that testing and experimentation is crucial.

The 3 steps of implementing the strategies are:

1) Determine goals and objective

It is important to understand your social media goals and objectives and how they tie into your overall company goals.

2) Research , Research and Research

Develop a list of social media sites where you can potentially engage with people.  The list will most likely start off with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a few select blogs and forums. Check out each of the social media sites on your list and do additional research to determine relevancy by searching for your brand name, your competitors, and your target keywords.  Listen to what’s out there, identify, and understand your target audience.

3) Measure Results

Next tie into the goals and objectives of your social media strategy.

• Improve brand presence across social channels—The measurement goal here is an increase in the number of followers on Twitter, number of fans on Facebook, number of comments, number of times your brand is mentioned in blogs and forums and so on.
• Increase positive sentiment about your brand—The goal here is to convert the number of positive mentions while taking note of negative mentions.  Has the ratio of positive to negative comments improved?  With the good comes the bad in social media. Get used to it!
• Develop relationships for future partnership opportunities—This goal is to keep track of those with whom you’ve connected.  For example, if you met a potential speaker for your webinar, include that person into your digital Rolodex.  If a vendor contacts you through your blog, capture that lead and take note.
• Increase traffic to your website—Keep track of visitors to your website who come from each of your social media sites.  If you’re promoting an event using social media, consider using a unique code to track the campaign.

Conclusion

Social media strategies will vary for each business and for each industry.  However, one thing is clear: social media needs to have “all hands on deck” in order to be successfully integrated into your company’s goals and objectives.

In general, I view social media as a strategy, not a tactic. I consider the social media platforms like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as tactics that tie into the social media strategy.  In other words, outline your social media strategy and support your strategy with tactics.  Without a carefully thought-out plan, you’ll eventually be overwhelmed with social media and even worse, get burnt out by it.

References:

7 steps for a successful social media strategy

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IGC wiki strategy

What is a wiki?

See the video below

The strategy which I used is to integrate IGC into wiki by associating Web 2.0 is the wiki , which provides users with a solution to collaboratively create online content in a flexible and simple manner.

These strategies can also be used for larger events and organisations such as the 34th International Geological Congress (IGC). This congress is the leading global forum for Earth sciences. This forum is an event which facilitiates international geoscientific collaboration and development standards. Through wikis the IGC will be able to attract and faciliatate communication between IGC, deleagates and students.

When it comes to implementing a wiki for the International Geological Conference, the wisdom of management is required to maximize participation while keeping the business objectives clearly in sight.

The APC study identified seven strategies to be followed in 2008 to ensure the sustainability and value of a corporate wiki:

1. Integrate the wiki as one of several important tools in an organization’s IT collaboration architecture.
2. Understand the wiki “rules of conduct” and ensure they are monitored and enforced.
3. Optimize the use of wikis for collaborative knowledge creation across geographically dispersed employees, and for crossing divisional or functional boundaries, in order to gain insights from people not previously connected.
4. Assign a champion to each wiki and have that champion observe contributions that people make to the wiki; the champion will help foster employees who adopt the important “shaper” role within the wiki.
5. Recognize that the most difficult barrier to cross in sustaining a wiki is convincing people to edit others’ work; organizations should ask their champion and managers to help with this.
6. Recognize that a significant value of wikis comes from embedding small software programs into the wiki that structure repetitive behavior. Some include organizing meeting minutes, rolling up project status or scheduling meetings. Ask wiki participants to keep watching for repetitive activity to evolve and enhance wiki technology.
7. Understand wikis are best used in work cultures that encourage collaboration. Without an appropriate fit with the workplace culture, wiki technology will be of limited value in sharing knowledge, ideas and practices.

Some organizations in industries with little turbulence and low information intensiveness will not have much need for wikis. However  a large corporation like IGC can benefit from a wiki approach to knowledge management.

References:

Seven strategies for implementing a successful corporate wiki

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IGC blogging strategy

What is the difference between micro -blogging and blogging?

A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size. Microblogs “allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links”^.

The corporation i am going to introduce is IGC. What does IGC stands for? IGC stands for International Geological Congress. IGC defined as International Geological Conference which is an international event that has time every four years to discuss the latest news and inventions which might help the countries around the world to live in a better environment. Australia in 2012 is going to hold the 34th conference in Brisbane from 5 to 10 of August.

However, if you start blogging randomly without a proper strategy, you risk turning the advantages against you.

The strategy is to write often, stay focused, and include relevant links to increase readership strategy.

IGC social space

Facebook–  Using facebook to promote their activities, visitors are allowed to post topics, comments and questions on its wall, which will be responded by IGC’ s staff.

Twitter – Using twitter to promote events and news

Website –  providing general information about IGC

IGC  and its implementation of this strategy.

1) IGC should post and reply the readers’ comments frequently so as to encourage more interaction with the readers.

2) IGC should use wordpress.com to update the happenings onthe blog or a twitter for a microblog.

3) Linking the blog with well-known social medias such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube can garnered for advertisement for IGC.

Conclusion

The length of the post is very important for the readers, some readers feel boring if the post very long, the readers want to get the useful information in short time. In my opinion, the length of the post should be between 300- 500 words for blog and 50-80 words fro micro blogging.

References:

Microblogging

IGC

 

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How ROI can be calculated for enterprise 2.0 projects?

What is ROI? It basically means  return on investment. The formula is as below.

To calculate ROI, in its simplest terms, means that companies must have more money coming in than money being spent on something. ROI compares gains with costs and it relates very specifically to money.

Social Business can be gained in the following areas:

• Sales Revenue
• Customer Insights
• Brand Protection
• Lead Generation
• Call Center Operations

and the likely cost as follows:

• People
• Technology

These costs are straightforward as people are needed to run the projects, cost of software and hosting from Microsoft, Jive and etc. The ROI is therefore calculated by subtracting the costs from the gains.

Enterprise 2.0 success can also be measured by:

1) Employee engagement.

Employees are more engaged because they become part of something larger than themselves and their immediate departments.  Knowledge and work become more transparent and employees are able to get real-time feedback, visibility, and gratification. Most companies already conduct annual surveys to gauge the level of workforce engagement.  To measure, aggregate engagement ratings so that you have one rating per employee.  Combine this data with not only data about the employee’s usage of the enterprise social software, but also other data points that can impact engagement such as compensation and promotion opportunities.  Now, through the use of regression analysis (a mathematical way to model relationships), calculate what impact an employee level of activity in the network (the independent variables) has on his engagement score (the dependent variable).

2)  Turnover

Using your company’s employment records, identify the employees that have turned over since you launched your network.  Again, you will need to obtain data concerning the employee usage of the your community as well as other data points that could have an impact on turnover rates like tenure, salary, market conditions and promotional opportunities.  Since the dependent variable is binary (0 denoting currently with the company, 1 denoting that someone has left the company) a logistic regression will need to be used.  Be careful, as coefficients in logistic regressions can be more difficult to interpret.

3) Sales

One way to measure the impact enterprise social software has on sales is to just focus on the results of your sales team.  Much like the other analyses, you will need to acquire the same data and make sure that you account for other factors that might impact sales.  Again, use regression analysis to model the impacts that enterprise social software has on sales results.

Benefits of enterprise 2.0

Saving time: as implementation of Web 2.0 tools can help companies save time. Time savings can be measured according to past product developments, and can also lead to cost savings through wages and reduced advertising time frames.

Cost Savings: This benefit is usually the easiest to see and to measure. Money could be saved in a number of ways, such as utilizing Facebook ‘check-in’s for return business instead of paying for printed cardboard VIP or loyalty cards or by using social media and public forums to advertise, therefore saving the cost of advertising via print media. This can be measured in monetary terms by comparing overhead and advertising costs before and after Enterprise 2.0 implementation.

Customer Satisfaction:  Having customers suggest their ideas is a valuable approach to improving products and ideas. With an eye toward higher satisfaction and lower churn.

Employee Satisfaction: The ability to make a more substantive impact. The ability to find that right person to help with an idea or project.

Cross-Organization Collaboration:  It improves outcomes as a diversity of knowledge and perspectives are brought to bear.

Conclusion

As you can see from the Maslow’s pyramid, when you go from the bottom to the top, you can see the increasing impact on the enterprise 2.0 success . You can see the increasing benefits as you go from the top to the bottom. Regression analysis is a mathematical tool used to calculate the relationship between variables on large sets of data.  Preparing the data for the analysis will be the most time consuming activity, however the time invested will help prevent mistakes. Companies can tailor their own Enterprise 2.0 ROI model which is suitable to their organisation. Companies can also be sure that by creating a ROI model in line with their own requirements and with the measurable metrics they hope to achieve, they can successfully measure the results of their Enterprise 2.0 implementation.

Reference:

How to calculate the roi of social business projects

ROI

Maslow hierarchy of enterprise 2.0

 

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Major legal risks that commonwealth bank may faced

Many organizations are utilizing the power of social media to get their services and brands further into the public sphere. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have made it very easy to contact practitioners within organizations, maintain relationships and increase business opportunities. However, some organizations are still hesitant to maximize their use of online networking. Risks such as breach of privacy fear of legal action, developing a negative reputation and lack of control has given way to avoidance of this important tool.

One of the organisation that uses social media is Commonwealth bank.Commonwealth Bank provides a variety of financial services including retail, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment and broking services. Some of the Web 2.0 technologies that commonwealth bank had embraced are as below

1. Transparency: With the Global Financial Crisis, people have developed a healthy mistrust of banks and financial institutions. As a result, banks have turned to social networks to become more transparent with their customers and to build trust.
2.Marketing & Promotion: Overseas banks have begun integrating social media tools with their marketing campaigns. This immersive approach to online marketing has yielded solid results.
3.Customer Service: To settle issues and complaints raised through social media channels.

However there are some potential exposure legal risk and mitigations.

1.Confidential Information Risk: Banking staff using Twitter or Facebook may inadvertently disclose sensitive information via Tweets or comments.
2.Privacy: Financial institutions must conform to Australian Privacy laws. As a result, they have a number of strict processes staff must follow to identify a customer prior to discussing account details. Owing to the social and public nature of social networking platforms, privacy can not be assured.
3.Industry Specific Risks. Social networking platforms do allow consumers to adopt any identity they choose when online. This can cause serious issues with regard to fraudulent behaviours when engaging with Bank employees over public social networking platforms.

How to overcome the risk?

Banks and financial institutions must have a clear strategy for using social networking platforms. It appears that the Commonwealth Bank are becoming serious about social networking with the appointment of a social marketing manager in February 2010. Creating and enforcing a social media policy is another mitigation that banks can pursue to reduce the potential legal risks posed by the use of social networking platforms by employees.

Reference:

The implications of Social networking : https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/14771-The-Legal-Implications-of-Social-Networking.html

Social media risks for australina banks : http://www.tigera.com.au/enterprise-2-0/social-media-legal-risks-for-australian-banks/

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Benefits and risks of Enterprise 2.0

What is enterprise 2.0?

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of “Web 2.0” technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration – connecting people through the use of social-media tools. Enterprise 2.0 aims to help employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and organize information. Andrew McAfee describes Enterprise 2.0 as “the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers”.

One of the enterprise 2.0 case study im going to share is a Austin Hardware which is an industrial business-to-business hardware development manufacturing and distribution company. They do real old style hardware, not servers and laptops. Austin has 18,000 products, 15,000 customers, and 110 employees with nine locations across the country. New product development is a key process for them but it was siloed in the pre Enterprise 2.0 world. It was difficult for the sales people, who were most aware of customer needs, to be involved in product development. Prior to eProject they had a non-web database that made it difficult to easily share information.

With a transparent web 2.0 style system for managing projects, geographically dispersed teams can connect, everyone can see what is going on, and anyone can contribute. Now the sales people can be involved for the entire process. Mark?, the Austin Hardware – role?

said, “before eProject, we could spend 50 hours or more on a project before we even did basic research and scoping or had a commitment from a customer. Now, we have more insight into our projects and can be more certain that every man-hour we spend increases the likelihood of market success. Instead of a belly flop off the diving board, we now stick our toe in the water first and make our way to the deep in with confidence.”

Austin has also used the eProject Dynamic Application feature to put together custom applications for each stage of the product development process, as Mark said, “We have created numerous new dynamic applications that are tied to each stage of a given project, from the initial sales lead to the final delivery of the hardware and customer sign off. We refer to this as a man-hour investment “pyramid” strategy. Our early stages are designed to consume a smaller amount of man-hours that help us decide (i.e. review and sign-off) whether the project is worth the next level of man-hour investment. The tiered man-hour strategy actually allows us to work on more projects simultaneously. The dynamic applications themselves are configured to serve as an aggregator of project requirements and information, increasing accountability and providing greater insight into the potential profitability of a project from the get-go.” The ability of business teams to quickly put applications together mashup style without heavy IT involvement allowed them to have the application fit the process rather than the other way around
The benefits are increased productivity as people work more effectively  through quicker access to resource and easier collaboration. It also improved team performance through acceleration of team interaction and more rapid trust building. Last but not least a more efficient project management as enterprise 2.0 tools are extremely relevant to streamlining project management across all domains.

Some of the risks would be inappropriate staffs behaviour as online tools can make questionable comments more visible. Network security is also a perceived risk as opening systems can make IT more vulnerable to malware.

On the above we can see that the benefits outweighs the risks. The risk for not implementing enterprise 2.0 is reduced competitveness as competitors are swifter in adopting and gaining benefits from enterprise 2.0 approaches may achieve significant advantages in their cost of production ,speed to market and customer reach. This benefits will be difficult to replicate.

Reference:

Enterprise 2.0 Examples of Managing Projects in the Tools and Food Industries: http://billives.typepad.com/portals_and_km/2007/09/enterprise-20-e.html

Implementing Enterprise 2.0: Free Chapter 4 – Key benefits and risks:  http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2009/03/implementing_en_1.html

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Does web 2.0 enhance personal productivity?

What is a web 2.0?

The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.

One on the web 2.0 application i use is Meebo. You Can get all your friends and classmates using a single text chat client. Meebo acts a browser-based bridge to AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and ICQ. Nothing to install and it’s free. As a student like me, i can manage chats with friends,family, classmates and professors.

The other web 2.0 application im using is Youtube.  YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February of 2005, on which users can upload, share and view videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals and this kind of social interaction enhances the social communication. You can find most of the videos here by typing in the name of the videos into Youtube and therefore it increases personal productivity.

The last web 2.0 application im going to introduce is Dropbox. Dropbox is a tool that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Dropbox replaces the need of a hardisk. Dropbox also allows allows multiple users to share and access the same files, contribute and collaborate which is pretty useful for  team working. For example, Any files I have saved in your Dropbox account will also instantly be saved to my computer installed DropBox. Those useful features greatly improve productivity in my study at uni.

conclusion

This video below will show you how powerful the web2.0 tools are and how they are used to increase productivity.

Reference:

Dropbox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_%28service%29

web 2.0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

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How do you become a successful blogger?

What is a blog?

A blog  is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.

What make a successful blog?

The first tip –The first impression of the blog counts.And that is to connect with your readers through an about page and welcome message. One of the best ways to make a lasting impact is to connect on a personal level with your readers. That means letting them know who you are and what your background is.

The second tip– to use short and concise paragraph. The context and the visual appeal of the blog are both just as important as one another. Write in short paragraphs for visual relief because nobody likes a text heavy website as most readers skim anyway and make them easier to gind the information they are looking for.

The last tip– To have an honest blog. You wouldnt want to lie to ur readers do you? A critical component to the success of your blog is the community developing around it. If you represent yourself and the content of your blog in an honest manner, your loyal readership numbers will grow.

My blog post will be simple to read and straight to the point. I hope everyone who visits my blog can share their own strategies as each person has their own style of writing that attracts its own readers. The above three tips i written will ensure that the blog posts that you write are getting read, and also that they are encouraging your readers to come back time and time again for more.

REFERENCE:

Tips for writing a successful blog: http://www.blogtrafficexchange.com/tips-for-writing-a-successful-blog/

21 surefire tips for a blog launch:http://www.avivadirectory.com/successful-blog-launch/

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Me and enterprise 2.0

Hello, I am Leslie, an international student ,currently studying Masters of IT at Qut. I have been here for 2 years after completing my bachelors of IT last semester here at Qut. I have met awesome friends here at Qut and i really enjoy my stay here and i hope it continues this way.

About Enterprise 2.0:

What i have understand about enterprise 2.0 is that it is the use of “Web 2.0” technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration – connecting people through the use of social-media tools. Enterprise 2.0 aims to help employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and organize information. Some of the common business capabilities are corporate bloggings and corporate wikis.

I chose this unit because it is interesting  and i am curious about how web applications are associated with enterprise using this social tools.  And im eager to learn more about enterprise 2.o and how it is going to affect us and the world. New technologies are always popping up and nothing is constant. We have to keep updating ourselves and so we will not lag behind.

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