Whew, finally a break from the 2-hour morning General Session, featuring not only the VP and the General Manager of IBM's Social Business division, but also a performance from 1980s pop group They Might Be Giants and a speech by actor-director-producer Joseph Gordon-Levitt (for those of you unfamiliar, he was in Lincoln and 50/50, among others). Perhaps what's most telling about this year's event is the name change: Lotusphere is now Connect. While IBM is normally never referenced in … [Read more...]
Social Media Certifications Seek To Legitimize the Profession
As a proud member of the social media industry, I often feel that, to borrow a phrase, 'I don't get no respect.' My social media brethren often feel the same. Many of us came from corporate communications or PR roles, where we didn't necessarily need a certain degree or professional designation in order to get or keep a job. As social has proliferated across industries and companies large and small -- and with it the ability to start a Facebook Page or Twitterfeed for free -- everyone … [Read more...]
It’s On: Oracle To Battle Salesforce for Ownership of the ‘Marketing Cloud’
Today's announcement of enterprise software maker and CRM provider Oracle buying marketing automation vendor Eloqua for $811 million has many people -- including this analyst -- blindsided. After all, Eloqua just went public in August, raising $92 million. And a little more than 4 months later, it gets acquired? It was unclear from the news announcements if it was an all-stock deal, but clearly, Oracle is trying to do battle with the other enterprise software maker and CRM provider … [Read more...]
Yammer on the ‘Consumerization’ of IT
Last month's Twitterchat on the consumerization of IT, moderated by enterprise social platform provider Yammer, turned out to be a vibrant, spirited discussion on the shifting roles, responsibilities and expectations of today's corporate IT departments -- and the employees that rely on them. [And I'm sure that this topic was further explored at Yammer's first-ever annual customer conference YamJam, held in San Francisco October 28-30, which I unfortunately could not attend.] Via the … [Read more...]
Experiencing Social at Eloqua Experience
This week, I'll be in Orlando, Florida attending marketing software company Eloqua's annual conference, Eloqua Experience. Over 1,000 attendees are expected to attend. Though not traditionally known as a conference that attracts social media or social business types, I'm keen to see how things may have changed in the last year or so since everyone has been preaching a gospel of 'collaboration' and 'integration' of various marketing efforts that all seek to unlock that all-elusive … [Read more...]
Why Doesn’t Twitter Promote List Management?
The biggest complaint clients have with Twitter is that it's noisy, cluttered, and unfiltered. 'How do I find anything?' they ask. 'And how do people find my tweets?' They're right: discovery on Twitter -- in either direction -- is pitiful. However, the List tool -- which has been around almost since the founding of the microblogging platform -- could certainly make a difference. But the problem is that the average Twitter user doesn't use it. Other social networks purposely drive … [Read more...]
Surprise! Social Technology Still Needs People
Though I didn't attend Dreamforce two weeks ago, it's still reassuring that software companies -- and not just marketing and PR people -- are understanding the power and role of social in today's enterprise. That social media marketing platforms such as Involver and Vitrue were sold to Oracle, and Buddy Media to Salesforce, and not to ad agency holding companies like WPP, Omnicom, and Interpublic warm my heart -- and let all of us who work tirelessly in the social media world know that 'Yes, … [Read more...]
Deloitte Gets (More) Social
Earlier today, global consulting giant Deloitte announced the launch of day-long 'social business innovation' workshops, in which Deloitte consultants would analyze a client's data and identify opportunities for social software implementation or optimization. I applaud this move because 'social' can mean so many different things for so many different organizations, and the idea of a workshop to kick things off is a great idea (for those who've worked with me in the past, you know the premium … [Read more...]
Google Enters the Social Enterprise with Public Debut of Google+ For Businesses
Hate it or love it, Google+ launched June 2011, and some consider it a strange anomaly in the social networking space. Though cheered and supported -- unlike its previous social/collaboration products like Google Wave and Google Buzz -- Google+ has yet to reach the audience sizes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, today's Google Enterprise blogpost and subsequent TechCrunch story reveal that Google may be finding another fit -- and revenue model -- for the fledgling social network: … [Read more...]
If You Don’t Think Demand Generation Can Be Made Social, Think Again
In my last job, I was continually having to be the one trying to convince the marketing department to include social features and and add social elements to our demand generation programs. Quite simply, they didn't want to hear it. I always wondered why there was a difference in opinion. Perhaps it was because social media was considered the domain of public relations/communications -- inbound marketing -- and demand generation is owned by marketing -- specifically, outbound … [Read more...]