The market is screaming out for a social media site which allows and encourages people to talk to each other socially and professionally. We are at the beginning of a social media phenomenon and there will be many changes to come in the future. Some issues are obvious and can be addressed early. Others will be fixed later during shakedowns. Drive Fusion appeals to business and professional people who want to socialise, communicate and collaborate with their peers without the annoyance of spammers and noise.
There are a number of issues with the most popular social media sites. Those issues are either about the site policy, performance or the functionality. People have to communicate in order to build those relationships. But there are too many spammers and too much noise on sites. There is too much emphasis on technology rather than the needs of users. The ability to connect with the right people is restrictive and often requires payment. The allowed number of connections or invitations are restricted on sites. The messages length is often limited by sites too. The most popular sites are so big and growing so quickly, that performance is often slow and frustrating.
Lots of connections are of little value in themselves. So how do we nurture relationships? There are several main ways of developing relationships with your connections, friends and followers.
1. Ask them questions. People like to help. Use ‘Answers’ on LinkedIn and ask open questions in groups and fan pages or tweet your question openly or directly.
2. Become a ‘thought leader’ and blog your views, ideas and vision. You will get responses.
3. Always be personal in your communication. Use your own name, photo and profile.
4. Be consistent on social media sites – same name, profile, photo and professionalism on each site.
5. Ask connections how you can help them.
6. Get to know people ask them for help! People like to help others! Later as the relationship develops you can ask for referrals and business.
7. Use bridge strategies to ease your connections ultimately to your website. Send them first to your blog, group or fan pages.
Drive Fusion is a communication and collaboration site for business and professional people who wish to communicate and collaborate socially and professionally. All invitations are sent to recommended people to ensure spammers are excluded always. Users are encouraged to connect easily and get to know each other. Unsolicited pitching or spamming is outlawed. It is designed to encourage momentum in your communications and has the following exciting features:
• Real time communication
• Create & manage groups
• Cross posting to Twitter
• Embedded videos
• Track topics
• File sharing
• Long posts
• Highly scalable
• Reporting & statistics
• Add external feeds
• Target messages to individuals, groups or everyone
• Invite users
• Shrink url
• Help & Support team
• Updates via email, IM, MMS and SMS
• Applications connections
• Top class present.ly platform by the award winning Intridea team
Drive Fusion is brought to you by the Drive ERP - http://www.driveerp.com and Drive Social Media - http://www.Drive-Social-Media.com teams and their 20,000+ connections will be invited to Drive Fusion soon.
Business and professional communities and individuals are welcome to join Drive Fusion.
For an invitation email John: john@driveerp.com
See you soon!
http://drivefusion.presentlyapp.com/
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
It’s all about Fusion...
The starting point for any successful social media marketing or collaboration campaign is strategy development. Many questions need to be asked and answered by brainstorming. Some of the key questions include:
• What are the attributes of your best customers?
• Define your brand in terms of the target’s view
• What is it that your brand is / does?
• What is it that you do?
• What is in it for me? (Prospect view)
• SWOT Analysis
• What triggers Customers decisions to buy?
• Define Your Partners
• Who are my competitors?
• How do I measure return on investment?
• What is my sales process?
• Where are my customers?
• Where are my prospective business partners?
• How can we collaborate?
After answering these questions, setting objectives and developing a plan it is time for action. There are many social media marketing tools available and it is important to utilise the most effective and efficient ones. I would suggest the following for starters:
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• You Tube
• Blogging
• Niche sites
It is important to understand the nature of each tool and its strengths and weaknesses.
Twitter is a microblogging site limiting tweets to 2 or 3 sentences. It has over 20 million users and growing quickly. It is easy to find customers and business partners, as well as joining in conversations. The functionality is limited and the noise and spamming restricts it severely.
LinkedIn is a business professional networking site with about 50 million users. Customers and business partners can be found in groups. Spammers are kept out and the functionality is improving. Building a network is somewhat slow and communications restricted between users.
Facebook has over 350 million users and is growing at half a million per day. It is a ‘business casual’ site and allows users to personalise their business using fan pages. Users can also join groups to help their search for customers and business partners. All profiles are searchable and spreading messages is easy and effective. Facebook has strict terms of service which they enforce seriously. Although it has text chat boxes it is extremely slow at times.
You Tube is the last of the ‘Big 4’. It is a very powerful site for personalising your business with 75 million views per month. Users can have their own channel, load their own and favourite videos, and because You Tube is owned by Google there is a very positive move up the search engine rankings quickly. It’s free and users can even load MS Powerpoint presentations. There is no communication or collaboration tool.
Blogging is a very powerful way to personalise your business. It also enables you to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Blogs should be posted on a regular basis and not too long. They appear quickly in search engine rankings. They are ideal bridges between connecting and directing prospects to your website. Although blogging sites allow comments from readers, blogging tends to be one way communication.
There are over 600 niche social media sites. The easiest way to find one to suit a use is a Google search for ‘keyword’ and ‘social networking’. It is advisable to join only 2 or 3 of these niche sites due to time constraints. These sites are a bit more focused but again communication is slow and this limits collaboration possibilities.
To be successful in exploiting social media tools to attract customers and business partners; and to improve communications and collaboration internally in organisations a systematic approach works best. Begin with developing a strategy followed by establishing a presence on each social media site. Then expand your reach by increasing your following and friends on all sites. A target of 100 new connections per week is easily achievable. Large numbers of connections are of little value in themselves. It is vital to then nurture relationships with speedy and effective communication and collaboration. Finally, once the system is working, it is important to maintain it with good time management and good tools to achieve efficiency.
The weakest link currently is in nurturing relationships. The social networking sites communication tools are often slow, cumbersome and in the case of Twitter full of noise and spammers. Online communities need real time communication tools for users and effective collaboration tools to allow file sharing, long posts, embedded videos, longer posts, built in searching, safety and security, reporting and statistics and highly scalable and much more.....
Both real and virtual online communities can then nurture relationships improving communications, collaboration, lead generation, sales, product development, team working, project success, and customer service.
I’ve just found that tool I’m delighted to announce ....more soon on ‘Drive Fusion’.
Continues soon...
http://www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
• What are the attributes of your best customers?
• Define your brand in terms of the target’s view
• What is it that your brand is / does?
• What is it that you do?
• What is in it for me? (Prospect view)
• SWOT Analysis
• What triggers Customers decisions to buy?
• Define Your Partners
• Who are my competitors?
• How do I measure return on investment?
• What is my sales process?
• Where are my customers?
• Where are my prospective business partners?
• How can we collaborate?
After answering these questions, setting objectives and developing a plan it is time for action. There are many social media marketing tools available and it is important to utilise the most effective and efficient ones. I would suggest the following for starters:
• You Tube
• Blogging
• Niche sites
It is important to understand the nature of each tool and its strengths and weaknesses.
Twitter is a microblogging site limiting tweets to 2 or 3 sentences. It has over 20 million users and growing quickly. It is easy to find customers and business partners, as well as joining in conversations. The functionality is limited and the noise and spamming restricts it severely.
LinkedIn is a business professional networking site with about 50 million users. Customers and business partners can be found in groups. Spammers are kept out and the functionality is improving. Building a network is somewhat slow and communications restricted between users.
Facebook has over 350 million users and is growing at half a million per day. It is a ‘business casual’ site and allows users to personalise their business using fan pages. Users can also join groups to help their search for customers and business partners. All profiles are searchable and spreading messages is easy and effective. Facebook has strict terms of service which they enforce seriously. Although it has text chat boxes it is extremely slow at times.
You Tube is the last of the ‘Big 4’. It is a very powerful site for personalising your business with 75 million views per month. Users can have their own channel, load their own and favourite videos, and because You Tube is owned by Google there is a very positive move up the search engine rankings quickly. It’s free and users can even load MS Powerpoint presentations. There is no communication or collaboration tool.
Blogging is a very powerful way to personalise your business. It also enables you to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Blogs should be posted on a regular basis and not too long. They appear quickly in search engine rankings. They are ideal bridges between connecting and directing prospects to your website. Although blogging sites allow comments from readers, blogging tends to be one way communication.
There are over 600 niche social media sites. The easiest way to find one to suit a use is a Google search for ‘keyword’ and ‘social networking’. It is advisable to join only 2 or 3 of these niche sites due to time constraints. These sites are a bit more focused but again communication is slow and this limits collaboration possibilities.
To be successful in exploiting social media tools to attract customers and business partners; and to improve communications and collaboration internally in organisations a systematic approach works best. Begin with developing a strategy followed by establishing a presence on each social media site. Then expand your reach by increasing your following and friends on all sites. A target of 100 new connections per week is easily achievable. Large numbers of connections are of little value in themselves. It is vital to then nurture relationships with speedy and effective communication and collaboration. Finally, once the system is working, it is important to maintain it with good time management and good tools to achieve efficiency.
The weakest link currently is in nurturing relationships. The social networking sites communication tools are often slow, cumbersome and in the case of Twitter full of noise and spammers. Online communities need real time communication tools for users and effective collaboration tools to allow file sharing, long posts, embedded videos, longer posts, built in searching, safety and security, reporting and statistics and highly scalable and much more.....
Both real and virtual online communities can then nurture relationships improving communications, collaboration, lead generation, sales, product development, team working, project success, and customer service.
I’ve just found that tool I’m delighted to announce ....more soon on ‘Drive Fusion’.
Continues soon...
http://www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
ERP Customers Rule OK?
Recently I blogged about how people drive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to success. The tools that leverage superior people performance in turn can enhance the business performance of ERP systems in an organisation. The social phenomenon known as social media marketing can play an important part in ERP performance in the future. Let’s see it from the customer / user perspective.
The social media marketing ‘Big 4’ of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and You Tube together with blogs, websites and intranet pages offer the following possible benefits for ERP customers / users:
• Promoting your site or business
• Improved marketing, PR and customer service
• Powerful strategy to gain connections & knowledge
• Conversations with vendors and ERP experts directly
• Conversations with other ERP customers/ users
• Easy searching of ERP vendors and experts
• Easy searching of other ERP customers/users
• Groups sharing best practises and knowledge
• Personalisation - find people you know, like & trust
• Cost effective marketing solutions
• Obtaining recommendations & references
• Online business meetings
• Intranet pages for ERP user communities
• Ask questions and ask for help
The key objectives for all ERP systems should be:
• Automating processes - achieving cost savings
• Informing stakeholders (reporting) - effective information for competitive advantage
• Educating users and managers - to utilise the full potential of ERP systems
• Transforming the way business is done - use ERP systems to change for the better
Organisations which fail to maximise the potential of ERP systems display similar problems such as heavy customizations, a lack of planning and management, disgruntled users, ad hoc ancillary systems in MS Excel and MS Access, an array of reporting tools, problematic interfaces and are often IT driven. There is a big hole between the users and the applications team in IT. Much disappears down it....
Could it be that just like people, ERP systems need behaviours and attributes to drive them to success? I believe even in successful ERP implementations the Go Live is the half way mark at best.
So what are the drivers for ERP performance success?
In my experience I would suggest the following:
• Actually Managing Oracle Applications
• Successful Change Management
• Leading a Support Team
• Measuring Success and Value for Money
• Data and Information Management
• Customers and Collaboration
• Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Empowerment and Super Users
• Change Control and Value for Money
• Project Management Kept Simple
• Process Improvement
So how can the features, tools and strategies of social media marketing support these drivers? Well a little brainstorming suggests the following.
The search and selection of ERP vendors can be supported by finding and conversing with the vendors’ existing customers about the suitability of their solution. The recruitment of ERP staff and contractors follows the same line.
There should be greater visibility of both ERP strategy and business ownership of ERP systems in the organisation. Greater personalisation and visibility will enable companies to become demand-driven ERP users rather than supply-driven.
Successful change management can be supported by more informal and rapid communications of visions, strategies, online training, online presentations, conversations, and the publication of short term wins. The team can be fired up by a leadership alliance and team of change agents both visible and consistent in their messages.
An effective support team can be enhanced by joining online communities on social media sites around their ERP system. They can listen to their users daily about their pain points. Support updates, training tips and system downtimes can be communicated by text or video. They should use Intranet forms for support service requests ensuring requests reach support analysts almost immediately.
Both technical and business performance can be measured, published, discussed, and improved using online communities. Such communities can undertake their own benchmarking initiatives covering ROI, service requests, customer analysis, efficiency analysis, change requests and the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing training provision including online delivery.
Business process, data and information management best practises can also be published and discussed in social media groups and intranet pages.
It is so important to clearly define your customers and users. Then collaborate with these colleagues in organisations using engagement models and custodianship models. These define clearly and consistently engagements, roles, responsibilities, duties etc. Using social media tools can enhance communications and teamwork especially between the business and IT.
ERP Reporting and Business Intelligence are minefields which again need the collaboration of the business and IT. The healthier and more personalised this relationship it will surely improve the chances of clearly defining requirements and jointly seeking optimal solutions from vendors.
ERP Super Users can enhance their teamwork, training and education using social media tools. This should help fill the hole between IT and the business. There are many resources available out there to be consumed, discussed and shared in their communities. Their customers including users, managers, auditors and other stakeholders can join in these conversations.
Organisations can improve change request control and securing value for money processes by increasing visibility and inviting rapid feedback from all functional analysts and business colleagues too.
Project management can be kept simple and more effective by building relationships between all stakeholders; and using online meetings and social media tools to enhance communications, project reporting, asking for help, mitigating risks and fixing issues.
Social media marketing is about personalisation - people talking to each other and nurturing relationships. People working and doing business with those they know, like and trust too. There is greater participation, openness and willingness to help. There are many tools which can be utilised such as forums, groups, fan pages, profile searches, recommendations etc.
Organisations need to have a social media strategy which leverages the benefits and mitigates the security and PR risks; and manages changing relationships with vendors. The costs of social media marketing are a fraction of the potential rewards.
There are real cost savings out there to be gained from improved ERP selection, recruitment of resources, and fiercer and fairer competition between ERP vendors. A highly motivated IT and business alliance can leverage the drivers of ERP performance and drive greater value from ERP systems.
Continued soon...
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
The social media marketing ‘Big 4’ of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and You Tube together with blogs, websites and intranet pages offer the following possible benefits for ERP customers / users:
• Promoting your site or business
• Improved marketing, PR and customer service
• Powerful strategy to gain connections & knowledge
• Conversations with vendors and ERP experts directly
• Conversations with other ERP customers/ users
• Easy searching of ERP vendors and experts
• Easy searching of other ERP customers/users
• Groups sharing best practises and knowledge
• Personalisation - find people you know, like & trust
• Cost effective marketing solutions
• Obtaining recommendations & references
• Online business meetings
• Intranet pages for ERP user communities
• Ask questions and ask for help
The key objectives for all ERP systems should be:
• Automating processes - achieving cost savings
• Informing stakeholders (reporting) - effective information for competitive advantage
• Educating users and managers - to utilise the full potential of ERP systems
• Transforming the way business is done - use ERP systems to change for the better
Organisations which fail to maximise the potential of ERP systems display similar problems such as heavy customizations, a lack of planning and management, disgruntled users, ad hoc ancillary systems in MS Excel and MS Access, an array of reporting tools, problematic interfaces and are often IT driven. There is a big hole between the users and the applications team in IT. Much disappears down it....
Could it be that just like people, ERP systems need behaviours and attributes to drive them to success? I believe even in successful ERP implementations the Go Live is the half way mark at best.
So what are the drivers for ERP performance success?
In my experience I would suggest the following:
• Actually Managing Oracle Applications
• Successful Change Management
• Leading a Support Team
• Measuring Success and Value for Money
• Data and Information Management
• Customers and Collaboration
• Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Empowerment and Super Users
• Change Control and Value for Money
• Project Management Kept Simple
• Process Improvement
So how can the features, tools and strategies of social media marketing support these drivers? Well a little brainstorming suggests the following.
The search and selection of ERP vendors can be supported by finding and conversing with the vendors’ existing customers about the suitability of their solution. The recruitment of ERP staff and contractors follows the same line.
There should be greater visibility of both ERP strategy and business ownership of ERP systems in the organisation. Greater personalisation and visibility will enable companies to become demand-driven ERP users rather than supply-driven.
Successful change management can be supported by more informal and rapid communications of visions, strategies, online training, online presentations, conversations, and the publication of short term wins. The team can be fired up by a leadership alliance and team of change agents both visible and consistent in their messages.
An effective support team can be enhanced by joining online communities on social media sites around their ERP system. They can listen to their users daily about their pain points. Support updates, training tips and system downtimes can be communicated by text or video. They should use Intranet forms for support service requests ensuring requests reach support analysts almost immediately.
Both technical and business performance can be measured, published, discussed, and improved using online communities. Such communities can undertake their own benchmarking initiatives covering ROI, service requests, customer analysis, efficiency analysis, change requests and the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing training provision including online delivery.
Business process, data and information management best practises can also be published and discussed in social media groups and intranet pages.
It is so important to clearly define your customers and users. Then collaborate with these colleagues in organisations using engagement models and custodianship models. These define clearly and consistently engagements, roles, responsibilities, duties etc. Using social media tools can enhance communications and teamwork especially between the business and IT.
ERP Reporting and Business Intelligence are minefields which again need the collaboration of the business and IT. The healthier and more personalised this relationship it will surely improve the chances of clearly defining requirements and jointly seeking optimal solutions from vendors.
ERP Super Users can enhance their teamwork, training and education using social media tools. This should help fill the hole between IT and the business. There are many resources available out there to be consumed, discussed and shared in their communities. Their customers including users, managers, auditors and other stakeholders can join in these conversations.
Organisations can improve change request control and securing value for money processes by increasing visibility and inviting rapid feedback from all functional analysts and business colleagues too.
Project management can be kept simple and more effective by building relationships between all stakeholders; and using online meetings and social media tools to enhance communications, project reporting, asking for help, mitigating risks and fixing issues.
Social media marketing is about personalisation - people talking to each other and nurturing relationships. People working and doing business with those they know, like and trust too. There is greater participation, openness and willingness to help. There are many tools which can be utilised such as forums, groups, fan pages, profile searches, recommendations etc.
Organisations need to have a social media strategy which leverages the benefits and mitigates the security and PR risks; and manages changing relationships with vendors. The costs of social media marketing are a fraction of the potential rewards.
There are real cost savings out there to be gained from improved ERP selection, recruitment of resources, and fiercer and fairer competition between ERP vendors. A highly motivated IT and business alliance can leverage the drivers of ERP performance and drive greater value from ERP systems.
Continued soon...
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Out of the Chaos
The social media marketing revolution is rising slowly out of the chaos reigning on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. If you thought the internet was always a minefield of dubious quality resources to help your your business then try these social media sites. Over 300 million subscribers are scrambling about these sites, self educating and doing what the internet never really allowed before. People are talking to each other.
And better still their contributions are welcome too. On personal and professional platforms there is openness. There is a huge amount of information available to subscribers and a whole range of subjects. People are connecting with each other on one or more sites. It’s happening on Twitter for micro-blogging, Facebook at a personal or business casual level and LinkedIn at a more formal business level. YouTube brings people to life using video. There are many more niche sites too.
So how can all of this activity help me in the ERP world or you in your business? Social media marketing with the right strategies will: positively promote your business; support effectively your marketing, PR and customer service efforts; generate increased website traffic; generate connections and attention globally; and ultimately bring leads for your products and services.
Those who use online social networks are three times more likely to trust the opinion of others in their network than traditional advertising when it comes down to making a decision about a purchase. It’s all about knowing people and people knowing you too. It’s about personalisation.
I’ve built a network of 13,000 professional connections, a 1200+ member professional ERP group, researched and trained in this new social phenomenon for the past year. I’m taking on clients in the IT sector and more. I am loving it!
Continued soon...
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
And better still their contributions are welcome too. On personal and professional platforms there is openness. There is a huge amount of information available to subscribers and a whole range of subjects. People are connecting with each other on one or more sites. It’s happening on Twitter for micro-blogging, Facebook at a personal or business casual level and LinkedIn at a more formal business level. YouTube brings people to life using video. There are many more niche sites too.
So how can all of this activity help me in the ERP world or you in your business? Social media marketing with the right strategies will: positively promote your business; support effectively your marketing, PR and customer service efforts; generate increased website traffic; generate connections and attention globally; and ultimately bring leads for your products and services.
Those who use online social networks are three times more likely to trust the opinion of others in their network than traditional advertising when it comes down to making a decision about a purchase. It’s all about knowing people and people knowing you too. It’s about personalisation.
I’ve built a network of 13,000 professional connections, a 1200+ member professional ERP group, researched and trained in this new social phenomenon for the past year. I’m taking on clients in the IT sector and more. I am loving it!
Continued soon...
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
Seller Beware!
I was at the back of the queue when they were handing out mobile telephones. In fact, I wasn’t even in the queue... My first one was thrust upon me by a rather insistent Czech lady Martina who told me I had to have it to do my job as a project manager. After a little training and a lot of anxiety I learned how to make and receive calls. Then I worked out how to send text messages.
Ten years later I have progressed little.
My problem was I didn’t want the mobile phone. I couldn’t see the benefits. I thought it was going to cost me money and a lot of anxiety, especially if I lost it. In this case I had to take it but often in hard sell situations my resistance is total and formidable. No insurance, car or real estate salesperson is going to force me to buy something that I don’t want and many of you surely are the same.
Because when I am looking to spend my hard earned (relatively) dollars I want to be treated with courtesy, honesty and respect. In fact I like to buy from people who I like and trust too. It matters not if it’s a personal or professional purchase.
There is a global social revolution taking place all around us which is impacting how we will buy products and services in the future. It’s chaos at the moment and many people don’t understand how it works and its implications. This time I’m at the forefront of change and loving it.
It’s time for buyer power - bring on the social media marketing revolution!
Continued soon....
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
Ten years later I have progressed little.
My problem was I didn’t want the mobile phone. I couldn’t see the benefits. I thought it was going to cost me money and a lot of anxiety, especially if I lost it. In this case I had to take it but often in hard sell situations my resistance is total and formidable. No insurance, car or real estate salesperson is going to force me to buy something that I don’t want and many of you surely are the same.
Because when I am looking to spend my hard earned (relatively) dollars I want to be treated with courtesy, honesty and respect. In fact I like to buy from people who I like and trust too. It matters not if it’s a personal or professional purchase.
There is a global social revolution taking place all around us which is impacting how we will buy products and services in the future. It’s chaos at the moment and many people don’t understand how it works and its implications. This time I’m at the forefront of change and loving it.
It’s time for buyer power - bring on the social media marketing revolution!
Continued soon....
www.Drive-Social-Media.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann
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