Mastering Twitter can be tricky and most organizations are playing defense. They are playing an intense game without rules, where new players can arrive on the scene at any time, and where one mistake can set the organization back for months. But those that have mastered Twitter are creating extraordinary opportunities for their organizations and they include such juggernauts as Walt Disney, ESPN, NBA, MTV and NASA.

These companies and the 25 others listed below understand the power of engagement. In order to find them, Nestivity (Twitter communities) asked InfiniGraph Co-founder Chase McMichael and Dr. Natalie Petouhoff to conduct the research, “The 30 day analysis is based on the InfiniGraph Engagement Analysis Platform, which compared the average number of re tweets (RT) per post from February 2nd to March 5th 2013, using proprietary algorithms for determining Twitter responses, content trend scores and clicks on links and other content,” McMichael told us.

But high engagement isn’t limited to the big companies.

Number 1 on the list @Notebook is owned by Branden Hampton of the Influential Media Group. Hampton serves as a sort of Zen master for brands that want high Twitter engagement. While most companies are struggling to create any sort of meaningful engagement on Twitter, Hampton has Twitter profiles that are outcompeting large brands with millions of customers. “Because we understand how to create engagement in our niche categories, we have a fitness page, that’s more engaged than Nike,” Hampton told me.

For me, in speaking to 10 of the top 25, I’ve concluded that in order to create and maintain high engagement is the ability to emotionally connect with your audience and to convey your industry’s message and not your own...  Read the article

In an article I wrote last year titled “Why Every Company Needs to be More Like IBM and Less Like Apple”, I compared the cultures of both companies and how over the past 25 years they had flipped: “Today’s Big Blue is the antithesis of Big Brother. It’s ‘Big Open’. A transparent, nimble, collaborative organization known more for listening and engaging customers than for dictating to them. While ironically, some say Apple now resembles Big Brother given their propensity for tight controls.”

That article and the number of follow on pieces written to support and rebuke my argument stirred up a heated debate that continues... Read the article

Don’t believe the world’s businesses are going social?  Take this recent declaration from CapGemini’s Managing Director, Global Head of Practices, Didier Bonnet when discussing Social Business with me: “We’ve actually repositioned the entire practice around digital transformation. So for us it’s not just changing one service offering; it’s our entire focus globally for our teams to deliver and to sell.” He came to that crucial decision after MIT and CapGemini interviewed over 160 executives throughout Asia, Europe and North America and discovered that businesses are digitizing. ... Read the article

eBay’s going social. Its protagonists are building the next generation social platform called the HUB, to increase employee engagement, collaboration and effectiveness. It is instructive to follow the evolution of their strategy in response to the growing chorus of eBay employees who were demanding social tools, or had already snuck them in.

On first impression, Ramin Mobasseri eBay’s Enterprise Portals Solutions Manager and Maarten Sundman a SharePoint Architect and Developer appear to be an unlikely team. Both men speak in different languages: Mobasseri ‘business’ and Sundman ‘tech’. Yet both were...

Read the article

H.R. 2930 appears to be just another US Congressional Bill winding its way through the system. Yet I can imagine most Professional Angel Investors recognize (or should) the bill and its potential impact on their livelihood.  The House has already passed it with a 95% majority. It’s now on to the Senate and possibly the White House.

If the bill passes (watch the latest Congressional Bill Progress), you can say good bye to the Professional Angel Investment Community as we know it today. ...

Read the article

The Performance Marketing industry has come under fire for a series of incidents that have tarred the industry.  An important industry that can make or break your company.  The community has a range of people from the slick evangelist to the online marketing champion.  Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish who is who.

According to the Performance Marketing Industry, “In performance marketing, advertisers and marketers only pay for successful transactions. Each transaction is based on a consumer taking a defined action, such as making a purchase from the advertiser or signing up for a subscription. The trackability of performance marketing... Read the article

They were not incompetent or anything; they had simply broken more pumps in the last year than any previous year the engineers could remember. Not the inexpensive kind, but the large 200 horsepower, $22,000 pumps used in geothermal power plants; each blew up in a  succession of preventable blunders. But then it got worse. They complained to management, suggested a solution, and management did nothing about it.

Details of the gross negligence still haven’t reached the Executives of Ormat (NYSE: OSA), which ironically, will serve as evidence for the purpose of this article.  That valuable, actionable information is being stockpiled and kept hidden from everyone else for a variety of selfish reasons. This fact stands as one of the...  Read the article

We were able to assemble a powerful cast of experts to give the rest of us advice on becoming a Social Business. But we did it with one catch.  We asked these 9 experts to do it in under 60 seconds.

Thank you Robert Lavigne for essentially doing all of the video, post production and graphics for these 9 videos.  He’s a phenomenal person. 

The Video is interactive. Meaning you can click on the profiles in the video in order to see their individual response.  Alternatively, you can follow the video links of each of our experts below. 

 

... Read the article

Saddened by the loss of an individual who has brought great joy and anticipation back into our lives.  He’s the only individual I know of where millions of people tune into his product announcements.  He’s earned that level of attention by bringing to market products that create emotional bonds with the owner.   So, out of respect, I spent a few hours putting this tribute together for him. 

I appreciate everything he’s done for us.  

Read the article

Want to know what it might feel like if an airline actually treated its customers like friends? Not a superficial, phony performance marked by fake smiles and fake actors (think the aviation version of the Truman Show). But an airline that runs its business by listening, supporting and doing what’s best for its customers.

Instead, we’re subjected to dysfunctional relationships in a system that supports regular and repeated conflicts, which has led to apathy. Onboard and emblematically, no one pushes the flight attendant button anymore because we’re either accustomed to being ignored, or we’re met with a look that says "What’s your problem?" No wonder why our relationship with airlines is filled with so much emotional baggage.

 

In all my years as a business traveler, I have learned there are only a few airlines that could pass the “we’ve-got-better-customer-service-than-the-Department-of- Motor-Vehicles” test. The remainder, under the mantra of public safety, keep us locked up for hours languishing on planes sitting on tarmacs, often ignore our... Read the article