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

The path to becoming a social business, one which has a more engaged workforce, customer-base and supply chain, is one which ultimately leads to greater business success. What components, however, do you need to consider putting in place from a strategic standpoint?

My graphic below attempts to put each of the components I feel any organisation should consider implementing or integrating into their social collaboration environment.

The blue cans at the bottom of the arrow are the... Read the article

If you have been following my series, 10 Easy Steps to Social Business, so far then hopefully you’ve gained an understanding of:

1. Embedding social techniques into your business processes with some examples (more to come).
2. The need for customization of your social business solution.
3. Things to think about when preparing a Social Business Governance Plan.

Many thanks for the kind feedback and comments I’ve received so far.  Steps 4 – 6 of the plan will be coming soon.  In the meantime let me keep you busy with my infographic which summarizes the first three steps:

Read the article

I was lucky enough to attend the IBM Leadership Alliance conference last week in Boston.  This is an annual gathering of a large number of senior IBM execs, IBM Champions, key customers and a some hangers-on like me.  The entire event is covered by a non-disclosure agreement as the IBMers share their product plans and seek feedback on their plans from the audience.

One session stuck out particularly for me.  It was Sandy Carter‘s presentation on becoming a social business.  Although the precise content of her presentation is under NDA I am allowed to discuss the 10 steps to becoming a social business.  I will examine each of these in a forthcoming series of blog posts but wanted to... Read the article

The characteristics of the new economy are different from what we... Read the article

“The US Department of Energy, for example, is using our thought waves to identify people. To think of something is obviously a great way to be able to pay for things.” ... Read the article

Last week in San Francisco the world of everything cloud gathered for what, at least according to host Salesforce.com, was the largest tech conference ever. Whether its true or not, it was very well attended, well planned and executed nicely. Dreamforce is always an energetic event and this year was no exception, with celebrity guests like Sir Richard Branson, who did a fireside chat with CEO Marc Benioff and former Secretary of State and retired Gen Colin Powell, entertainment like MC Hammer as part of the opening keynote and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and high profile Salesforce customers like... Read the article

Read the article

I consider a Social Business to be one which harnesses the power of social networking technology to aid collaboration and decision making in organizations. I see this as the modern extension of Knowledge Management which was seen in the early part of this century as the consequence of better database solutions, the advent of the Web as we now know it and a way to finally make our work “smarter”. But will Social Business disappear like Knowledge Management, “Knowledgebases”, “Groupware” and other solutions like it in the past?

In the late nineties many computer systems were still focused on making electronic versions of previously physical processes. The emergence of good-quality scanning solutions and processing systems from the likes of Kofax..

Read the article

Before you can analyze, you need data. In thinking of what you can do with social media data, I find it helpful to think about three buckets of social media data: content, activity, and people data. Let's talk about content. If you look at social media from one angle, that's what it is: lots of content. What do you do with that?

What is Content Data?
When we talk about listening and how people express their opinions, we're talking about working with content data. From the text of tweets, blog posts, and product reviews to pictures, videos, and audio recordings, content is everything that people are posting and sharing online. When people ask about sentiment, opinion, and complaints, they're asking about content.

Analyzing Content Data

Remember consumer-generated media? That was the ... Read the article