Post #7 - Social Technology Misuse

Social tools have become an extremely valuable tool for organisations and businesses but it is important to consider the risks concerns that come with them. The primary risks in Enterprise 2.0 are;

• Loss of Control
• Reputation
• Resources
• Reliability
• Productivity
• Security

An incident regarding Seven News' Facebook page illustrates the risks that a misuse of social technology can  have on an organisation. 

Seven News is the primary news service of the Seven Network and is one of Australia's most popular televised news programs. They began broadcasting in Australia in 1958 and have remained a strong competitor in the country's media sector. With the increase of popularity of social technologies Seven News has invested in all the major social media services such as Facebook and Twitter and have even created their own mobile application. Their Facebook is updated several times a day and is a major source of their viewer ship with links redirecting back to their online homepage which is in a 50-50 partnership with Yahoo as of January 2006.

The incident began when a reporter trespassed and recorded footage of the mother of a 13 year old girl who was killed in a quad bike accident. The mother proceeded to express her dismay on Seven News' Facebook page in a post that suggested that they had been exploited and harassed. The post spread through social media and collected 32,000 likes causing a great deal of negative exposure for the network. The way Seven News chose to deal with this incident is a good example of social technology misuse.

The way Seven News decided to deal with the post shown above was to simply remove it from their Facebook page. Having an active post with over 32,000 likes and 2,000 comments being deleted is not something that is often going to go unnoticed and the enormous backlash this action caused was not something Seven News had anticipated. Their unethical behaviour caused a storm of hate filled comments to flood their Facebook page which caused a great deal of bad publicity. Eventually Seven News realized their mistake and issued an apology claiming that "Mrs Goldspink-Lord's comments were removed from our site in error." and posted a screenshot of the deleted comment on their Facebook page but the damage had already been done. This PR damage can be seen in trend graph below showing a spike in interest for searches of 'Seven News' in mid July which is the time of the incident. Although an increase of brand interest is normally good this falls under negative exposure which hinders them in the long run.

Looking back on the primary risks in Enterprise 2.0 it can be seen that Seven News had to deal with the consequences of two of these risks in particular. The loss of control of the information flow can be contrasted to the spreading of the negative comment. Although the comment was posted to a page created and controlled by Seven News it is very easy for people to take screenshots of anything posted on that site and removing something once it begins to spread is nearly impossible. Another element of Enterprise 2.0 Seven News experienced is the risk of their Reputation. Having one of their primary viewer sources being filled by negative comments is extremely damaging to their reputation. This in conjunction with the fact that the average Australians trust in their media is already the lowest in the developed world makes it difficult to maintain a loyal viewer base. The trust that Seven News lost, although damaging their reputation, is a non-tangible impact so it cannot be measured by a scale.

There is also the question of the ethics behind Seven News' decision to remove the derogatory comment. Rogerson writes about eight important ethical principles that need to be maintained keep the organizations image in a positive light. The ethical principle that was breached the most was Honour. Rogerson describes this principle as "Is there anyone from whom you would like to hide the action?" which reflects on their attempt to remove the comments exposing their negative actions. It would also be very easy to argue that their actions were neither fair or considerate to the grieving mother and the Australian public, two further principles of ethics.

This problem could have been mitigated greatly if Seven News had just posted the apology on the woman's original comment rather than attempting to hide the message from the public. It was a grave mistake and a lesson that their social media department had to learn the hard way.

Post #6 - ROI

In the lecture a Return on Investment (ROI) case study was analysed showing how it is possible to calculate the monetary value from a project. This weeks blog will focus on taking an Enterprise 2.0 case study and determining if the method used to calculate the ROI is effective. I've chosen to analyse a case study on IBM's social collaboration tools which is one of the earliest cases of analysing the monetary value of an Enterprise 2.0 project.

Since businesses have been increasing their interest in social technologies the ability to calculate the ROI of a project is exceedingly important. However it is often difficult to associate a figure to many of the benefits that these Enterprise 2.0 projects bring to the workplace. Being able to calculate the monetary value of a project has immense benefits for the company that wishes to implement social technologies.

The majority of the data from this case study was done by interviewing the IBM marketing and sales personnel and analysing the financial framework of the company. The purpose of the IBM Social Collaboration project was essentially to increase idea generation within the employees. The image below shows the new product development process where the Idea Generation segment determines the quantity of commercialized products. The amount of ideas generated would then be one method of measuring the success of the project.

To calculate the ROI of the project the case study had come up with four benefits and attempted to attach a monetary value to them.

The first benefit was the revenues of incremental new products which is calculated from tracking revenue from new products. The case study determined that 7% of the total revenue is from new products which would equate to $1.4 billion for the $20 billion company. which equates to $2.8 million per product line when taking into the account the 150 products per year. After assuming that only 2% of ideas are commercialized they determined that 7,500 ideas were generated each year. They determined that project had a 'likely' value of $2.1 million based on this benefit alone.

The second benefit was based on the time it takes for a product to reach market and they gave it a 'likely estimate' of $336,000.

Another benefit was based on the fact that the Social Collaboration tool would allow the sales communities to share their practices and product expertise to increase their ability to make sales. The 'likely estimate' the case study had given this benefit was $150,000.

The final benefit discussed in the case study was the savings from increased staff productivity. Essentially the benefits from employees being able to find information faster was given a 'likely estimate' of $455,800.

Typically a ROI analyses the tangible and intangible benefits as they both have importance in a business. The four benefits above would all be considered tangible benefits however there may be many other intangible benefits of the project such as employee satisfaction due to increased communication between employees.

The above formula allows us to calculate the ROI for the project based on the investment gain (value from benefits) and investment cost. The case study states the following costs for the project based worker hours required and hiring rates.

• License fees (20,000 seats at $75 per seat) = $1.5 million
• License maintenance = 20% (recurring $300,000)
• Server hardware (1 per 20,000 seats) = $13,000
• Server maintenance = 10% (recurring $1,300)
• Implementation/planning (700 hours at $60/hour) = $42,000
• Professional service fees (100 hours at $150/hour) = $15,000
• Communication plan (120 hours at $80/hour) = $9,600
• IT administration (200 hours at $60/hour) = $12,000

Using these to calculate the ROI gives the following results.

Investment Gain = 2100000+336000+150000+455800 = 3,041,800

Investment Cost = $1500000+13,000+42,000+15,000+9,600+12,000 =1,591,600

Substituting these values into the ROI formula gives a value of 91.12% which is a significant investment considering the majority of costs will only apply initially.

The methods used by Forrester Consulting to calculate ROI have various strengths and weaknesses. Although the costs are relatively definitive there is a considerable amount of ambiguity in the benefits discussed in the case study. Associating the increase in new products to directly correlate with the value of  the project can be a problem as there may be many other factors that have caused the increase in products especially in a large company. New technologies being released and pressure from competition are factors which have not been taken into account in the case study.

If you take into account that the case study produces a very rough estimate for the ROI of the Enterprise 2.0 project then the information can be very useful. I feel it is important to consider what outside factors may cause inaccuracies in the data which may skew the results.

Post #5 - Social Technology in Retail

In the past few posts frequent readers may have noticed a trend of topics revolving around the use of social technologies in corporate businesses and the importance of McKinsey value levers. This post will analyse both of these things in reference to a company dealing in the retail sector. Myer was chosen for this analysis as its Australia's largest retail chain and understands the importance of keeping ahead of its competition using growing trends. The chain merchandises a wide variety of products such as from clothing, accessories, footwear, cosmetics, fragrances, furniture, bedding, toys and electrical products.

As with all other major retail chains, Myer has invested in creating and maintaining pages on the major social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. However, there are many niches in the way they use social technologies that help them to stay ahead of the pack.

The Myer blog, although being a relatively recent page, has already had a significant impact on the sales of the store. The blog focuses on the clothing and beauty side of the merchandise to give it the appearance of a high-end fashion blog. The posts are all very well written to showcase the stores new products as if it were an article in a fashion magazine rather than being obvious advertisments. This ingenious writing style is combined with several social media plug-ins such as an Instagram image slider showcasing the products in use alongside Facebook and Twitter plug-ins. The blog has had noticeable improvements on store sales with the youth fashion sector experiencing double digit growth due to the Miss Shop Blogger Project, a project that has 15 high level bloggers promoting a new range of clothes.

Myer has invested so heavily into their blog as they know that the newer demographic is engaged primarily online whereas the previous methods of reaching customers were through magazines and television.The graph above shows the high engagement visitors to the website have as well as its high ranking. The Myer blog is currently Australia's most visited retail blog and its success  can be somewhat credited to its close following with the McKinsey value levers. The blog being an interactive environment applies to lever four, Derive customer insights. Allowing supporters to comment, share and even upload their Instagram photos creates an engaging environment that attracts a userbase and also allows the designers to take in this feedback to use to enhance future products.

Another use of social technology implemented by Myer, although not a blog or wiki, is the Myer one mobile phone app. The application is described as 'One less card. One great app.' as it is aimed at being a replacement for the regular plastic Myer one card and Myer one Reward card. This feature has a noticeable effect on customers shopping habits as it combines the typical retail store rewards with gameification elements. Having the Myer one icon on the users mobile home screen will act as a consistent reminder to shop at Myer and the collection of redeemable points for their purchases makes the shopping experience similar to a mobile game. The social technology element comes from the ability to display your points among your friends giving the shopping experience a competitive element.

The app also features other useful features such as access to the store catalogue, store locator and exclusive offers to encourage app usage. When referencing back to the McKinsey value levers it can be seen that the Myer mobile app represents lever five, 'Use social technologies for marketing communication/interaction'. It assists marketing interaction by allowing customers to return feedback to the store. This is important as it gives Myer invaluable research on customer desires and habits for no cost.

The use of social technologies to increase company awareness and product sales can be seen everywhere and the businesses who use them more effectively will ultimately have the competitive edge.

Week 5 - Blogs in Professional Services

After being introduced to the two big major enterprise social platforms it seemed interesting to research into how organisations in the professional service sector are using blogs to enhance their business. The first sector to come to mind was finance more specifically accounting consulting. Ernst & Young is one of the worlds largest professional services firms by aggregated revenue and also has an interesting implementation of blogs into their core businesses structure.

Ernst & Young have several platforms in which they utilize blogging. They have various blogs hosted on their website, ranging from Energy and Science Blogs to team building blogs. However, the majority of their exposure is generated from their Twitter and Facebook pages. While nearly all professional firms have a frequently update Facebook and Twitter page Ernst & Young utilizes this quite differently by having over 30 different pages for each of these social tools. 

The twitter pages range from individual topics such as Automotive, Banking, Insurance and Real Estate and by specific events that the corporation holds. They even have a separate twitter for each country that they are involved in to be able to make more relevant posts to maximize benefit. This heavily ties into the value levers of implementing Enterprise 2.0 as written by McKinsey Global Institute (2012). An Enterprise Wide Lever is essentially the use of social technology to expand intra or inter-organizational collaboration which is the main objective of Ernst & Young's social media enterprise plan. 

Ernst &Young have taken great care in their social media strategy and understand that it is a consumer driven platform which brings in various risks. In their Social media strategy, policy and governance report they state that the greatest benefit they receive is from their extensive listening programs that allow them to receive customer feedback and monitor and assess negative company branding.

References

Ernst & Young Analysis. (October 31 2012).Social media strategy, policy and governance Retrieved August 26 2014 from http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Social_media_strategy_policy_and_governance/$File/Social_media_strategy_policy_governance.pdf

Erbst & Young Social Media (August 26 2014). Social Media. Retrieved August 26  2014 from http://www.ey.com/gl/en/Home/Social-media

Week 4 - Value Levers

After analysing the readings about value levers published by McKinsey Global Institute in 2012 (in 

The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies) their importance in social technologies became clear. This weeks post will discuss how value levers have benefited Taco Bells implementation of Enterprise 2.0. There are 10 value levers as can be seen below organised into separate sub-categories which are listed below.

A - Product Development

1.Co-create products.

B - Operations and Distribution
2. Leverage social technologies to forecast and monitor3. Use social technologies to distribute business processes

C - Marketing and Sales4. Derive customer insights (shared with Product Development)5. Use social technologies for marketing communication / interaction6. Generate and foster sales leads7. Social commerce

D - Customer Services8. Provide customer care via social technologies 

E - Enterprise-Wide Levers9. Use social technology to improve intra- or inter-organizational collaboration and communication.10. Use social technology to match talent to tasks.

The reason Taco Bell was chosen as the company to analyse  was due to their strong involvement in social technologies. Their social media department began in 2007 and since then has expanded into an entire organization with PR operations, product and marketing leaders planning and researching social media operations. They were even awarded with Ad Age's 2013 Marketer of the Year and have implemented over 50 separate social technology campaigns since opening their social media department. 

The two most relevant areas for the case study are Marketing and Sales and Customer Services.

Marketing and Sales

Upon releasing Doritos Locos Tacos, Taco Bell ran an advertising campaign based upon various social technologies. With the ability to moderate messages sent to their Twitter, Taco Bell could then send approved tweets to a billboard on Times Square and Sunset Blvd. This apply's to the specific levers of Using social technologies for marketing communication and Deriving customer insights.

By having the Tweets posted publicly it not only increases awareness of the product and encourages customer interaction but also allows customers to send their insights. With the implementation of a webcam on the billboard it also allowed people to send tweets from home and watch it being displayed on the billboard on a live stream. This turned out to be a very successful promotion and increased sales of the product by over 50%.

Customer Services

Another lever that Taco Bell has proven to exceed at is the use of social media to enhance customer services. Between 2007 and 2012 Taco Bell reached seven million Facebook followers through organic growth. On top of this they also heavily invested in posting on other social media technologies such as Twitter, Youtube, Vine, Snapchat, Pintrest and Tumblr. They dedicate a large amount of resources to social media and use a social media think tank which reviews the performance of previous social activity and sets plans for the future posts. By reading and posting on a variety of social media platforms it allows Taco Bell to customer care while also increasing their brand image.

Week 3 - Power of Social Tools

This week in the Enterprise 2.0 lecture we were taught the immense value of social technologies when used by businesses. These social technologies allow these corporations to connect and communicate with customers and in some cases assist them with business problem solving.

 Some Examples...

These examples all contain various elements from the 10 social technology levers which is an important concept for growing businesses.

Braintree is a good example to start of with due to its business-to-business nature. A B2B is an exchange of product or service between two businesses rather than between businesses and customers. This made it quite difficult for Braintree to reach out using social technologies as standard forms of social media such as Facebook was ineffective. To solve this Braintree analysed the four enterprise 2.0 benefit dimensions.

• Knowledge
• Reputation
• Productivity
• Staff Engagement

Focusing on Staff Engagement and Reputation they chose to post content that reflected their internal culture and utilized it as a recruitment tool. This made them instantly appear more attractive as an employer and also increases their visibility in the market place.

A more well known company that has taken advantage of social tools in a more unique method is HP. With the release of their 20-inch HDX Dragon laptop they initiated an interesting marketing plan by attempting to engage bloggers with giveaways. This was a first among large scale companies and it gained mixed results. They also began to take advantage of social media through another managing company called Buzz Crops Inc. Buzz Corps Inc then started a social media project that involved 31 leading tech bloggers who agreed to make a contest called '31 days of the Dragon'. 

The contest created a lot of attention for the product and supposedly increased their sales by 85% during the first year of release. Contrasting this to the Wikinomics mass collaboration model it can be easily seen that HP had looked to achieve a Peering business model. This involved a creation that harnessed the power of mass collaboration with self organising communities, which in their case was in the form of Blogs. Also the blending of producers and consumers through the blogs showed elements of the Prosumers model.

References...

KISSmetrics. (2014, March 11). 29 Companies Tell you how to rock social media. Retrieved August 9, 2014, from KISSmetrics: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/how-to-rock-social-media//

TECHtarget. (2012, June 19) B2B (Business-to-Business) Retrieved August 9, 2014, from TECHtarget http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/B2B

S. Diesenreiter, Awareness im Enterprise 2.0. Master thesis. Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, 2013.

Week 2

So who is this guy?

Hi, I'm Sam. I'm currently in my four year of my Electrical Engineering and Information Technology dual degree and my first experience with Enterprise 2.0 was when I saw the class in my electives list. After doing a bit of research I became very interested in the concept of businesses using on-line platforms to build their digital presence. Although I've never written a Blog before I'm interested in learning the different techniques to maximise exposure and interest to what is essentially just my personal opinions.

What's the purpose then?

The posts that I'm planning to make on this Blog will aim to be of a mostly academic nature and I will be avoiding making making this into a personal diary of sorts. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm aiming to simply state facts void of any opinion or personality but rather keep it somewhat 'professional'. All successful Blogs have a consistent theme and tone in their writing and I feel establishing this early on is important.

How will these posts be useful?

I'm expecting that the Blog posts will eventually expand to a variety of subjects and topics so to ensure that the Blog will be useful I will need to make sure I have done sufficient research on the topics discussed. Although I may not be an expert at these topics, by gathering information from a variety of sources and breaking it down into an easily digestible posts the blog should be useful.

How will I get readers?

This is a question I'm not entirely sure on at the moment. Although I'm aware that I can get a small amount of readership by commenting on fellow classmates blog posts, this will still be a relatively small number. Certain strategies that I have considered include using social media websites to gain interest such as facebook, twitter, reddit although this will only be effective given the posts are interesting to read. Also effective formatting of the text and images within the posts will make the posts become more eye catching which will obviously increase readership.

Example of a successful blog

One blog that I will be taking advice from is the Australian gaming blog website Kotaku. Although Kotaku is currently at a much larger stage than this blog, with a large group of writers posting multiple times a day, I still feel there is a lot I can incorporate from the blog. The posts are all very consistent even though written by a large variety of people, all having a similar professional tone and formatted similarly. By having a consistency through their topics and writing styles I believe it encourages people to return daily to stay up to date on the latest gaming related news.