2020 Social: Because Business is Social

How brands are using Ideation Communities

Posted on 08. Apr, 2010 by Achintya in Blog, Case Studies

Background: Ideation communities are platforms where customers can post news, stories, ideas, case studies etc and other people can rate, vote for the best ideas, comment and share ideas etc. This is more sort of like a simple Digg.com models where people submit news, community curates ( votes) the best news which is showcased on the homepage.

Ideation communities are a people centric way of carrying the brand message. It is an open platform for people to talk about brand or related businesses. But unlike typical communities or social networks the focus is more on content consumption, curation ( rate/vote/ comment) and creation rather than connecting consumers or building relationships among them.

It will be interesting to see how many popular brands have used such ideation communities:

Starbucks: My Starbucks idea is one of the most popular ideation communities. The agenda is simple. The community members submit ideas on what they would want from Starbucks and others vote and comment upon the ideas they like. By the end of the day, Starbucks has the most popular, democratically decided ideas for its brands. How this benefits Starbucks is that this community automatically positions Starbucks as a brand that is all ears to its costumers which is great for any services company. Secondly it has a platform where people repeatedly come to submit ideas, comment and have conversations, that is better than any marketing campaign. Thirdly through this platform the company knows who are its biggest fans and evangelists and it knows whom to go to for positive advocacy.

Lessons From Nestle’s Facebook Fan Page Revolt

Posted on 21. Mar, 2010 by admin in Case Studies

Last week, Greenpeace launched a campaign against Nestle KitKat procuring palm oil from suppliers who are “destroying the Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction.”

Apart from investigative reports on Nestle’s practices, Greenpeace launched a gory video that shows a Nestle employee eating an orang-utan finger in a KitKat pack –

Nestle tried to get Google to take down the video on YouTube on the grounds of copyright violation, triggering off the Streisand Effect, as the video went viral on Vimeo and several YouTube users re-posted the video on YouTube. Now the original YouTube video is back up.

Even as Nestle made half-hearted noises about switching to sustainable palm oil, Greenpeace launched a full-on social media offensive against Nestle, changing its UK homepage into a Nestle Killer mockup and asking its supporters to protest against Nestle by sharing the video, changing their profile pictures to Nestle Killer, and boycotting Nestle products –

As fans flooded the Nestle’s Facebook Page with negative comments and Nestle Killer profile pics, a Nestle rep picked up a war of words with the fans –

Using Social Tools and Staffing/Recruiting

Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Gautam in Case Studies, How To Guides, Ideas, Trends

A friend asked me some questions on doing Recruiting through Social Media. Here’s what I answered:

1. What is the web2.0 (pl explain in the simplest terms!) and which of these can be used by the Staffing team of the company?

Web2.0 is the collective name for a lot of technologies by which people can interact with other people (and organizations) on the web, publicly and in a transparent manner. It can include forums, blogs, twitter, linkedin, facebook, orkut etc.

We believe that Social technologies help people connect around some Core Dynamics – Content Generation, Conversations, Collaborating together, Community Formation and Collective Intelligence. Different functionalities enable users to connect differently

2. How widespread is the use of the web2.0 for finding top talent ? (can you give examples of companies who are doing this?) For instance, are there companies who are using Twitter to keep in touch with the campus crowd?)

The first question the recruiter needs to answer is – who is my top talent and what is he/she interested in? Primarily there are interested in the content and knowledge component of the job. Followed by organizational culture and the mechanics of the job. The recruiting firm needs to reach out to the community where top talent is likely to be present and present the above – by way of blog posts, youtube videos, pictures and discussion forums.

How are banks, financial services leveraging social media

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Achintya in Case Studies

I was reading the latest blog post on 2020 Social blog by mohit on Social Community efforts by banks and financial institutions and realized that I might have something interesting to add here. In my view the thing worth noticing about the social media efforts by these BFSI institutions is the difference in the way their communities are architectured when they are targeting different segments of customers.

Background: When it comes to investing & saving ones own hard earned money , people prefer researching, asking others, going for tried and tested methods and moreover playing safe. Investments and savings are something that are although done by almost everyone but then not everybody has an expertise and hence people generally prefer taking expert advice, ask peers, research, read news just to keep themselves informed and updated. Many banks, financial institutions, trading and brokerage companies have realized this behaviour and are using a social web presence to solve their problems.

What’s happening in Health 2.0

Posted on 12. Jan, 2010 by Achintya in Case Studies, Reviews

While researching on health and wellness communities I fell upon various platforms worth of interest. It is fascinating to see that people understand that with changing times and health demands people are more interested in discussing out their health problems, helping each other referring the best practitioners and using similar social tools for health related purposes. When research shows that a majority of people seek the initial help of internet for any health research or related problems, it makes sense to make the entire health research and discussions social which is popularly known as Health 2.0.

There are a vast number of health related platforms running on the social web. On a broad scale they can be grouped as Health 2.0 communities, Health Applications and Health online tactical programs. I have discussed each of these platforms in detail below:

Avoiding Collisions on the Social Web

Posted on 30. Dec, 2009 by Dave in Announcements, Case Studies, How To Guides, Ideas

Last week, the social Web felt a bit like a bad holiday sale…as some notable brands suffered collisions with their respective audiences. The combination of business processes and the consumer reactions, expressed via social media, played a role in each of them.

Post continues here.

Tata Indicom Uses Account Statements to Invite Customers to Participate in Its Blog and Forum

Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Case Studies

I was pleasantly surprised recently to see that Tata Indicom is using its account statements to invite customers to participate in its blog and forum –

I have been presenting slides on how real employees (including old friend Nidhi) use the Tata Indicom corporate blog to have real conversations with their customers –

I tend to be very particular about building the right customer community platform using the right software (which, very often, is something like Lithium), and for a reason. The right platform enables and encourages the right behavior, opens up new degrees of freedom, both for community users and the administrators.

However, the Tata Indicom example is a reminder for me that brands can do a lot of right things without using sophisticated software. Their blog is built on the free Wordpress blogging software and their forum is built on vBulletin, not a particularly sophisticated forum software. The forum user interface is unwieldy, the different pieces of software don’t speak to each other, and there’s only so much that Tata Indicom or their customers can do with it.

However, even though Tata Indicom doesn’t have the right software to run a customer community, it sure has the right soul and, in the end, the right soul matters more than the right software.

Kudos to WagonR Think Big Challenge for Online-Offline Integration

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Case Studies

It’s too late to submit your big business idea to the WagonR Think Big Challenge now, but you should still check it out.

Basically, Maruti Suzuki has tied up with the Times Group to launch a contest to find smart business ideas, a theme that ties in with the WagonR positioning of “For the Smarter Race”.

Compared to most Indian consumer generated content contests, the WagonR Think Big Challenge aims big and does several things right.

- First, the theme of the contest, or the social object, is closely tied to the brand positioning. Smart business ideas from/ for the smarter race.

- Second, the contest is supported by television, print, radio, online and on-ground activities. Here’s a gate for the WagonR Think Big Challenge I spotted outside a Maruti Suzuki dealership next to my office:

- Third, the contest extends over city, zonal and national rounds, with prizes worth over Rs. 5o lakhs across different stages, and gives WagonR an opportunity to sustain interest in it over a long period.

- Fourth, the presence of celebrity endorser Madhavan adds a dose of appeal to the contest.

Business World Case Study: Why Should an Indian Retail Chain Build an Online Customer Community?

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by gaurav in Case Studies, Media

Meera Seth recently asked me to share my analysis on a Business World case study about an Indian retail chain E-sqd exploring whether it should dip its toes in the messy world of social media. The case ends with the E-sqd management team discussing the Motrin Mom fiasco and arguing the pros and cons of opening a corporate Twitter account.

Here’s my analysis: social media isn’t only about Twitter –

Analysis: Using A New Language
To engage social media users, its underlying value system has to be understood

The Motrin case is a popular case study of how a brand took a beating on social media. There are several similar morality tale-style case studies that argue that “unless the brand is present on social media” it will not be able to respond to negative rumours and consumer backlashes, or worse, get brandjacked by profile squatters or spoof artists.

Such doomsday scenarios often attract the attention of senior executives and dominate conference room conversations about social media. These conversations inevitably involve conflicting points of view, as executives and managers have different comfort levels with social platforms in their personal avatars, and may lead to one of these five possible scenarios.

Read More

Using social technologies to build Organizational Culture

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Gautam in Case Studies, How To Guides

BUILDING AN ENGAGED WORKFORCE

The Story Until Now
(scenario 3 from here)

Over the last two decades LMN Corp has grown from a family owned business to a professionally run conglomerate with diverse interests in shipping, mining, IT, telecom and media. Growth has been robust as the diversifications have paid off.

Sumit Bangia, the 50 year old COO of the company, has been an old LMN hand. Over the last few years, Sumit has become increasingly concerned with the increasing turnover of younger workers. Sumit’s trusted HR Head, 35 year old Shalini Taneja, found out from exit interviews that recent recruits felt disconnected from the conglomerate and felt that they didn’t know how they fit into the big picture.

Sumit and Shalini decided that the key to retaining young recruits was to build an open organizational culture where young recruits could connect with each other and older mentors across levels and functions. It was also important that they felt empowered and encouraged to bring their whole self to work.