2020 Social: Because Business is Social

IT Employer brands on Social Media

Posted on 01. Jun, 2010 by Gautam in Reports

I blogged about this report earlier, and so the time has come to share the full report with you.

To analyse the conversations and mentions of an Employment Brand on the social web we looked at them in these ways:

1. What are the work and HR related conversations that people are having? These would be linked to an employee’s personal work or a prospective employee’s perception of work in the organization.
2. What are people mentioning about the Organizational Culture?
3. What are people mentioning about the Leadership/Leader of a firm
4. What are the news items around deals, results that are being mentioned and referenced on the social web?

Some highlights:

Analysis of Conversations related to Human Resource issues

• TCS HR issues were mentioned the most followed by Infosys
• Negative mentions in this category were most for Infosys

Organizational Culture issues are a key component of discussions

• Culture gets defined externally by various organizational activities from CSR to Sports
• Such activities are mentioned in an overwhelming positive tone on the social web

TCS and Wipro led the conversations when it came to news - The nature of news determines the tone with news about salary increases being cheered by the online crowd.

The Social Employer Manifesto

Posted on 26. May, 2010 by Gautam in Announcements

David Armano recently posted the Social Business manifesto focusing on the relationship between a social business and its customers.
So I thought I’d give a shot to making a manifesto for the Social Business and its relationship with employees.

1. We will no longer view you as “employees” only to do the work you are assigned. Instead, you are co-creators, participants, critics and advocates.
2. We will actively ask for your input on products, services, structures, processes and give it to you to co-create them with us.
3. We will focus not on the time you spend in office but the results you achieve.
4. We will provide value, not jobs.
5. We will provide you the tools to connect across silos, departments, locations to meet the changing demands of a networked economy and social customers.
6. We will focus on your needs vs. our ends.
7. We will together focus on reducing the noise within the organization.
8. We will together destroy processes that do not let us build human relationships within and without.
9. We will encourage you to build relationships that connect all of us with partners, stakeholders and customers in ways where we all benefit.

Analyzing Brands’ Mentions on the Social Web

Posted on 24. May, 2010 by Gautam in Reports

Often people wonder – sure there are people discussing our firm and brand on various social networking platforms like Twitter, Blogs and discussion forums, but how can we quantify it? How are we perceived overall? What are the themes people talk about? And is it mostly positive or negative?

So we at 2020 Social decided to do a little experiment.

We took a look at all the India based conversations on the social web which mentioned 5 Indian IT companies – Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant and Patni Computers over a period of one month (March 2010) and then analysed them.

The findings were quite interesting.

We found that the themes that these conversations could be classified in the following areas: Relating to HR, Culture, Leadership and News items.

Most of these mentions (86%) were overwhelmingly in microblogs followed by discussion forums and then by blogs.

Most mentions were around news items, followed by Culture and HR

Take Aways from the report:

• There is a lot of discussion about IT firms related to work and HR related subjects .
• There is little or no engagement that the organizations are taking to connect with influencers and to drive the conversations

LiveMint Story on My NASSCOM Foundation Workshop on Social Media for Non-Profits

Posted on 02. May, 2010 by admin in Media

LiveMint recently did a story on my NASSCOM Foundation workshop on social media for non-profits.

Here is the video interview –

Here is the full text of the LiveMint story –

Why and how nonprofits should use social media
Gaurav Mishra, CEO of 2020 Social, talks about how Indian nonprofits can best use social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to further their causes

It’s hard being a nonprofit these days. In an increasingly competitive world populated by increasingly busy people who are increasingly careful about how they spend their money in a post-recession era, nonprofits are struggling more than ever to raise awareness, attract volunteers, and generate a long-term interest in the causes they work for.

Strapped for time, money and manpower, more and more nonprofits are turning to sites like Facebook and Twitter, hoping to leverage these free platforms to generate mass interest at minor costs. However the social media space, like the real world, is crowded, noisy and extremely competitive, and many nonprofits after setting up that Facebook fan page or Twitter account are at a loss as to what to do next.

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My NASSCOM Foundation Workshop on Social Media for Non-Profits

Posted on 02. May, 2010 by admin in Events

Here is the 175+ slide deck from my NASSCOM Foundation workshop on social media for non-profits.

I built upon the themes from my NASSCOM Emerge workshop on social media for B2B marketers and argued that “social media strategy” isn’t really about “social media tools”, but about answering three questions –

- Who are our evangelists and why will they talk about us? Or, how to identify passion?
- How can we organize and energize our evangelists? Or, how to ignite passion?
- How can we help our evangelists spread the word? Or, how to scale passion?

I also argued that this outside-in cause-first approach should be natural to non-profits, except that non-profits often forget that they are in the business of changing people’s lives, not running a more popular program, with more funding and more staff. I pointed out the irony that I often tell marketers and entrepreneurs to behave more like activists, but also have to remind non-profits to behave more like activists themselves.

My NASSCOM Emerge Workshop on Social Media For B2B Marketers

Posted on 26. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events

Here is the mammoth 225+ slide deck from my NASSCOM Emerge full day Workshop on Social Media For B2B Marketers.

I started off by being provocative and arguing that “social media strategy” isn’t really about “social media”, but about answering three questions –

- Who are our evangelists and why will they talk about us? Or, how to identify passion?
- How can we organize and energize our evangelists? Or, how to ignite passion?
- How can we help our evangelists spread the word? Or, how to scale passion?

I have riffed on the same idea during my GoaFest 2010 talk on how marketing is changing. The NASSCOM Emerge workshop helped me sharpen it and resulted in the post: Everything You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing In Seven Short Steps.

The deck itself is a little rough around the edges, but I’ll tighten it up and replace the present version, so do feel free to embed and share it –

Cross-posted at Gauravonomics Blog For Marketers, Entrepreneurs and Activists.

Everything You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing In Seven Short Steps

Posted on 25. Apr, 2010 by admin in Ideas

Here’s everything you need to know about social media marketing in seven short steps:

1. The biggest risk with social media is in not engaging in public conversations about your brand. So, do engage yourself and encourage your employees to engage. Ask them not to do things that will embarrass themselves or you, but expect them to. All of us have embarrassed ourselves in public, more than once, so will they. It’s okay.

2. The only solution for negative conversations is more positive conversations. Responding to and resolving negative conversations is table stakes. The only way to win at social is by inspiring your evangelists to start and spread more positive conversations about you. So, put in place a process to track and resolve negative conversations, then focus on energizing your evangelists.

3. So, start by asking: Who are our present and potential evangelists? Who do they talk to? Who talks to them? What else do they talk about? What are their triggers to talk? Why do we want them to talk about us? In effect, you are creating a persona for your evangelists, except that instead of using it to design a website, you would use it to design a web of talkworthy touchpoints.

Exchange4Media Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010

Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media

I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.

Here is the Exchange4Media story on the panel —

It’s all about being ‘social’

Rishi Vora

Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and many other social media platforms have become a way of life for many consumers in India. Sharing information with friends and also strangers has become the new reality. How can brand managers and advertising agencies cash in on this growing segment? Can this very-evident opportunity in the media world be monetised? Can it become the centre of digital communications? How does one measure social media?

All these questions and more were addressed at a panel discussion on Social Media, which was part of Knowledge and Learning Seminar on Day 3 at GoaFest 2010. The session, which was moderated by Eric Ashok Ledergerber, Founder, hub.in|dia, had among its panelists Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman, ASW.com; Kiruba Shankar, well-known blogger and CEO of Business Blogging Pvt Ltd; Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020 Social; and Vishal Gondal, CEO & Founder, Indiagames Ltd.

Vishal Gondal started off the session by explaining how the whole media space was reinvented with the evolution of social media. “We are moving towards participative media, where the ballgame of engagement has change dramatically,” he noted.

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Campaign India Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010

Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media

I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.

Here is the Campaign India story on the panel —

Social, location, context, mobile: Buzzwords for the future
Gunjan Prasad, 11 April, 2010

The 2nd day of Goafest 2010 was set in motion by a ‘Knowledge & Learning” seminar focussing on the burning issue of ‘Social Media’. A varied panel comprising Eric Ashok Ledergerber, founder, hub.in-dia; Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging; Vishal Gondal, founder, India Games; Gaurav Mishra, founder 20-20 Social and Patrick Liotard Vogt, chairman, ASW.com held the audience’s attention through plenty of examples and an interactive element.

At the outset they urged the audience to send their thoughts and views through SMS or twitter while the session was on.

Gondal gave three parameters that are defining the social media in current times. He said that reinvention of media is inevitable as it is moving from being a one-way conversation to a participatory medium. “Also, free is the new premium.” Most importantly, he added that social, location, context and mobile are four buzz words that will change the future of communication.

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afaqs Story on Our Social Media Panel at GoaFest 2010

Posted on 14. Apr, 2010 by admin in Events, Media

I have written about my panel discussion on social media at GoaFest 2010.

Here is the afaqs story on the panel —

Goafest 2010: The dynamics of social media
Presented by Mail Today
Devina Joshi | afaqs! | Goa, April 13, 2010

On the concluding day of Goafest 2010, a session moderated by Eric Ashok Ledergerber, founder, hub.in|dia, saw experts in the field of digital media discussing the growing importance of social media and its relevance in today’s context. The panellists comprised Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman of the social community, ASW.com; Vishal Gondal, CEO and founder, Indiagames; Gaurav Mishra, CEO, 2020 Social; and famous blogger, Kiruba Shankar, CEO of Business Blogging.

Shankar shared a story of his annoyance with Cleartrip.com. When the travel site messed up his flight booking details, he blogged and tweeted about it, which in turn led to another 300 people retweeting the story and putting it up on their blogs and Facebook profiles.

As a result of this online explosion against Cleartrip, the brand didn’t do the obvious by staying mum or defending itself — it surprised everyone by admitting its mistake publicly. What’s more, Shankar was given a redeemable free business class ticket, as compensation for the inconvenience caused to him.

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