Rejoice! Employee use of social networks has tripled!

Palo Alto Networks is out with its annual numbers on employee work time spent on social networks. The company’s conclusions are based on analyzing raw data from 1,600-plus companies for a seven-month period last year. Their press release on the study confirms something we already suspected: “explosive growth in global social networking and browser-based file sharing on corporate networks, with a 300 percent increase in active social networking. (e.g., posting, applications) compared with activity during the same period in the latter half of 2010.”

The press release quotes the company’s CMO, René Bonvanie, saying “Whether or not… Read More »

FIR Book Review: The Social Media Strategist, by Christopher Barger

The Social Media Strategist: Build a Successful Program from the Inside Out, by Christopher Barger, is the latest book to be reviewed by FIR Book Review editor Bob LeDrew. From the book description:

“In today’s fast-paced professional climate, large companies are learning that launching a website and taking a wait-and-see approach to engaging customers is not enough. Competition is fierce, and those who master the social media space are the ones who come out on top. There is greater urgency than ever before to establish a vibrant social media program—and it all starts with a key strategist who can best organize and leverage all… Read More »

Why block Facebook when it increasingly offers valuable work-related resources?

I’ve been spending a lot more time than usual on Facebook lately. Two recently formed groups are the culprits. Both are work-related. The first is the home to a largely intellectual discussion of how Wikipedia can work more closely with official representatives of organizations to ensure their companies’ entries are accurate and up-to-date. Wikipedia’s founder and Wikia owner Jimmy Wales has joined the closed group and the discussions with him have been mostly respectful, with information and ideas moving in both directions. Edelman Digital Senior Vice President Phil Gomes started the group after posting an open letter to Wales about… Read More »

Get control now of proliferating social media activities: Altimeter report

A few years back, in working with an organization to organize its social media efforts under a strategy, we found that the company had over 50 Facebook pages and groups. Most had fewer than a dozen or so fans, most likely because nobody was supporting these pages with content and interaction. Ultimately, we winnowed the number down to the five or six pages that had amassed some genuine interest and to which the organization was willing to commit the resources required to maintain and build momentum.

Today, 50 pages no longer seems like all that big a deal. According to a report The Altimeter Group released today, global corporations… Read More »

Curating company news: Time for company content curation to grow up

There’s plenty of evidence that business is adopting content curation, but the practice hasn’t been around long enough for organizations to innovate more targeted, results-focused uses.

Business takes many of its lessons from how everyone else makes use of social tools. To start applying content curation, communicators need to pay attention to how others are using the crop of curation tools that have found acceptance online. There are dozens of free tools, but Storify is the one that has demonstrated one of curation’s emerging strengths:

Curating news that the media isn’t covering can lead to media coverage. And, by extension, it can… Read More »

Apple’s social media policy is just as closed as the rest of the company

Back in 2005, when IBM first encouraged its employees to blog publicly about their work, the company explained the initiative in part by noting that no marketing campaign could evangelize the company’s work better than its own employees.

In recent years, it has become more and more common for organizations to find ways to get employees into the social media space to represent the company. Coca-Cola has a certification program. Dell has its Social Media and Communities (SMaC) group. Sprint has its Ninjas. And virtually every social media policy you see—hundreds of which are posted publicly—includes a clause instructing employees… Read More »

Page 1 of 40 pages  1 2 3 >  Last ›