Biznology

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On any given day, one can look at Twitter, Mashable, or any number of other sites and receive advice on how to use social media tools to improve customer outreach, loyalty, and employee engagement.  Some of these posts are mediocre, while others are quite good and provide sound guidance and case studies.  But, they all start with an assumption that social media or social business is an imperative and that all organizations should evolve to this state.   Is this premise correct? Read the remainder of this entry »

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Those who had the opportunity to attend the 2013 IDC Directions conference saw  IDC Senior Vice President & Chief Analyst, Frank Gens, talk about how business technology is migrating to the 3^rd Platform.  He defined this 3^rd platform as the intersection of mobile, social, big data and cloud.   He predicted that these technologies will change how business gets done and enable the customization of intelligent industry solutions.  It was clear from his talk that the changes that will be brought about by these technologies may exceed those ushered in by the 2^nd Platform of client servers/PCs or the 1st Platform of mainframes/terminals. Read the remainder of this entry »

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We live in a business environment characterized by network driven ecosystems, 24/7 access to global communications and the ability to access and analyze vast amounts of information.  We carry more computer power on our smart phones than the early IBM mainframe computers.  Yet, how much has the Internet, mobile devices, and social networks impacted how today’s business organizations are structured or how work gets done?  For many organizations, culture and business processes are still rooted in the “Mad Men” era.  While it is no longer a man’s only world and business causal has replaced suits, many organizations have not quite evolved. Read the remainder of this entry »

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In Mike Moran’s recent post, he pointed out that digital marketing is more about understanding marketing than it is about being a technology expert.  I could not agree more.  One certainly needs to understand the basics of marketing to be successful in digital marketing.   But, I would like to take this argument even further, understanding marketing is necessary but not sufficient.  It is all about understanding customers and their wants, needs and values.   Market research rocks! Read the remainder of this entry »

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In a recent blog, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, talked about the differences between professional allies and acquaintances. One of his more intriguing points was that while strong alliances are greatly valued, in many cases it is our acquaintances that help up more from a business perspective. As he stated, “Weak ties can uniquely serve as bridges to other worlds and thus can pass on information or opportunities you have not heard about” Read the remainder of this entry »