Moments of 2013 --- The Year That Was In Pictures, Tweets, Photos, eBooks and Digital Marketing Milestones

Zeitgeist 2013 :: Discover what the world searched for with Google's year in review? What were the hottest trends? Which buzzwords became household terms? Which fads entered pop-culture? Take a look back with Google Search | Trends.



From a new pope to a new prince, let's remember the biggest moments of the year with #Zeitgeist2013

• The World in Tweets: Defining moments of the year that was 2013 on Twitter.

The Year in Twitter: Top Milestones of 2013 http://t.co/oCkQtRMVD8
— Mashable (@mashable) December 13, 2013

• Top 10 Photo Gallery: A look back at 2013 via TIME

Top 10 of Everything in 2013 via @TIME - http://t.co/YUE9bOSVz1
— Amar Trivedi (@Mr_Madness) December 17, 2013

• Top examples of Content Marketing: 10 Free eBooks - just for you!

RT @Mr_Madness: The Year of Big Content: Top 10 Online Marketing Resources of 2013 | @smgrieser FREE eBooks - http://t.co/Tv0N2zWoFV
— Amar Trivedi (@Mr_Madness) December 17, 2013

• Infographic by Exact Target: Major digital marketing milestones in 2013.

This infographic is brought to you by ExactTarget.

• Bonus Content: Another gripping throwback video by the artful Jean-Louis Nguyen.

What Brought Us Together: Everything that happened in 2013 - in 6 minutes!

Social Business - A Competitive Advantage [DECK] #SocBiz

The Social Business Guiding Star

This is a story about business innovation and digital transformation, and it's happening in our backyard. A business reality that's changing the way we use social media.

Let's look at some of the world's leading brands and analyze their social success stories? Coke, Nike, Samsung, IBM, Red Bull, McDonalds, Starbucks, Virgin, Disney, Intel, Google, Amazon - different industries, markets, audiences - but all with large, buzzing, engaged online communities.

What really makes them tick? 

• They are present on platforms where their customers are
• They are available when their consumers want to buy
• They know their community and provide content that resonates
• They empower employees to connect as brand advocates
• They have built relationships with communities to generate sales, offline and online 
• They have built their own digital ecosystem to offer a great customer journey
• They transformed their business models, ever-innovating to fit changing marketscapes
• They have evolved into a social business to offer exceptional customer experience

Mon, 26 August, 2013: On that note, it was my pleasure (and privilege) to be invited to Otago Polytechnic as Guest Speaker to present on Social Media for Business to Services Marketing Management students. My slideshare presentation: Social Business - A Competitive Advantage.

Thank You, Otago Polytech

Much Gratitude

Prof. Henry Ho, myself, Prof. Inna Piven, Director Freddy Variava 

Many Thanks! wonderful people (staff + students) on Auckland International Campus

 

Happy and humbled to have been invited... and poster-ed on the wall :-)

Social Business - A Competitive Advantage 

Social Business - A Competitive Advantage from Amar Trivedi

·         Social Business is a journey. It starts at the top, starts on the inside.

·         Social is not something you do. It's who you are.

·         Social is the way to go. Collaboration is the way ahead. Social Business is the future.

·         More than tools and technology, Social Business is about mind-shift and culture.

·         WE are the media now. The content ‘is’ the marketing. The experience ‘is’ the brand.

IBM C-Suite Study: How CEOs view the future - Infographic

Early discoveries of a C-Suite Study conducted recently by IBM Institute of Business Value revealed how top executives see the future - upcoming opportunities + challenges, and how they envisage the work landscape changing. Register to receive the Study Overview in October 2013.

Click on the infographic to enlarge

The Rise Of Social Business. And The Benefits In 60 Secs!

Social Business is a journey.
Starts at the top. Starts on the inside.

Social is not something you do. It's who you are.

We (you + me) are the media now. 
The content 'is' the marketing.

Social is the way to go. 
Collaboration is the way ahead.
Social Business is the future.

More than tools and technology,
Social Business is about mindset and culture. 

While that's the best 5-pointer I've got, the smartest one-pager on Social Business I've come across is this infographic created by IBM Social Business, with gems like:

• A social workforce is a smarter workforce.
• It's your employees. And your customers. (Internal + External)
• Turn customers into advocates.
• There's no business but social business.

Click on the image to view enlarged version

Now that you're all stimulated, you may well ask: What are the Benefits of Social Business?

For detailed information on Social Business, visit IBM Social Business

For Infographics on SocBiz and more, http://pinterest.com/TrivediAmar/boards

Get Social. Do Business. 

Let's Build A Smarter Planet.

The Secret to Unleashing Genius - #Creativity #Innovation #Leadership #Culture

Just came across a brilliant Forbes article I just had to share:

The Secret to Unleashing Genius - Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen

It gives us smart insights into innovation, creativity, leadership... and answers Why? What? and How? market leading companies and their leaders (Amazon and Jeff Bezos, Salesforce and Marc Benioff, Starbucks and Howard Schultz) reach dizzying success, achieve growth, manage breakthroughs via teams, increase productivity and continue to innovate - in the face of challenges.


Many Thanks to Vala Afshar for sharing this via Twitter. Read full article.

RT @ValaAfshar: How innovative companies unleash genius http://t.co/2l1JPyUn8E
— Amar Trivedi (@Mr_Madness) August 15, 2013

Article also features a superb slideshow: "The Top 25 World's Most Innovative Companies."
and excellent content on this video interview: "The Four Behaviours of Innovative Leaders."


Bruce Upbin talks to Hal Gregersen 

Relevant infographic: 10 Best Practices for Enterprise Innovation

To sign off on a lighter note

some memorable words from a man of science, Albert Einstein.

I consider myself lucky to have met the man of amazing genius. (Who's kidding! :-)

How Brands and Marketers Measure Engagement [eBook]

 

What's Engagement?

How Data-Driven Marketers are Crushing Content Marketing

An eBook by Infinigraph

"The influence of social media feeds is now undeniable and has become the primary engagement and discovery point, requiring greater attention to content quality, and to inducing the desire to share that content."

One fine evening, I received a LinkedIn message from the uber talented Dr. Natalie Petouhoff with the question: "How do brands measure engagement?" With such a hot topic, the marketer in me got into overdrive and shot off a reply.

Two months hence, Chase McMichael, CEO of Infinigraph, tweets me to announce the release of their new eBook and thank me for my contribution. Truth be told, I'm just as happy to grace the cover of the eBook. Honoured (and grateful) to be in it.

@Mr_Madness Big thank you for your awesome insight inside our eBook What's Engagement! We are now releasing here http://t.co/nmTIJX8Ltt
— Chase McMichael (@ChaseMcMichael) July 30, 2013

Download your PDF copy

Read Chase's detailed blog on Engagement and how brands and marketers effectively create, introduce and advertise content that is both engaging and sustainable to their target audience.

This idea behind the eBook became realized after Mark Fidelman published this article on Forbes: "10 Lessons from the Top 25 Most Engaged Brands on Twitter”


Acknowledgements with Gratitude: Thank You!

• Dr. Natalie Petouhoff
• Mark Fidelman
• Chase McMichael
• Brian Carter

Full Credit to the driven team at Infinigraph who created this data dashboard (stats, maps, graphs, infographics) that allows you to search, sift, source content intelligence - by brand and industry.

Other tools include Competitive Brand Intelligence which compiles comparative reports, and
HyperCuration - which pulls up live social data filtered by type of content and social network.

All in all, it's been...

A happy story with a happy ending. Or, as they say: This. Is. Just. The. Beginning :-)

@Mr_Madness thank you Amar value your interaction and sharing must go over what we can do together in New Zealand cc @drnatalie
— Chase McMichael (@ChaseMcMichael) July 30, 2013

To sign-off:

"Ultimately, we know that quantity of the content does not matter.  

It's the type and quality of the content."

Master Content Marketing - in 7 Steps: Create, Curate, Integrate, Socialize, Analyze, Optimize, Monetize. Manage content holistically to build brand awareness, engagement, advocacy, loyalty.

Social Business - It's not B2B or B2C... it's P2P

IBM definition of Social Business (#socbiz)

It takes a tiny spark to get your gears going. This short, simple post by Ted Rubin on Facebook and Twitter got mine going and inspired this blog on innovation via social business.

"Shift your approach from Social Marketing to Social Business. 

The value of Social goes well beyond marketing. #RonR"

In 2011, when IBM coined the Social Business concept, the emphasis was on social media adoption and getting social infrastructure (tools & technology) in place. It has evolved a lot since.

An IBM 2013 Report defines Social Business as: "An organisation whose culture + systems encourage networks of people to create business value." Clearly, the emphasis is now on culture and enterprise-wide (internal + external) collaboration. It's about:

1. Social Branding: See the organisation holistically - branding, content marketing, communicating as one integrated organism - to build brand influence, advocacy, loyalty. 
2. Employee Engagement: Happy Empowered Employees = Happy Satisfied Customers. Optimize resources via social tech to jointly leverage data, insights, talent, comms...
3. Smarter Commerce: Reaching today's connected customer and serving her where, when and how she likes. In a fragmented market ecosystem, access is advantage.
4. Social CRM: Think customer-centric to build and develop genuine, meaningful customer relationships. That's where Return on Relationship (RonR) comes in. Before ROI.
5. Greater CX: Enhancing product, service, brand, content to deliver superior, consistent, memorable customer experiences at every touch-point - digital, mobile, events, web, retail...

Some great reading material + useful resources on Social Business

• CMSwire: How Social Business Can Help Organisations Succeed:

Download The IBM 2013 Report which identifies 6 Social Business Success Patterns which organisations can apply to quickly realize business results:

• Finding Expertise
• Gaining External Customer Insights
• Increasing Knowledge-sharing
• Improving Recruitment and On-boarding
• Managing Mergers and Acquisitions
• Enabling and Improving Workplace Safety

• The Power of Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences

Sponsored content on The Atlantic: Cool interactive infographic that explains the business value of SMAC - Social, Mobile, Analytics, Content - with insights, statistics and case studies.

• An info-rich white paper: Social Business: Advent of a New Age

• Forbes article by Cheryl Conner on Ted Rubin's #RonR
  
  Why 'Return on Relationship' Makes Marketing Dollars (And Social Media Sense)

• Ray Wang on HBR - How to Engage Your Customers and Employees

Must-read Harvard Business Review article: (This post's headline is from there!) Social Business is not Business-to-Business (B2B) or Business-to-Consumer (B2C), it's P2P - People to People.

9 Cs - Nine Critical Components of Successful Engagement

• New Book by Altimeter's Brian Solis and Charlene Li

7 Elements of Social Business Strategy

Seven Success Factors of Social Business Strategy

Read Vala Afshar's ebook review on Huffington Post

• An excellent post by Vala Afshar : 7 Elements of a Successful Social Business

• Follow Sandy Carter's blog: Social Business Sandy

As IBM's VP of Social Business evangelism, author of Get Bold!,
Sandy blogs about the latest developments in social business:

• A live social experiment: an IBMer content aggregator - IBM Voices
• 4 elements of a social business platform + social networking capabilities
• Convergence of Social Business + Big Data + Analytics = Socialytics!
Socialytics: Convergence of Social, Big Data, Analytics from Sandy Carter

• Top 10 Steps to Social Business Adoption:

view enlarged image

• A timely tweet via Talent Culture

Organizations that refuse to engage in social business will become extinct like dinosaurs. #leadership #tchat #socbiz TYRT>@TalentCulture
— Michael Clark (@ReCenterMoment) July 12, 2013

• A neat infographic

• Get Social. Do Business. IBM Social Business

A dedicated web portal full of trials, demos, solutions, reports and downloads. Watch the TV ad/ video.



Inspired Workforce - Productivity - Better Relationships - Collaboration - Innovation - Value - Competitive Advantage

• I believe...

"Social is the way forward. Collaboration is the way to go. Social Business is the future."

What do you think... Is social business the way to innovation, growth and success?