Intelegia : Sustainability and Social Media a natural fit ?

Sustainability and Social Media : Is It A Natural? – Take 2

July 20, 2009

In May 2008, Intelegia examined the Dow Jones Sustainability Index – 10 Supersectors Leaders in terms of the use of blogs in their approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development (SD). After conducting a thorough examination of the websites of the companies listed in the index, Intelegia discovered that Intel had a full compliment of Web 2.0 tools (i.e., blogs, podcasts, videocasts) and Web 1.0 applications (i.e., newsletter and news alerts) to deal with social responsibility issues. With the acceptance of online social networks as viable communication tools during the past year, Intelegia decided to conduct the same exercise with the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (2008 / 2009). The image below is the scorecard that was used to evaluate the company’s websites. (Please click on the image to few a full scale version of the table.)

Scorecard used to evaluate 10 Supersectors Leaders' websites. (Please click on the image to few a full scale version of the table.)

Please Note: Only online social networks that are mentioned on the company’s website are considered.

Findings from the study include:

• Of the 18 companies in the index, only two companies do not have a section of their corporation website discussing corporate social responsibility or sustainability development. Itausa-Investimentos Itau and TNT N.V.
• Intel still leads the way in terms of adopting Web 2.0 applications when it is comes to promoting their dedication to corporate social responsibility.  This is seen through Intel’s official Facebook Fan page for their Inspired by Education project.  Although not located in their CSR section, the company has a channel on YouTube titled, Channel Intel.  It would not be a big shock if Intel creates a channel specifically for CSR content in the near future.
• adidas AG does not offer much in terms of Web 2.0 tools when it comes to CSR or SD however; looking at their products website is a different story.  adidas.com offers an array of Web 2.0 tools such as podcasts
• Eni, an integrated energy has a collection of videocasts discussing their various sustainability initiatives.
• Air France-KLM in the airline industry does not have a presence on Web 2.0 which is surprising.  For a company that should be engaging with  clients, Air France-KLM must begin an effort to use social media tools.

Gov’t 2.0 Best Practices wiki launched

Intended to be a central list of current initiatives (and eventually “best practices”) involving social media and government, Mike Kujawski of Public Sector Marketing 2.0 blog has created the Government 2.0 Best Practices wiki. It uses the PBwiki platform and looks to be a great meeting point for all things social media and government. Current high level topics include Canadian Government, United States Government and International Governments and at first glance looks to be quite inclusive. Looking forward to seeing this wiki evolve and grow (And who knew DFAIT had a YouTube channel and podcasts!)

InfoWeek : Wikis that work in the real world

Wikis That Work In The Real World

With business technology and compliance teams struggling to keep from drowning in the content employees create, it might be tempting to turn off some of the spigots. Here are four companies doing the opposite: letting wikis loose and reaping benefits.

Source: InformationWeek

Librarian of Fortune : An info pro’s Web 2.0 tool kit

An info pro’s Web 2.0 tool kit

A colleague emailed me the other day to ask me what Web 2.0 tools and resources are critical for research. Following are what come to mind for me… what else would you use for search (not professional development or other non-research tasks)?

• a good blog-search tool like Technorati.com
• a familiarity with Google News Timelines and Google Search Timelines
• a couple of discussion forum search tools, such as Board Tracker and Board Reader
• a trending tool for analyzing buzz over time, like Blog Pulse, and Google Trends and Google Insights
• a podcast search tool like Podscope or Everyzing
• at least one professional-oriented social network service, such as LinkedIn
• possibly familiarity with and participation in Twitter

Mickie’s note: Thanks for another great post Mary Ellen !

Social Media Channels Diagram

By Mike Kujawski on web20

Once in a while I come across very informative visual illustrations of either a concept or a list of something that would look rather boring in bullets.

Case in point: The diagram below (building on the original Social Media Starfish concept) does an excellent job of explaining the various social media channels that you can engage in. Only the most popular ones in each category are listed. Note that “the most popular” does not necessarily mean that they would be “the most relevant” to your target audience.  It is up to you to research where your audience resides/interacts online.

The diagram itself was created by Brian Solis.

IDC : The Hyperconnected & the ‘Culture of Connectivity’

Via: iLibrarian

A new report was published from IDC titled The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!: A Global Look at the Exploding ‘Culture of Connectivity’ and Its Impact on the Enterprise which explores trends in information sharing and connectivity in people’s daily lives.

The result of a worldwide study of 2,400 working adults from various industries spanning 17 countries, the research indicates that 16% of the information workforce is already “Hyperconnected”, and may be joined by another 36% more very soon. The study’s cluster analysis identified 4 profiles of technology users.

-The Hyperconnected person uses a minimum of 7 devices for work and 9 connectivity applications. The lines between business and personal use is blurred.

-The Increasingly Connected use 4 devices and 6 applications, they tend to use applications such as blogs and wikis but are less apt to be social networking.

-The Passive Online use fewer devices but are experimenting with application such as IM.

-The Barebones Users use email, desktop access to the Web.

Some interesting findings about the Hyperconnected from the report:

• The boundary between work and personal connectivity for the hyperconnected is almost nonexistent. Two-thirds use text or instant messaging for both work and personal use. More than a third use social networking for both.
• The country with the highest percentage of hyperconnected respondents was China.
• They are found in all industries, but are above the average in banking and high tech industries
• They can be any age, although 60% are under 35, only 7% over 55
• They would take their laptop out before their wallet or even mobile phone if they had to leave their house for 24 hours
• They tend to work for companies who are also early adopters.
• 59% of hyperconnected respondents companies use online communities or social networks to reach their customers
• 36% of hyperconnected respondents companies use outbound video podcasts to reach customers
• A fourth of hyperconnected respondent companies use blogs and wikis to communicate with customers.

“It won’t be possible to ignore this new level of connectivity. Businesses can either embrace it and manage it carefully or, stand-by as it enters their enterprise, in a confusion of disconnected deployments that squander the productivity and competitive advantage Hyperconnectivity could otherwise bring.”

ProBlogger: Why Mom Blogs are the Next Big “It”

Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs are the Ones to Watch

Mom blogs are poised to become the next big “It” when it comes to the internet–they’re gathering power like no other blogging niche and will only get bigger and better. Here’s why:

1. Moms can blog at home

You don’t need a PhD, an office or a small business loan to start up a blog and this especially appeals to mothers who are looking for ways to bring in extra income while they’re at home with their children. It’s a job that they can do while the kids are napping or away at school and allows women like me who have left the work force to raise a family to feel part of the tech age–always a benefit when your days are filled with diapers, dishes and drool.

Mom bloggers don’t have to leave their day jobs and they don’t have to make enough money to live off of–all they need is a little extra to pay for soccer lessons or a family vacation.

2. Moms need the sociality of the net

I couldn’t possibly count the number of days that I’ve spent without the live interaction of another adult (except maybe the clerk at the grocery store). Women want–no we crave and demand–social interaction and for those of us whose office is our home the internet and blogging opens up a new world of friendship, debate, learning and conversation. No longer do we have to pretend to hold conversations with Steve on Blues Clues just to talk to another adult, now we can blog. Women need to read about other moms’ struggles and disasters–it’s how we feel that maybe our own traumas aren’t so bad–and there are more and more moms daily that are discovering how the world of mom blogs helps them feel connected to other women.

3. Moms have a wealth of material to use

Tech blogs are just about technology, celebrity blogs are strictly about celebs but a mom blog could focus on parenting, protecting the environment, politics, crafts, food, homeschooling, gardening, household products, design, travel or just funny stories.

They’re usually written with an emotion and personality which connects with readers in ways that other niches often can’t and they speak about subjects that naturally carry strong emotions: home, family, marriage, children, the environment–all of which encourage dedicated readers. A blog about the latest techy gadget, while interesting, doesn’t carry the emotional weight that a post about home and family does. While other bloggers may sneer over moms posting stories about life with little ones and the oddities of every day life there have been plenty of writers from Erma Bombeck to Dave Barry to Jerry Seinfeld that have built careers on noticing life’s quirks and inconsistencies and mom blogs are cashing in on this.

4. Moms are record keepers

Blog means “web-log” and most blogs are started as online journals. Moms naturally tend to be the record keepers for their families whether it’s a newsletter, scrapbook or photo album and more and more women are turning to blogs as an easy way to keep their family’s diary. Staying in touch with Grandma, recording a child’s growth, these are the reasons women are turning to blogs and even though 99% of them will never see traffic outside of their family those who blog read other blogs. And who are they going to read? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not TechCrunch.

5. Mom blogs wield economic power

In Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point he writes of the importance of mavens–those who are trusted for their opinions and who pass along information on what products, services and ideas are the best–and mom blogs are the maven nesting grounds. Moms want to know which products work and which don’t; they want to give an opinion on what’s worked for them and share their experiences with others and advertisers are just beginning to discover this advertising pot of gold.

Because women are generally the buyers for their homes in everything from clothing to food to minivans mom blogs talk about things that can be bought and sold, products that can be promoted and services that most households need. Proctor and Gamble, Sony or General Electric can throw up their logos on PerezHilton and that might make them look rather hip but if they can get Dooce to say she liked their stuff that’s when the sales start rolling in. You’ve heard “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”? Well she who does the shopping then blogs about it rules the net.

Karen Blakeman’s Top Business Research Tips

 Karen Blakeman has been an information professional for over 20 years and has been a freelance consultant since 1999.  Her company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Her newsletter and website provide invaluable and timely resources to a wide audience in business and library professions.

Top Business Research Tips

By Karen Blakeman

Twenty-one enthusiastic researchers attended UKeiG’s Business Information workshop on April 2nd in London. They came from a wide range of sectors and types of organisation, and when asked to compile their Top 10 tips they came up with 15! Here they are, in no particular order of importance:

1. FITA Import Export Business and International Trade Leads. http://www.fita.org/. The “Really Useful Links” in the menu on the left hand side of the screen takes you to a range of international sources on business information. One participant of this workshop found the “Doing business”, and in particular in the Middle East, especially useful.

2. Nationmaster http://www.nationmaster.com/. An interface to a plethora of statistics on web sites world wide. Some of the statistics are 2-3 years old but there are links to the original site so that you can search for more up to date information. Several participants suggested that this site is a good ‘index’ of where data is likely to be found.

3. Blogpulse http://www.blogpulse.com/. One of several blog search engines, but this was singled out for its Trends graphs. These show how often your search terms are mentioned in posts over a selected period of time. In a business context the occurrences will usually match reports in the mainstream media. When they don’t, click on the peaks in the graph to see what is going on behind the scenes. Superb for picking up on rumours and gossip.

4. Yahoo Finance. Go to any Yahoo and click on the Finance link. For the UK version go to http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/. Yahoo Finance provides basic information on stock exchange quoted companies on the major stock exchanges around the world. Information includes current share price information (delayed by 15-30 minutes) provided by the stock exchanges; company profiles; charts in which you can compare the company share price with another company, the sector and an index such as the FTSE 100; current news on the company and focussing on the regulatory news; and daily historical share prices as figures that can be downloaded to spreadsheets.

5. Freepint Bar http://www.freepint.com/. Head for the discussion area, labelled as the Bar, where you can post your query and tap into the knowledge of regular ‘tipplers’

6. Silobreaker http://www.silobreaker.com/. A new site pulling news from the usual newspapers and journals, but also blogs, video and audio. In addition It offers geographical hotspots, trends and a network visualisation tool, which was singled out by one participant.

7. Contact a relevant research, trade or professional body for help in locating experts. sources of information and reports. They may not have anything on their web site but there may something ‘on file’ that they are willing to supply free of charge or for which they are prepared to negotiate a fee.

8. Intelways http://www.intelways.com/. An interface to many search tools grouped by type e.g. news, video, image. Type your search terms in once and click on the different search tools one by one. A reminder of the different types of information that you should be looking at and of the wide range of search engines that are out there.

9. Click on the Advanced Search option for any of the tools that you encounter, be it Google et al or a web site’s own search option. They offer great ways of focussing your search by date, file format, site, author etc.

10. RBA Business Souirces http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/. Selected sources of business information organised by type e.g. statistics, share prices, company registers. Yes, it is my own site [blush] but they did insist!

11. Phil Bradleys’ web site and blog. http://www.philb.com/ and http://philbradley.typepad.com/. Excellent sources of information on Web 2.0 ’stuff’ and search tools. In particular, his blog has no-nonsense reviews of new search tools that claim they will change the world of search.

12. Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/. Forget about the ac.uk label. This is an excellent starting point for anyone working in business and wanting to identify quality resources on a wide range of subjects and industries.

13. Hometrack http://www.hometrack.co.uk/. This site provides key statistics and data on the UK housing market and financing of that market. Especially relevant in the current economic climate. (Mickie’s note : Wonder if there is one like this for Canada? Off to search for it!)

14. Alacrasearch http://www.alacra.com/alacrasearch. A Google custom search engine that focuses on business sites selected by Alacra. [A personal note: this is in my top 5 favourite search tools]. (Mickie’s note: Mine too, I appreciate the category breakdown here)

15. CIA World Factbook – country profiles. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factboo/. Key statistics on every country. For those of you of a more adventurous disposition when it comes to travel, it even includes the number of airports with unpaved runways.

Computerworld : Facebook vs LinkedIn

Via:  resourceshelf

 

Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is better for business?
From the article:

Social networking is no longer the Next Big Thing; it’s now as much part of our Web experience as search engines. Previously considered the province of kids who wanted to keep up with class gossip, social networking services are being co-opted by grownups who are examining ways to use them both within and outside of their places of employment.

Source: Computerworld

SIIA: US Businesses increasingly embracing Web 2.0

SIIA Survey Reveals Businesses Increasingly Embracing Web 2.0 Technologies (PDF; 28 KB)

Source: Software & Information Industry Association

Conducted to coincide with SIIA’s Information Industry Summit, the survey explored the ways in which business-oriented content companies are using the various forms of Web 2.0 capabilities to enhance their connection to their users. Nearly 42% of respondents are currently using social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, while another 35% plan to do so in the near future. Only a third place user-generated content on their sites, while more than half carry at least one blog.

The survey found that B2B users expected social networking to enable them to reach new markets and increase user engagement and loyalty. While just over 80% of respondents expected to achieve these goals, about 40% feel they have already reached new markets and a third believe they have increased customer engagement.

+ Full Report (PDF; 142 KB)
+ Data (.xls)
+ Key (.doc)