Week:10 - Return on Investment (ROI) of Social Technology implementations.

Hello Friends. This is my last blog of this Subject.

Today I gonna discuss about the Return on Investment(ROI) of Social Technology implementations.

                              
Issues with using basic ROI calculations

ROI calculations can be manipulated if you are not careful. project savings/ income and expenditures should be measurable and realistic. But sometimes they are not always easily measurable and their realism is questionable. It is not always possible when forecasting costs and benefits, to obtain a high degree of certainty with the project costs and benefits.

 Tangible Benefits

IT system projects ROI should be based on tangible (or hard) benefits. Examples of tangible IT benefits (project savings / income) include:

• travel reduction, online meetingsreplacing face-to-face meetings, remote support replacing onsite support
• Increased productivity and reduction in time to complete tasks
• Reduced length / number of customer service calls
• Reduced numbers of errors
• Improved system reliability and having less maintenance or fewer problems to resolve
• Improved software vendor support eg quicker responses, faster fixes

Intangible benefits

Intangible  benefits should not be included within ROI calculations. Whilst they are often as important as tangible benefits, they are very difficult to financially quantify. Instead intangible benefits should be fully explained within the business case and where possible details given of any quantification or measurement. Examples of intangible IT benefits include:

• increased customer satisfaction
• ability to offer improved customer service and support
• increased usability leading to increased sales
• increased user satisfaction
• improved / automated business processes that the new system supports and enables
• faster and more accurate information
• improved analytical solutions
• better forecasting
• better controls to improve data input accuracy
• improved software vendor support and service, improved communications, better knowledge of software, system set up

In conclusion, inter collaboration and communication can be boosted by using public blog. Especially the articles that require the crowd to support to implement in the future. Intra collaboration and communication can be promoted by a limited authorized people to keep a professional atmosphere for ideas sharing.

Thankyou for reading my blog. Have a Good day.

References:

• Hibbard, C. (2010). How IBM Uses social media to spur employee innovation. Retrieved From. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-ibm-uses-social-media-to-spur-employee-innovation/
• ValueNet works and Verna Allae Associates, (2011). Chapter 5. Advanced Analysis. Tips for cost/ Benefit analysis and ROI. Retrieved from: http://www.valuenetworksandcollaboration.com/advanced/tipsforcostbenefit.html   

Week-9: Social Media Monitoring Tools.

Hello Friends.

Welcome to my week-9 Blog.

This week activity requires us to search for and explore a range of social media monitoring tools. Social media technologies are charging the way organizations to do business and connect with stakeholders. However, like all new technologies, social media also creates certain business exposures. To maximize its potential within your organization, intelligent risk management is essential.

                          

 Deloitte has developed the " Social Media in companies: survey with aim to determine the degree of maturity achieved by Brazilian organizations as to the social media boom in the world. Through this study, Deloitte's efforts were aimed at showing how the social media can be used as a strategic business consumers and suppliers near to each other. Identifying the benefits of these online tools, the survey also introduces the social media as a social platform through which companies can use not only as an advertising channel, but mainly as a way of getting closer to their consuming public.

Deloitte provides services in audit,tax, risk management, corporate finance, consulting, outsourcing,human capital management and actuarial consulting to clients spanning multiple industries. Many companies fear to using social media as a way of communication with the market because they are aware of their benefits or do not know how to measure the return on investment of this initiative. These facts inhibit and also impair the company for the impracticability of convincing the high management without any evidence of a well structure business case on the matter. To help your company to understand the actual value that can be extracted from social media, Deloitte translates operational and qualitative metrics into value to the shareholders by using a value map to the company called Enterprise Value map.

Enterprise 2.0 has enabled Deloitte company to interact with their audience to build a relationship that can market their services to high authorities such as governments. Deloitte company is an inspiration on how successful a professional company can be embracing Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise 2.0 software is cost effective in creating awareness to the audience but the outcome is tremendously huge. Deloitte company success is behind multiple use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linked acting as value levers  of customer information and insights as well as marketing of brands.

Thank you for reading my Blog. Feel free to place a comment.

References:

• SAP,(2013). Deloitte Customers Reap Benefits From SAP HANA. Retrieved From: http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/news.epx?PressID=21579
• Images: Deloitte. Retrieved From: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=deloitte&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=T1dNUvn2DMbNiAfz8YHwDA&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667&dpr=1

Week-8: How Samsung users Blog, Twitter, or a wiki to enhance their business.

Hello Friends....

This week activity requires us to select an organization from the professional services sector(e.g accounting, advertising and marketing, architecture, management consulting, engineering, IT, legal, and scientific research services).  For this week i have selected Samsung. My research will make connection to value levers associated with the implementation of Web 2.0 tools from McKinsey Global Institute.
                                             
Benefits of Blogging:

• Samsung blogs are easier to update a traditional website, it provides a voice for the organisation as way of educating the visitors to their website.
• It disseminates information within and external to the organisation faster than a weekly/monthly newsletter update.
• Blogs allows for criticism and review of their products & services.

Potential Risks:

• Samsung also use their blogging space to talk about new products launch and experiences
• The discussion of clients and calling them by name might also be a great risk.

Samsung Global Blogging:

• Samsung uses blog to inform, teach and entertain customers by staying connected with the reader and encourages them to buy their products.
• Samsung is a official blog of the company providing stories,news and good insights about the band. 

The goal of Samsung was to bring engagement and satisfaction by being more customer orientated. Samsung became the top social media performer during the games.

Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to place a comment.

References:
SGB,(2013). Samsung Global Blogs. Retrieved from: http://onepagerapp.com/samglobalblogger

Week-7: Nonprofit institution and non-governmental organization of RSPCA.

Hello Friends...

This weeks activity requires us to select a non-profit organisation from the social sector and identify and discuss some of the major benefits and value levers associated with implementing Enterprise 2.0. The non-profit organisation I will be investigating for this week is the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals). RSPCA is an Australian organisation that promotes animal welfare.

                                    
The RSPCA is a community based charity that works to prevent cruelty to animals by actively promoting their care and protection. It has become a large organisation by using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog and YouTube to communicate with the people and it allows the RSPCA to benefit from the following value levers.

The RSCPA is already involved in using the social technologies to create social connections improving brand awareness and increasing volunteers. They already utilize a Facebook page and a Twitter account to promote their events and communicate with followers.

                                          

Which I think they utilize in a way that allows them to create the value mentioned in the following Social sector.

Expand volunteer networks and Educate the public: Social media is the great way to engage with supporters and educate followers about what they are doing. Mainly about the post which they are posting on online about the upcoming events, news, Facebook and twitter.

Engage Supporters: The RSPCA website enables you to get your business involved in fundraising and lists the corporate businesses who are already supporting their cause. this effectively demonstrates to the audience that the RSPCA is a respected organisation among other well known, and well respected organisations.
                                            

Execute mission: RSPCA has mainly used their social technologies to execute their missions of providing animal welfare for creatures big and small. Their Facebook page has been used to promote events that will be happening in the future and the results of previous events. It has also made use of memes related to animals as a way to lighten the mood surrounding the serious topic of animal cruelty when viewing their Facebook page.

Thanks for reading my Blog. Feel free to make a comment

References:

• Wikipedia(2012). Nonprofit Organization. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonprofit_organization
• Wikipedia(2012). Non-government Organization. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-governmental_organization

Week:5 - Legal risks when using social media.

Hello Friends..

Today I'm going to talk about the legal risks when using social media.

Social media offers the opportunity for people to gather in online communities of shared interest and create, share or consume content. With the enhanced features provided by Web 2.0 and social media tools in general, breaking laws on the internet has become easier than before. social media tools are now essential tools we use to communicate among one another every day. previously in this blog, the benefits and risks of social media were elaborated on. with this said, organizations and businesses must be aware of the benefits and risks that come with utilizing social media tools. such risks include legal risks that are associated with the incorrect use of the tools by people that are either uneducated about the policies or ignorant. For example, in the workplace, when employees use social media and expose themselves in a bad mannered way, they may give their employers a bad image. other ways that legal risks are implicated are through trademark infringement, privacy, copyright, loss of confidential information, defamation, and nevertheless  risk of reputation. therefore it is significant to establish a social media policy in order to educate employees and guide them on how they can use social media tools with proper manner in the workplace.

The example that will be used today is Telstra. Telstra has a policy called Telstra's 3Rs of social media engagement which applies to all employees of Telstra and anyone notified of the policy. the policy applies to all Telstra owned Australian subsidiaries. according to Telstra, their 3Rs policy of social media engagement are:

• Representation
• Responsibility
• Respect

These 3 Rs apply when using social media tools such as Facebook,etc.. Additionally, they apply to micro-blogging sites, video and photo sharing sites, blogs, forums, and online encyclopedias. Telstra has made a clear document to reveal its policy to ensure their employees aside by it.  

Social media policy must provide information that is relevant and can be accepted but also list a clear code of conduct while highlighting penalties or punishment if the policies are not abides. it is essential for organizations to enforce these policies in order to educate their employees and reveal the consequences that may arise if the employees fail to comply. Moreover, organizations and business may choose to restrict some social media tools and generally strengthen their security methods to reduce the risks of security breach.  

References:

http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/

Week-4: Social media technologies can accelerate large-scale change

Hello friends.....

                             

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Web meetings and many other collaboration and social media platforms are now an everyday part of people's lives around the world. They are also finding their way into enterprise communications and management strategies. 

                                        

Social media tools provide an effective communications medium for the core change program teams and across the organization as a whole and as large-scale change initiative proceeds. In addition, by monitoring and participating in online discussions, managers can more readily see where any misunderstandings or pain points exist across the enterprise and take steps to address them. Participating by leadership in social media-based collaborating platforms is essential. Collaboration tools can actually undermine change effectiveness if they merely cause confusion and discontent to multiply across social networking sites. Management must establish a mechanism for delivering the " voice of truth" and authoritative, trusted and believable source of information. This reinforces the idea that social media can be used by employees not only to voice ideas and concerns but also to get accurate and credible answers regarding the company's change effort.

                                    

 Social media applications can be extremely effective ways to deliver personalized learning experiences related to a change initiative, not just general broadcasts of information. In our experience, organizations have used these innovative collaboration platforms in a variety of ways to encourage effective workforce ennoblement, including:

• Video-casts with short learning segments delivered before a new enterprise system goes live.
• Live web meetings and represented solutions that bring together dispersed teams for a common learning experience.
• User-generated content platforms such as YouTube, which allow staff members to provide short video or audio training segments relevant to the change program.

                                   

Social media is an important addition to a traditional change management program, one that can dramatically increase the  acceptance of change and advance an organization more predictably toward its business goals. Collaboration and social media tools can reduce the time an organization needs to navigate large-scale change programs and deliver a better change experience from the employee's perspective this in turn, builds a foundation for employees to be more continuously change capable in the future. carefully managed, social media and collaboration tools provide a powerful platform that can help enterprise successfully manage large-scale change.

References:

https://www.google.com.au/search?gs_rn=25&gs_ri=psy-ab&tok=X5yDxracT0kwb0b1_rthHA&cp=12&gs_id=1a&xhr=t&q=enterprise+2.0&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.50768961,d.dGI&biw=1366&bih=667&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=W40QUvWWEYnyiAeovYHwAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=OnW5Af691OuoIM%3A%3BY72ipSA4bYWNpM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.techinasia.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2009%252F11%252Fenterprise-2.0-comic.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.techinasia.com%252Fenterprise-2-0-6-things-you-really-need-to-know%252F%3B402%3B447 

Week-3: Web 2.0 tools assist your own personal productivity?

Hello Friends...

This week I will write about how web 2.0 tools assist with your personal productivity. For a beginner it will be hard to try new things, but I have tried new web 2.0 tools this week and have progress positively.

Web 2.0 tools consist of many things such as; Social Networking to RSS. Today, I am going to write how Social Network,  Twitter, Wikis, Blog, and RSS have impacted in our lives.

Social Networking:

Facebook:

As many of you all know in the past years social networking has become part of our lives. Well most of us now using Facebook to socialize on the internet. We spend  most of our time browsing, searching and using navigating through our personal Facebook account. Facebook helps you maintain friendship, partners, or even networking. Facebook have helped me a lot, it keep me updated with all my friends information. If you have not sign-up to Facebook give it a try.

Twitter:

Twitter is like "texting" or "SMS" to many recipients(followers) with only 140 characters. I have used Twitter quite a while and still not used to it. I think Twitter has more advantages if they are a celebrity or a business company. Moreover, Twitter also gives insight of what your friends are thinking, location, or opinion on certain topics

Wikis:

At first I thought Wikis is a form of Wikipedia. However, after I search and tries, everybody can create their own Wikis and shared between their friends. people can save, edit, and delete in real time.

Blog

For my Enterprise 2.0 subject in QUT this is the first time have used Blog and I am still new at this. I think Blog is very useful, it help you to develop your own personal brand in the Internet by giving opinion, information, and insight on certain subjects and allow others to give comments.

RSS

This week I just notice that RSS or Really Simple Syndication makes life easier. This feature helps you to get update information sent it in your email inbox. For Example, previously if we want to see update on news or blog we had to go the site manually. However, because of RSS we simply just have to click on the RSS feed button then it will link to our own web-based newsreaders. So, RSS will save you more time.

That’s all for today. Stay tunes and see you next week!! 

References: 

•  http://www.google.com.au/search? 
• http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=620&q=web+2.0&oq=web+2.0&gs_l=img.3..0l10.1143.2762.0.3077.7.6.0.1.1.0.233.958.2j1j3.6.0....0...1ac.1.24.img..2.5.548.8ic3KLHatIo#bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&fp=e28dd51bad63885b&hl=en&q=social+networking&sa=1&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=CbgLw4kA-HlyAM%3A%3BrW0EGv-ndPcjJM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstudenthacks.org%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2008%252F02%252Fnetwork.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fstudenthacks.org%252F2008%252F02%252F04%252Fsocial-networking-websites%252F%3B797%3B496

Week-2: Practical Tips on Building a Successful Blog.

Hello Friends.

My Name is Ramya Raparthy. Today i want to talk about how to build a successful blog.

Practical Tips on Building a Successful Blog.

What I will describe below is what I think to be the main reasons that made a successful blog. I have spent quite some time thinking what to write about to explain the process and instead of giving you some general advice I will try below to analyze the success of so that you can relate this with what you are doing in your blog or website.

Good useful content written by experts

I am sure you’ve read this a thousand of times but it is truth that everything starts with good content. Without having good quality content you cannot expect to go far so before making anything else make sure that you sort this out. Some tips to consider:

• Write for users but make sure search engines understand you as well 
• Not just publish, promote your content as well 
• If you are not an expert on the topic, find one! 

Clean domain

Usually the domain comes first but I wanted to give more emphasis to the content that’s why I am mentioning this now. What do I mean by a clean domain?

A clean domain is one that did not participate in any form of non-white hat SEO techniques for the purpose of either manipulating Google rankings or Facebook likes (for example by purchasing likes in bulk).

If you don’t understand what I mean by this then don’t worry you are good to go but if in the past you tried to get higher rankings by purchasing link packages then better start fresh on a new domain.

Good on page SEO

It is generally accepted in the SEO industry that after the recent changes to the Google ranking algorithm (aka Panda and Penguin), content and on page SEO have gained once again the importance they deserv

No link building

Links are still important, even after Panda and Penguin links are one of the most efficient ways to rank a website. The only difference is that any links that are not 100% natural are bad. In other words you still need links to get higher rankings but if you try in any way to purchase those links or get them the easy way it can do more harm than good.

Social media acceptance

Social media is very important these days for many reasons:

• It is a new way of building links
• A way to get more traffic and customers

It is also a good method to understand if your content is good. When you promote your posts in the various social media channels and provided that you already have a decent number of followers, then normally you should get social media mentions as well i.e Likes, Tweets etc. If this is not happening then this means that you need to work on your content more.

You can take it for granted that if what you are publishing is not accepted by social media then you have to go back and take some corrective actions otherwise you are losing your time and effort.

User engagement

Users can engage with a website in many ways. They can participate in discussions in the form of comments, provide ratings, write reviews etc. User engagement is a sign that the content is good and useful. Some ways to encourage user interaction:

• Make sure that you always reply to comments
• Encourage users from your articles to write comments

Incentives to come back again and again

A successful blog besides many visitors from search engines has another characteristic. It has a lot of direct visits. This means that people open their browsers and type the address of the blog directly.

Two ways to encourage visitors to come back again are:

Constant publishing schedule – You need to create a publishing schedule and stick to it no matter what. Your loyal visitors will know when to expect a new post and they will come to read it so make sure that you don’t disappoint them.

Free Services and tools – When you offer services or online tools, they will visit your website again and again to use the tools or take advantage of your services.

On CalorieSecrets we offer our users a free calorie counter, a BMR calculator and free diet plans and in terms of posting schedule, new content is uploaded every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

One of the things I wish I had when I started blogging was someone to talk to and explain to me what I was doing wrong and could not get any decent results. If you are stuck, it will be very difficult to find your way out since there is so much and conflicting information on the web about SEO and website ranking and also you don’t know who to believe or not.

Conclusion

A successful blog is one that gets enough visitors to fulfill its purpose. There is no magic formula or magic tricks that can get you thousands of visits without effort and hard work. What I have described above is how I run caloriesecrets.net and why in my opinion the blog’s traffic is increasing steadily since the day it was created. Certainly there are many other methods or strategies that work but one thing is certain: You need to be patient and work consistently towards your goals always aiming for the forest and not for the tree

This is my first Blog. Wish it could help you. Feel free to leave a comment. Thank you for sharing such a fantastic spare time with me. Have a good day.

Pictures choose from:

http://www.guideandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Blog-Plan.jpg