Caterpillar Climbs up the Blogspace!

I somehow didn't think blogs have a spot in the construction and engineering industry. Found it funny to envision a tin hat blogging in the middle of building something. However, after researching on Caterpillar’s business blogs, I realised that my thoughts are totally passé and I'm stuck in the past. Maybe its not the tin hats who are noobs anymore, maybe its just me.

It seems to me that, all businesses must have blogs today, maybe for the simple reason that business blogging is probably the cheapest promoting strategy that gets your business more online perceivability. I reckon that, Caterpillar, a construction giant thinks the same, because its one of those few corporates that knows not just how to blog right, but also knows how to impress marketers and clearly make it in the list of best corporate blogs. Caterpillar has  separate blogs focused around various industries, construction, electrical and marine with sub-classes under every industry. Blogging to that much of detail shows just how seriously Caterpillar has taken to social media, especially blogging.

I listened to an Itunes Podcast by Brian Stokoe of Caterpillar where he talks about Caterpillar’s global social media strategy works, and found it quite amusing, especially the way in which Caterpillar’s blogging strategies blend into Mckinsey's value levers. Like for example Caterpillar has built an awesome social community by engaging its customers, encourages brand loyalty by rewarding customer ideas, and how at the same time it solves customer problems and issues socially (Spark Boutik - Digital Marketing & Social Media Agency, 2014). So, Mckinsey's marketing and sales value levers as well as customer service value lever is already ticked off in their social media blogging strategy.

CATERPILLAR’S EXTERNAL BLOGGING TACTIC

The external blogging strategy which the “electric industry” blog uses to communicate with it’s clients, is to allow customers interact directly with employees of the company and get to know them (Convinceandconvert.com, 2014). The idea is to let the customers have a conversation starter with the employees, allowing them to comment and kind of really having a conversation by keeping it going. So the company encourages the customers to participate and give their opinions on articles, also if a customer appreciates someone else’s comment, then they give it a “kudos”. The top Kudoed posts and authors are shared on the blog main page which encourages more and more users to participate in this sort of a thing (Weiss-Roessler, 2011). The best part is that the employees share a bio, so that the customers know who they are chatting with and get comfortable with the author.

Brian Stokoe says that that they wanted to make the interaction between the employees and customers so personal that the employees even put their picture to the conversation (Convinceandconvert.com, 2014).

So tin-hats say, go ahead and blog, but first let me take a selfie!

CATERPILLAR’S INTERNAL BLOGGING TACTIC

An example of internal blogging in Caterpillar is the “Safety group” blog which is basically a safety culture blog which is always updated by an employee who writes content on safety all the time. Its truly incredible stuff for employees in the safety culture and is perfect for any of the individuals who need to manage wellbeing concerns on employment locales and all that kind of stuff (Convinceandconvert.com, 2014). This blog gets all the attention internally in the organisation. Consistently, in this way Caterpillar makes it very simple for customers to unite with each other as well as with the employees from the organisation, thereby enhancing its business by going live!

References

Convinceandconvert.com,. (2014). Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/social-media-success-for-global-enterprise/

Spark Boutik - Digital Marketing & Social Media Agency,. (2014). 8 Brands Doing Corporate Blogging Right. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://sparkboutik.com/attention-management/8-brands-doing-corporate-blogging-right/

Weiss-Roessler, J. (2011). Corporate Blogging: Caterpillar Builds a Community | The Intechnically Savvy Blog. Intechnic.com. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.intechnic.com/blog/corporate-blogging-caterpillar-builds-a-community/

Why Nike's Gamification strategy is sexier than Reebok's supermodel Mirander Kerr.

It’s undeniable that Miranda looks sexier than ever in this Reebok advertisement and that the world would love to see more of Mirander Kerr than anything else.

However the new ad starring Mirander Kerr going bare (a little skeptical about uploading it here, we have all seen it on TV anyway!) has definitely failed to impress marketing experts (Clun, 2014). Reebok’s rival - Nike’s soaring sales figures have proved that Mirander Kerr is really not going to help sell sneakers, but it's the brilliant Enterprise 2.0 gamification strategy that’s actually going to make sales.

Nike's classic gamification strategy.

A simple enterprise 2.0 - gamification strategy for Nike helped them to increase their market share by nearly 14% in just four years (Ferriman & Ferriman, 2014). 

For all those arguing that gamification would have been too expensive, its quite obvious that the profits made by Nike are very likely to outweigh the costs of the gamification program (Ferriman & Ferriman, 2014). After all Mirander Kerr doesn't come cheap either!

Increased Marketing and Sales

Nike introduced a high-tech exercise-tracking wristband, the FuelBand which looks like a bracelet when it’s off, yet it changes into a pedometer on steroids, counting steps, calories and the time, and also letting the wearer set day by day goals and following the amount "fuel" earned for the day ('fuel' is a Nike-made estimation focused around the measure of oxygen taken in for every day). This makes running fun and more game, also serving as a constant reminder to be less lazy (Libe Goad for Gamification | April 1 & Libe Goad for Gamification | April 1, 2012).

The device connects wirelessly to a mobile app, giving data and statistics about the runners progress just like a leaderboard when playing games, along with the awesome feature of sharing it on social networks like Facebook and twitter, with friends. Lets take a look at this interesting Nike video:

In 2011 the number of players using Fuelband was 5 million and was estimated to reach 11 million by the end of 2013. (Chou, Chou & →, 2013)

Customer Service via Twitter

Nike is a colossal organization. They have numerous distinctive sorts of products and lines of clothing that make up their brand. While @nike deals with various Twitter handles to oblige customers intrigued by particular sports or store areas, @nikesupport is committed singularly to reacting to clients who need help. It is also one of the best examples of excellent customer service as they always react to customers on Twitter, almost immediately (Sprung & Sprung, 2013). 

As you can see from the images below, Nike Support has tweeted over 320K times, whereas the Nike handle has only tweeted around 16K times.

Looks like Mirander Kerr herself is awed with Nike’s gamification intelligence, possibly that's why she was spotted wearing Nike pants and shoes to her sweaty workouts! Now when gamification can make Mirander Kerr, "Reebok’s brand ambassador" switch from Reebok to Nike, imagine how fast Nike can build more fans!

References

Chou, Y., Chou, Y., & →, V. (2013). Top 10 Marketing Gamification Cases You Won't Forget. Yu-kai Chou & Gamification. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.yukaichou.com/gamification-examples/top-10-marketing-gamification-cases-remember/

Clun, R. (2014). Miranda Kerr's naked truth: this time sex doesn't sell. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/miranda-kerrs-naked-truth-this-time-sex-doesnt-sell-20140304-342uh.html

Ferriman, J., & Ferriman, J. (2014). Successful Gamification Case Studies | LearnDash.Learndash.com. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.learndash.com/successful-gamification-case-studies/

Libe Goad for Gamification | April 1, 2., & Libe Goad for Gamification | April 1, 2. (2012). Nike Fuelband’s quest to 'turn every day into a game' | ZDNet. ZDNet. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gamification/nike-fuelbands-quest-to-turn-every-day-into-a-game/705

Sprung, R., & Sprung, R. (2013). 4 Examples of Excellent Twitter Customer Service |. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/exceptional-customer-service-on-twitter/

Social Collaboration of the new age - Hours of fun and whoopee!

I`ll do whatever it takes not to be excessively pessimistic here – however come onn! How many of us truly look forward to meetings with our colleagues? There are so many personality differences which come into play. We've all seen dolphins and whales do it on discovery channel but do we as humans truly achieve more by working together? I know collaboration sounds like an incredible idea, but do we really want to do it face-to-face? In this present reality does it seriously work that much? Maybe it does. 

But meetings have to be done in the right mindset with proper collaboration, which is no piece of cake! What if we had an awesome online platform where teams could take action and sync up like never before? Yes, the awesome part is WITHOUT having to actually meet face-to-face! Social Media Based Collaboration enhances collaboration by allowing us to better facilitate communication among members of a team and also reduces the time, expense and of course all of the "frustration" associated with live meetings.

I figured out that a decent approach or a tool which effectively deals with the annoyance of working together by applying the Six Core Principles of Social Media Based Collaboration. An ideal social enterprise based collaboration needs to be participative, collective, transparent, independent, persistent and emergent as discussed in the lecture.

The best that I could immediately think of is Facebook. Facebook does abide by the six principles of social media based collaboration but hey – it definitely can't be all that simple. Firstly, it isn't professional. It would be somewhat odd if your boss was reaching you straightforwardly through Facebook and Twitter. We have email for that! Moreover you wouldn't want your employer to get a notice every time you play Farmville! Highlights a lot about you, maybe not so positively though.

Therefore after vast research I finally understood that these are not social enterprise tools but social networking tools. So one thing is clear. We are looking for a tool abiding by the six core principles just like Facebook does but something at a much more professional level. Salesforce Chatter comes in here (Salesforce.com, 2014). Salesforce Chatter, is an enterprise collaboration application akin to Facebook. Its not just closer to a Facebook for the enterprise but way better from a professional angle. For example, rather than bothersome third party applications pinging you with the most recent criminal your friend has thumped off, Chatter will alert you about business concerns that have changed. Chatter is the new Facebook for social enterprise (Idugboe, 2010).

Yet another social collaboration tool which is widely-acclaimed is Yammer which keeps on enhancing the control of tackling genuine business issues by giving a rich conversation layer to business data (Fidelman & Fidelman, 2010). This means that utilising their tool will definitely help place businesses on the ball and make them more focused.

If Chatter or Yammer might not be the best solution for your company, try flow or podio. Just be sure to choose the social "enterprise" 2.0 tool which best caters to your user requirements. The list is endless.

References

Fidelman, M., & Fidelman, M. (2010). Yammer - What You Need to Know - CloudAve. CloudAve. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.cloudave.com/451/yammer-what-you-need-to-know/

Idugboe, D. (2010). Salesforce Chatter - Facebook for the Enterprise? - Smedio - Business Ideas Worth Sharing. Smedio - Business Ideas Worth Sharing. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.smedio.com/salesforce-chatter-facebook-for-the-enterprise/

Salesforce.com,. (2014). Chatter - Enterprise Social Network & Collaboration Software Solution - Singapore & Asia Pacific - Salesforce.com. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from https://www.salesforce.com/ap/chatter/overview/

Blogging can be Catchy - The Mashable way!

Blogs are about telling stories that draw peoples attention, and can turn out to be a source of inspiration for people reading it. The point is, that there is always an interest for some sort of news which is being published somewhere, and with the power of blogs, there are in numerous opportunities for people to provide a new service be it for marketing or just helpful tips. When there are lots of bloggers successfully commenting and participating in each others conversations, there is a definite purpose that has been formed for that blog.

Like what we have learnt in the lecture, the principles for blogging can help naive bloggers to get the basics of blogging right. Once they religiously start to relate to the six affordances principles to blogging, they will realise that they are getting to understand how it all works. Later on, when a person gets addicted to blogging, he/she will start to use more mature means to gain audience for their blog.

For me to create useful posts, i would talk about stories that excite me as well as the audience. Once I get the attention of any audience, I would start highlighting the purpose of the blog so that the main story is gaining recognition. Once that is done, the social media can be made use of by providing the option to share my blogs and inviting a huge crowd source to comment on my blog.

An excellent blog according to me is 'Mashable' which provides news about digital innovation and media (Taylor, 2014). Again this blog is attracting visitors due to the type of news it's providing which is very catchy as well as exciting to it's readers. Like I have mentioned above, Mashable too had the advantage of being an early adopter in an industry which was drawing a lot attention (Mail Online, 2012). 

Ultimately, I feel that blogging doesn't have to introduce your exceptional grammar skills, but more about connecting with your audience in a useful way. What's more, to keep up a healthy blogging spirit with other bloggers, you ought to take reasonable interest in their blogs as well as share their posts, and treat any comments as a positive, constructive and useful feedback.

References

Mail Online,. (2012). Social technology blog Mashable to sell to CNN for 'more than $200M'. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2114261/Mashable-sell-CNN-200M.html

Taylor, M. (2014). How Six Blogs Increased Their Traffic to Millions of Visitors. Venture   Harbour. Retrieved 26 August 2014, from https://www.ventureharbour.com/6-popular-blogs-grew-millions-visitors-less-2-years/

Welcome to my blog!

Hi guys!

My name is Faizan Valangar and I'm going to be blogging about all things related to technology and enterprise 2.0.

I'm pretty new to blogging and super excited to find this opportunity to communicate with you all. So thanks for reading my posts and don't hesitate to leave your comments!

Cheers!