HorizonWatching: Leveraging Social Media and Communities for Foresight

HorizonWatching: Leveraging Social Media and Communities for Foresight
Bill Chamberlin, Principal Client Analyst, Market Insights
4 May 2011

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HorizonWatching: Leveraging Social Media and Online Communities For Foresight
May 4, 2011
About This Presentation
This deck provides a summary of how to leverage social media and communities in order to develop and share foresight. Examples are provided for illustrations.
Text and URLs are hotlinked through out the deck. Viewing the deck in Slideshow mode is the best way to quickly access these links.

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Table of Contents
The Implications of Social Media
My Experience
HorizonWatch: Internal
HorizonWatching: External
How You Can Leverage Social Media and Communities
Appendix: Additional Reading

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Table of Contents
My Experience

TheImplications of theEmergence of Social Media
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Institutional Control
Traditional Media
Observe
Media Outlets
Television
Movies
centralizedmediation
Radio
Print
Publish
Shift of Power
push
Social Media
distributedmediation
Microblogs
Syndication
Communities
Contribute
Podcasts
Individuals
Blog
Blog
Wikis
Social Consumption
viacomments, trackbacks, feedback, etc
Blog
Blog
networkeffects
Forums
Blogsosphere
Indivdual Control
Blog
Blog
pull
Blog
Blog

Today, everyone can be a publisher of content….
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However, some have more influence than others…
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Social Activity
= Community Champion
= Community Agent
= Community User
= Flow and strength of Knowledge

Challenge: How To Leverage Social Media for Foresight
FORUMS/NEWSGROUPS
120+ million
VIDEO SHARING
MICROBLOGS
Foresight
Professional
SOCIAL NETWORKS (where publicly available)
WIKIS
FORESIGHT COMMUNITIES
PHOTO SHARING
SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
AGGREGATORS
BLOGS
100+ million
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Table of Contents
My Experience

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The Birth of HorizonWatch: A community based foresight scanning and collaboration community in IBM
September 2000: IBM Exec wants to be kept abreast of emerging trends and technologies
November 2000: Meeting invite extended to 35 people via conference call.
January 2001: HorizonWatch team formed..
March 2001: Email distribution list for calls and newsletter grows to 1000 employees

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What is the HorizonWatch Community?
Demographics: 1900+ IBMers from all types of functions, divisions, geographies.
Focus: Emerging trends and technologies.
Conference calls: Topics are presented to the community by subject matter experts.
Collaboration Platform:
Blog
Discussion Forums
Bookmarks
File Sharing
Wiki
Diversity of the Community means different perspectives, which enhances collaboration and sparks innovation.

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Overall Objective: Improve our ability to sense future business issues, trends and opportunities

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150 Conference Calls Since 2001

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From 2001 – 2006, collaboration was very limited
Conference Calls
Email
Yearly Surveys

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In 2006, the HorizonWatch Blog was launched internally to the Community
A new way of delivering content
A new way of getting feedback on ideas
A new way of collaborating and brainstorming
A new source for scanning
A new way of learning from community members
TheHorizonWatch Blog quicklybecameone of the top 10 mostread blogs in IBM

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Example: Brainstorming after a March 2007 Conference Call

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The HorizonWatch Blog is now a scanning knowledge database with over 1000 internal posts since September 2006

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In 2009, the Internal HorizonWatch Community Platform was launched allowing a whole new level of collaboration

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The community platform has Discussion Forums which can also be used for online brainstorm sessions

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Idea! Why not involve the public in this social and collaboration process?

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HorizonWatching was launched in 2007 via an external blog
http://www.horizonwatching.typepad.com/
Thisis my externalthoughtleadership blog where I test out my ideas and share content
Over 300 poststhepastfouryears.

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HorizonWatching on Twitter was launched in 2008
http://twitter.com/horizonwatching
FirstTweet:

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HorizonWatching on Slideshare was launched in 2008
http://www.slideshare.net/HorizonWatching

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In 2009, the LinkedIn Group was launched
780 Members connecting with each other, have discussions, and share content
HorizonWatching on LinkedIn

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The Facebook page was launched in the fall of 2009
Nuggets of future related information and news
Also contains feed posts from Tumblr and Typepad
Fan likes and comments
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HorizonWatching/171883855681

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In 2009, the Tumblr blog site was added
http://horizonwatching.tumblr.com/
The Tumblr blog provides quotes and videos from others.
It’s a collection of scanning signals
159 posts to date
HorizonWatching on Tumblr

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In 2011, the Horizonwatching Daily ‘Newspaper’ was added
http://paper.li/horizonwatching
Paper.li takes the links shared by those that follow the @HorizonWatching twitter id and creates an online newspaper from those articles.
It’s a virtual collection of articles that contribute to my scanning capability

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How Do I Leverage All This To Help Me Understand the Future?

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I use social media and communities in a number of ways….
Scanning: Search to understand what people are talking about.
Brainstorming: Two is better than one. Hundreds are better than two. Thousands are better than hundreds.
Publishing: Posting content online helps establish my reach and authority
Idea Development: Get feedback and improve my research
Networking: Connect with other subject matter experts.
Learning: Develop a better understanding of the potential future(s)

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Tips on Scanning
Google Master Lessons:Learn the detail behind Google Search http://sites.google.com/site/gwebsearcheducation/master-lessons
Social Search Engines: Learn to use social search engines http://slidesha.re/autgz4
Alerts: Set up Google Alerts http://slidesha.re/autgz4
FeedReaders: Set up a FeedReader and subscribe to feeds http://email.about.com/od/rssreaderswin/tp/top_rss_windows.htm
Social SearchEngines

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Scanning Example: Smarter Planet Topics
Blog: A Smarter Planet
Topics I Focus On…
Water Management
Traffic / Transportation
Cloud Computing
Energy / Buildings
All Smarter Planet Topics:
http://asmarterplanet.com/
Blog: Building A Smarter Planet
http://smarterplanet.tumblr.com/

Example: HorizonWatch trends documents leverage input from community members
Eleven TechnologyTrendstoWatch in 2011
Input from strategy teams
Develop Report
And Post
Communicate to Strategy teams
Additional Research & Collaboration
Blog Posts on Trends
Secondary Research
Post to Community Platform
Hold Community Conference Call
Survey Community via Blog and Discussion Forums
Blog Post
Communicate to forward looking teams
Input from forward looking teams
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Sharing thought leadership content on the blog helps me develop my understanding of key trends and get feedback from readers
A Primer on Smarter Water
A Primer On Cloud Computing
A Primer on Nanotechnology
A Primer on Telepresence
A Primer on Unified Communications
A Primer on Futurists
A Primer on 3D Printing
A Primer on Scenario Planning
A Primer on the Website Personalization Trend
A Primer on the Consumer Market for Household Robots
A Primer on the Trend Towards Video-enabled Business Processes
A Primer on the Smart Grid and Intelligent Utility Network Trend
A Primer On Water Management Issues
A Primer on Advanced Business Analytics
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Table of Contents
My Experience

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13 Steps to Leveraging Social Media and Communities
Document your career goals
List your top 4-5 career topic areas
Assess your existing social network and online presence
Master the online social and productivity tools
Research URLs that relate to your top 4-5 career topics
Document where conversations are taking place
Join online communities

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13 Steps to Leveraging Social Media and Communities (Cont.)
Move your conversations online
Manage your online brand
Friend/Connect with Community Champions & Experts
Share your Knowledge Wealth
Establish yourself as an online authority
Integrate off-line conversations with your online presence

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Learn to leverage social media and online Communities to help you understand the futures and communicate your foresight.
A social transformation is taking place in how people interact and how relationships form and develop, and this is changing the way we work and the way we engage with our customers.
Customers
are leading the conversations that define your brand
Employees
are using social media in all facets of their lives, including work
Competitors
are crowd-sourcing ideas to bring new solutions to market
May 4, 2011

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Thank You!

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Table of Contents
My Experience

About Me
Bill Chamberlin
Joined IBM Chicago Office in January 1981 as a Systems Engineer
First 8 years in Sales, rest in Marketing
Finished part-time MBA in 1995
HorizonWatch Community Leader since late 2000
Current Title “Principal Consultant - Social Insights Practice, Corporate Market Insights Team
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Where I Hang Out Online….
LinkedIn = Profile Page
LinkedIn Group = Horizonwatching
Thought Leadership Blog = Horizonwatching on Typepad
Signal/Scanning Blog = HorizonWatching on Tumblr
Twitter ID = Horizonwatching
Facebook = HorizonWatching
Online Newsletter = HorizonWatching
Slideshare IBM Expert Network = HorizonWatching
A Smarter Planet = Blog on Tumblr
The InfoBoom Community = Profile Page
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Some additional things I suggest you do....
Uses Social Search Tools to find experts/futurists and then follow them on Twitter and on Blogs
Go to a professional futurists event
Association of Professional Futurists Spring meetings
The World Futures Societyconferences
Join the Foresight Network, an online community of futurists and people interested in the future
Find the futurists at Poptech, TED, SXSW, and other events that draw forward thinking people
Read the Smarter Planet blogs
http://asmarterplanet.com/
http://smarterplanet.tumblr.com/

HorizonWatch FAQs
How far into the future does the community explore?
It’s fun to think about 20-50 (and even more) years into the future, but from a practical point, the community looks for guidance on a much shorter horizon. So most of our focus on the 1-5 year future.
What techniques do you find the most useful and valuable?
Secondary Searches (Infogate/Factiva/Google)
Social Search Engines
Community Brainstorming via ‘CommunityChats’, Discussion Forums, Blog Posts
Where do you look to understand how the future might unfold?
Depends on topic, but I always start with Secondary Research. See above.
What are you reading to better understand the future?
Internet. Blogs, Association Websites, Articles, Factiva, General topic searches, News Alerts
Consultant/Analyst Reports
Twitter & Blogs: Monitoring for keywords and hashtags
Magazines: Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Discover, Fast Company, Scientific American, etc.
What topic areas are you currently researching?
Social Media, Social Networks, and Online Communities.
What tools do you wish we had to better look at the future?
Better tools to find subject matter experts (internally and externally) and their social networks.
Better Community leadership/management tools that help community leaders grow communities.
Better search engines and tools.
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What is a community?
“Groups of people who share a passion for something” (Wenger, 2004)
“Groups of people who come together to share and learn from one another” (Vestal, 2003)
Topic of Interest
An interactive group of people joined together by a common topic of interest.
May 4, 2011

friend
friend
friend
friend
friend
me
friend
friend
friend
A Social Network Has Three Requisite Elements That, When Combined, Deliver Network Value And Can Help Drive Business Results
3 Elements of Network Value
1. Contributions
2. Volume of Interaction
3. Number of Participants
Successful social media strategies drive these three elements
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In Every Social Network, There Are Participants That Have The Ability To Influence Decision Makers
Analyst / Traditional Sources of news
$$$
$$$
Joe = Influential Blogger
Digital Media
$$$
Jane = Influential Blogger
$$$
Develop a strategy to identify and reach these influencers
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Embrace the fact that learning is a very social process and collaborating with others can only improve your understanding
Collaborate with teams
Ask questions
Answer questions
Read and comment
Listen and talk
Jointly develop ideas
Network with peers, mentors, experts
Share knowledge
Ask for feedback
“Social Learning: The unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way most of us learn to do our jobs”
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http://w3.ibm.com	129
http://www.horizonwatching.typepad.com	73
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http://www.slideshare.net	10
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HorizonWatching: Leveraging Social Media and Communities for Foresight

by Bill Chamberlin

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