I admit it — I use Twitter. If I’m at my desk I check in throughout the day (I don’t access it by phone but by browser). Right now I follow 690 and 1,432 follow me, so I’m no “A-lister.”
All in Strategy
I’ve seen organizations paralyzed with indecision about how to use social media. I’ve also seen “organic adoption” succeed.
Promoting Technology Enabled Collaboration in Complex R&D Environments
An important element in a successful R&D effort is effective collaboration. As the complexity of the research, development, and eventual adoption environments increases — as it does with large Federally funded R&D efforts — the importance of the sharing of information, ideas, and goals increases as well.
Seven Articles about Strategic Planning and Social Media
The most consistently popular articles from my web site are related to strategic planning and social media. These include my discussion of methodology titled How To Develop a Business-Aligned Social Media & Social Networking Strategy.
One of my favorite scenes in the movie Contact is when young Ellie Arroway’s father counsels her on the value of making incremental improvements in her short wave radio efforts: “Small moves, Ellie - small moves,” he tells her.
Maddie Grant’s recent comment about everyone in an organization having responsibility for “community management” is a good one:
In these heady days of transition, as we think about ways to improve government, it’s temping to over-sell the benefits of “Web 2.0.”
Questions of control and responsibility inevitably arise when strategizing about the role of social media and social networking in the enterprise.
Can Social Media Help Change the Public's Perception of the Engineering Profession?
The National Academy of Engineering has published a report called Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering. Given the importance of the engineering profession to US competitiveness and innovation, I’m hoping that the important research described in the report hasn’t overlooked the opportunities social media provide for engaging the public in the types of “conversations” the title of the report seems to promote.
Will Merging U.S. Science Agencies Increase Innovation?
I read the news report Merger of US earth sciences agencies proposed by AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid with mixed feelings. The report describes a serious proposal to combine two US government agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Jeremiah Owyang’s LiveBlog: What’s Wrong with the White Label Social Networking Industry?, especially if you read the comments, delivers a good snapshot of the gaps that still exist between product evangelism and the realities of implementing specialized online social networks.
How To Avoid Common Strategic Planning Mistakes
For the past few months one of the most popular posts on this blog has been A Short Definition of “Strategic Planning.”
I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because the term “short definition” is in the title. Why read a “long definition” if a “short definition” is available?
Dennis McDonald's Personal Facebook Saga
I’ve been reducing my use of Facebook recently having found it to be less useful — and less easy to use — than other social and professional networking tools.
Michael Auzenne’s comment on my post Incorporating Social Networking Systems with Mergers & Acquisition Planning struck a chord:
Incorporating Social Networking Systems with Mergers & Acquisition Planning
In 2003 I published an article titled Mergers & Acquisitions: What Executives Should Know about I.T. It was based on management experiences I had on a multi-year post-merger project that consolidated the data and software of two large public energy utilities.
Years of managing, studying, developing, consulting on, and using information technology have taught me about the realities of using technology for business advantage. Here are ten of these realities:
Dennis McDonald's Blog's Top Ten Posts of 2007
Here are my blog’s Managing Technology posts for 2007, sorted in descending order by the unique page views recorded by Google Analytics.
In Should You Make or Buy Your Social Network? I wrote about some of the technology-related decisions that are needed when an organization adopts online social networking.
If you are thinking of setting up a Facebook or MySpace page to promote your business, brand, association, or agency, you should first read Jeremiah Owyang’s Why You Need to have a Strategy before you make a Facebook Fan Page NOW!
What I'm Learning About Applying Social Media to Disaster Response
I’ve been researching applications of social media and social networking in local disaster response. Here are some of the things I’ve found.