Because it’s a sunny day, and we’re feeling generous, we’ve decided to have some fun. So some time between now and Friday, we will be offering a 50% DISCOUNT on tickets to SOMESSO London 2009 - for two hours only.
We’re not going to tell you when, just yet though. When the time comes, we’ll announce it through our Twitter account @somesso. So pass this on, follow twitter.com/somesso, and keep your eyes peeled!
50% off SOMESSO tickets, for 2 hours only, some time between now and Friday evening. Watch this space!
It’s been a great week for news so far, and it’s still only Tuesday! Today we’re delighted to announce that Iain Simpson, Head of Commercial Insights & Digital Marketing at BDO Stoy Hayward, will be joining the panel leading our final session at SOMESSO London 2009 (which we’re now hashtagging on Twitter as #smo09, in case you wondered what that was in the title…).
Iain is a long-standing creative innovator able to bridge the gap between maverick evangelism and strategic thinking, and in over 20 years’ work in the digital space he’s demonstrated the art of the possible for clients as diverse as Shell, KPMG, MTV and Save The Children.
After meeting Iain at the SOMESSO pre-event hosted at Headshift a couple of weeks ago, we were struck by the articulate passion with which he outlined his experiences working to bring change in organisations, and are delighted that he’s agreed to join us on the panel. Iain said:
“What I love about SOMESSO’s ambition is its simplicity in getting big business engaged in social media more quickly and in a more comprehensive way. Employees are already engaged in social media from dawn to dusk and the organisations which succeed in deploying tools and strategies to leverage this behaviour for commercial benefit will overtake competitors as they tap into the massive potential that connected thinking brings.”
John Pearce, ICAEW’s Director of Digital Communications, told us: “We’re passionate about using social media to engage our members and developing our award winning online community is a key priority. Our aim is to give ICAEW members the tools to network and share knowledge, not just with each other but with the wider world of business and finance. By taking part in this event we’re hoping to spread the word about what we’re doing and get more people involved…and tap into the expertise of the Somesso team!”
The pre-conference cocktail event will be a chance for sponsors, media, conference speakers and the Somesso team to meet and greet in an informal setting. It’s already over-subscribed, but we’re keeping a couple of spaces free for SOMESSO friends, supporters and blog readers. If you fancy joining us for a drink from 6.30pm on May 14 in the beautiful Chartered Accountant’s Hall drop me (Mary) a line at info@somesso.com with a short note explaining why you’d like to come. Remember, it’s first come first served, so be quick!
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve teamed up with ace bloggers Arne Hulstein and Andrea Vascellari to launch the official SOMESSO bloggers’ program. Participating bloggers receive a unique code that entitles your readers to a 10% discount - and for each registration, you will receive the same discount on your ticket. When enough readers sign up, your ticket is free!
All you have to do is register for the program, get your code, download the SOMESSO logo from our Marketing page and get writing. We’d like to see at least four posts on the conference between now and the big day - but we’ll be giving you exclusive access to all kinds of previews, scoops and great extra content so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Catching up with Arjen this morning he mentioned that one of our partners had asked us to talk to them about social enterprise. I was a bit confused. SOMESSO is a platform for discussing social media in corporations; while we believe that corporate adoption of social media is a good thing, we’ll be delighted if we can help companies get to grips with new ways of working and have no aspirations to save the world single-handed.
Eventually I worked out that this partner had picked up on the ’social enterprise’ phrase - which is becoming something of a buzzword - and got the wrong end of the stick, imagining that a ’social enterprise’ is one that uses social tools in its day to day operations. Obviously this describes SOMESSO very well. Networked, collaborative, run through a mixture of web-based collaboration and personal contact, active on social media platforms, etc. But not a social enterprise in the accepted sense of the phrase. So it’s clear from our partner’s struggle to find the right phrase that we need more terms to describe businesses that make social tools a core part of their work.
This led me to wonder: what if we were to call users of social tools ’socialized enterprises’. What sets a socialised enterprise apart from others? Here are some thoughts:
Empowered employees: With cheap and effective social tools in place, it’s much easier to listen and act on ideas generated throughout your enterprise. This will unlock your company’s creativity and help bring forth outstanding ideas that transform your business to the good. This keeps you sustainably on top of competition.
Ongoing conversations with clients - and even competitors. Instead of struggling to remain proactive by yourself you become interactive. By opening a channel to listen to your customers’ needs you involve them in development, build trust and collaborate with them on your evolution.
Direct savings on marketing. With every year attention turns away from ‘traditional’ channels towards social ones. And great results can abe achieved here at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing.
But perhaps the biggest difference (and advantage) is that a socialized business - and socialized marketing - only really works if your passion is authentic and your engagement with customers and employees is a genuine dialogue. Opening conversations with employees throughout the business, regardless of hierarchy and power-mongering, and reaping the benefits of widespread empowerment and innovation. Abandoning the losing battle to control your brand image in the social Web and opening conversations with customers, fans, critics and even competitors - and reaping the benefits of knowing what people actually think of you.
These approaches take courage, and in many corporations massive cultural changes are needed before such things can even be contemplated. But in this era of widespread suspicion and criticism of corporations, the power of authenticity cannot be underestimated. Get that right, and you’re building towards a sustainable and - and honest - road to success.
