The Business Case for Nonsense: IBM Social Media Case Study Tim Washer, IBM twitter: @ timwasher www.facebook.com/timwasher blog: www.timwasher.com Ep 1
Presented at Harvard Business School, Jan 7, 2010. IBM social media case on viral video.
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1. The Business Case for Nonsense: IBM Social Media Case Study
Tim Washer, IBM twitter: @ timwasher www.facebook.com/timwasher
blog: www.timwasher.com Ep 1
2.
I've been thinking a lot lately about taking chances, and how
it's really just about overcoming your fears. Because the truth is,
every time you take a big risk in your life, no matter how it ends
up, you're always glad you took it.
John Dorian, M.D .
3. Managing Perceived Risks
Gain agreement on rules
Convene bloggers, lawyers, marketing, PR
IBMs guidelines: http://bit.ly/6Mr217
Experiment inside the firewall
Get some big wins, and promote
4. Approaches
Uncover most compelling stories
sources: PR, marketing, clients, R&D, customer service,
corporate social responsibility
Find most compelling experts/storytellers
News format: recycle b-roll, expert interviews
Rely on nonsense/absurdity/humor to gain awareness
Story trumps messaging
Social media is for stories, not brochures
5. Episode 1: http://bit.ly/7FWtby Full Series:
http://bit.ly/8ZA5zU A Benchmark for Nonsense: Art of the Sale The
Mainframe Blog
6. ROI
Objectives:
create awareness for new mainframe value proposition
Increase mainframe awareness with college students
>250,000 views on first episode
Blog traffic increased 25x
Analyst, Press, Blogger coverage
Screened at Chief Sales Officer summit, Price Waterhouse sales
training, etc.
7. "You gotta see this video.IBM is re-positioning the
mainframe as a back-to-the-future alternative. The tone of Hoey's
spoof training video is in keeping with the kinder, humbler image
IBM now seeks to project. http://bit.ly/7hk9iO
8. http:// blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p =10085
9. Mad Science series Featuring John Cohn from Discovery
Channels from The Colony Micro-forecasting http://
bit.ly/mad_science Smart Grid http://bit.ly/mad_science_2
10. IBM Smarter Planet blog: http:// asmarterplanet.com /
YouTube: http:// www.youtube.com/IBMSocialMedia An Exercise in
Utility: http://bit.ly/5OYZbg A Brief History of Intelligence
http://bit.ly/6e29x Foul Plea: one chicken's appeal for a smarter
food system http://bit.ly/7qJi2W Seamus McManus: Beekeeper; Father
of Cloud Computing http://bit.ly/7wVidE