As the year is drawing to a close, I like to reflect on the friendships and professional relationships I have built and nurtured over the year. There are many people and organizations that come to mind and it would be too long to list them all. Let’s just say, it’s been a wonderful year and I cherish all of these relationships. For my last blog post of the year, I want to spend a few minutes to introduce you all to a friend whom I met 2 years ago in a professional capacity, and our professional relationship has blossomed into a friendship over the course of this year. Natascha Thomson (@nathomson) is a fellow social media practitioner and a fellow yogini (an added benefit in my book ). How do I know Natascha? Well, we met on Twitter…
Natascha has started several social media groups in the Silicon Valley and you may have seen her passionately giving social media tips in this video collage. Just last month, she published her first book, 42 Rules for B2B Social Media Marketing, she co-authored with other social media practitioners. This book is a collection of hands-on social media marketing tips and real-life examples you can act upon right away. I had a chance to (virtually) sit down with Natascha to learn more about this new book. Read More »
I hear so much lately about innovation with virtually every company claiming that they are innovative. Is that really true, or is it yet another over used buzz word that has no substance? I personally see little true innovation, just claims of being innovative (who would say otherwise, right?). One way to determine if innovative is actually taking place is to ask yourself a few questions:
Are you scared (just a bit)?
Do you have more skeptics than advocates?
If you fail, are there repercussions?
How do you define failure?
How much permission did you need to execute?
I especially like the skeptics vs. advocates question. It directly correlates to a safe zone that is easy to fall into. It’s where little innovation can take place -- a black hole. Some of the best outcomes have occurred when there were few supporters (until it succeeded). Read More »
Here is something fun you can do today with your smart phone or tablet. It’s an app that brings the Internet of Things alive from a newspaper or screen.
How to get it:
1. First, go grab a copy of today’s global Wall Street Journal and find the Cisco TOMORROW Starts Here ad, which is in the center of section A. ( From your computer, you can also print or view a copy of the ad.)
Listening is our “North Star” and here at Cisco we are using insights from social listening to help guide and inform our social media strategy and enable meaningful engagements with our customers.
Thanks to everyone who joined us on October 24th for the launch of our new Social Media Listening Center in the Executive Briefing Center. Here are highlights from that event.
“This is the future of how customers engage with companies
going forward, regardless of your industry”
Blair Christie, CMO
Highlights
We had 60+ attendees that included technology analysts and influencers, 500+ views of the Facebook video stream, and 750+ online conversations related to this event. Attendees learned about the new listening center and how Cisco listens and engages with customers. Read More »
Over the last few months we’ve made some nice additions and improvements to Cisco.com. We’ll be writing in more detail about these individually, but I’d thought I’d give a short recap.
1. Faster Downloads! We’ve had some big performance improvements in the download experience, both in terms of reducing the number of steps to get a download and also in dramatically reducing the time it takes files to download. We’ve done much of this by pushing 75% of software images to the cloud – starting with the most popular and larger images for widest impact – and we’ve been contnuing this push. See this recent post for more. Here’s a chart we made to show the improvements:
2. All-in-one Product Pages. We’re experimenting with some new “all in one” product pages in the Cisco.com support area, which bring together support, documentation, downloads, product specs, community content and other information into one format. Examples: ASA 5550 Adaptive Security Appliance and AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. More to come on this and we’d like your feedback on it.
3. The Support home page has added new personalized capabilities for customers and partners when you log in to do common things like downloading software or visiting product pages, etc.
4. Technical Support mobile app-- now for iOS and Android – sports more capabilities for support case management
5. Bugs! Seldom a favorite thing anywhere, unless you’re searching for information about them. We’ve added some enhancements to Cisco.com site search to make that searching easier.
We’re constantly making improvements to Cisco.com and our mobile presence, and, as always, look forward to your feedback via the feedback link that’s at the bottom of every page.
). How do I know Natascha? Well, we met on Twitter…
