Cisco #smtraining Twitter Chat

As social media continues to grow and gain even more momentum, organizations need to find ways to empower their best brand ambassadors with the right tools and to create more impact.  From creating guidelines, to setting as examples, to training others, there are many ways organizations can enable their employees.

In a recent blog post “Creating a Social Media Training Program that Works”, we outlined a social media training program we’ve implemented at Cisco. Now that it’s in place, we want to hear from you, share more insights, and exchange new ideas.

Join @petra1400, @elhoust, and @christyjpark for a  special @CiscoSocial Twitter chat on Thursday, August 2 from 9-10a.m. PDT, following the #smtraining hashtag directly on Twitter or another Twitter application. We will dive into the following areas and encourage everyone to participate in the lively discussion!

• Setting the social media training strategy
• What goes into it?
• How does it work?
• Who’s involved?
• Creating the appropriate content
• What’s the framework?
• What’s in it for the participant?
• How does the content come together?
• Sustaining the program
• How is it maintained?
• What are key tips to keep in mind?
• What does it take to implement the program?

Let’s get the conversation started before the @CiscoSocial #smtraining Twitter chat. Share your ideas (through the comment section below or on Twitter using #smtraining) regarding ways your organization is including social media training or pose questions you would like to ask the panelists. We look forward to your participation and lively discussion!

Tags: #smtraining, Cisco, education, social, social learning, social media, social media strategies, social networking, training, Twitter chat

“Am I just a very small fish in a big pond?” -- That is what I originally thought when I first joined Cisco as a Public Relations Collaboration Intern. Turns out no one bites here, which definitely has helped the process while I have been attempting to get settled in. In fact, it has been quite the opposite. Instead of “Hey intern, do this for me,” I am asked, “Corinne, can I help you with anything or do you have any questions?” It is reassuring to know that I am around genuinely good people beginning my, as I like to call it, “adventure” here at Cisco.

After getting settled in with all the gizmos and applications on my one of a kind ThinkPad, I finally have a routine when I come into work. My mornings consist of reading, lots and lots of reading. From press releases, to news articles, to tweets … anything related to technology or social media I will most likely know about it. I’ve noticed most conversations don’t involve people’s input on the Kardashians or how the next Twilight is going to play out, so Cisco’s Newsroom has become one of my new best friends here.

Once my brain has reached overload, I usually have meetings or my kind colleagues will invite me to meetings to sit in on. I’ll catch myself looking like a “deer in headlights”  at times because all I think about is, “Hmm…what did that acronym stand for, I better write that down” or “I wonder why Telepresence originally had an upper case ‘P’ but is now changed to a lower case ‘p’”. To be honest, during the first PR meeting I ever sat in on I thought they were talking about the show “Futurama” on Comedy Central for a half second until I realized they were referring to something else. Thankfully, I haven’t asked too many dumb questions because they keep inviting me, which has been a great learning experience in order to become more familiar with how the Cisco Public Relations team works.

After lunch, I’ll work on the projects I have been given. I am no Greg Justice, but I try to be as creative as possible when deciding how to execute these assignments without looking stupid. I’ve never made so many to-do lists in my life, but hey, it works! Stay tuned on what I’ll be working on throughout the summer. This includes more external and some internal blogs, strategic analysis presentations on our company and the dark side AKA our competitors, as well as some fun and informative videos.

Tags: Cisco, Cisco collaboration, cloud, intern, internship, marketing, PR, public relations, social media

I am happy to announce another Virtual Symposium, this time on the topic of virtual machine networking.  We will be holding it on July 25th from 9am to 10am Pacifc Time.

Beyond our usual panel of Greg Ferro, Steven Foskett, Ivan Pepelnjak and yours truly, we will be joined on the panel by Marko Milivojevic (@icemarkom), David Davis (@davidmdavis) and perhaps a couple of other folks.

We have settled on the 60 min format.  The panel will share some initial thoughts, but we will devote most of the time to answering questions from the audience, either through the WebEx Q&A tool or via the #VirtSyn tag.

To register, go here.

See you there.

Tags: networking, social media, virtualization, vm networking

By Kristen Vargas, Guest Columnist

Before the emergence of second generation providers such as Skype, I was always a firm believer that face-to-face contact and physical interaction were essential to sustaining healthy relationships. Born and raised in California with most of my family and friends living in the same general vicinity, I grew accustomed to the comfort and convenience of having them nearby.

However, unpredictable life events followed, and I found myself building a life with someone serving in the U.S. Air Force. A natural consequence of this newfound military life meant that I inevitably was going to be moving from base to base to follow my husband as he served his term. The idea of leaving California to live at my first base in Idaho, although temporarily, was a move I was not altogether excited about and left me feeling a bit apprehensive about living in another state for the first time.

Read More »

Tags: service adoption, social media, telephony, vni, VNI-SA, voip, Webcam

There was a time when making good products was sufficient to succeed in the business world, but that is no longer the case. While making good products (or services)—things that people want and value, of a quality they expect and at a price point they are willing to pay—remains essential to the value proposition, it’s just table stakes today. What customers want are “experiences.”

So what is an “experience,” and why are customers’ expectations of that experience different from those of the past? Read More »

Tags: Cisco, customer, customer experience, expectations, experience, hyperconnected, hyperconnectivity, IBSG, perceptions, social media