Dr. Neil Hair

I have been asked to present a review of social media strategies for the Greece Chamber of Commerce on 16th July 2009 at their monthly networking luncheon. The last event I MC'd for the GCC was great fun and I'd recommend coming along. The session will focus on strategies businesses from all walks of life are using regards popular social media platforms like Twitter, Yammer, LinkedIn and of course Facebook. In this presentation you'll get a sneak preview of some of the things Im learning from my own research program. Details of the event can be found here.

I am very pleased to announce a collaborative project between Henley Business School, IESI Business School and the E Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT. The project, sponsored by Cisco, is exploring through industry thought leaders the role that social media plays in assisting innovation and collaboration projects between and within organizations. My partners from the UK and Spain and I are looking to interview companies in both B2C and B2B spaces that are using social media to facilitate intra and inter firm relationships. So far we have interviewed a whole host of advanced users including representatives from Cisco, Xerox, Bank of America, 3M, Oracle, Capgemini, KPMG, Corus, LinkedIn, IBM, Unileaver amongst many others. This is your chance to participate. We are currently interviewing companies across the world about their social media practices with a view to colating insights into best case practices. The results of the study will be made available to all participating firms that qualify to meet our inclusion criteria. So - if youre using social media and youre interested in talking about it with me, let me know by signifying your interest on our project website. Either myself or one of my partners will then contact you to set up a convenient time for a one hour interview with you. I will of course be blogging some of the genric findings of the study as it progresses including updates on my twitter, LinkedIn and facebook feeds. Its a great project, extremely timely and Im looking forward to talking to more experts in this area.

 I was recently asked by the Provost to represent the Saunders college of business at the Greater Expectations Institute that was held in Burlington VT over the past few days. We were charged by Number One to explore the 'experience' of our students and make recommendations towards enhancing it. The team was an excellent example of what can be achieved with a diverse set of faculty, staff and students from all over the institute who care about one thing - RIT success. I was truly amazed at the extend to which we managed to bond, resolve issues and come up with strategic as well as tactical recommendations for the university. Our efforts are still on going and therefore I cant say too much about the ideas as they need to continue to be fleshed out. I can say though that we all hoped to make a difference in the perceptions of our students and that from our perspective we've come a long way towards achieving it in just a few intense days of deliberations. I met a number of really interesting people from RIT as well as a number of cool folk from the US Navy - as my twitter feed attests, I was even hugged by a General in the closing hours of presentations to delegates. Not many people get to say that in a lifetime As an aside I was also taken aback by the whole renewable / recycle / local produce focus on Burlington university. They really made an effort to source all materials from local quarries and businesses helping to reduce its footprint ecologically, the buildings even had water bottle filling stations to help in the reduction of bottles of water being bought by students. We could learn a great deal from this campus effort.

Monday’s four hour training that I ran for Saunders and Digital Rochester’s Get Smarter program was extremely engaging, at least from my perspective. I always enjoy interacting with practitioners as the experience is very different from that of more traditional student audiences. For one there is no grading! I always find that practitioners are great at keeping us academics honest about the theories and strategies we promote. The session was structured so that delegates received a review of social media channels, and a heavy emphasis on a review of current business models in both B2C and B2B realms. Following dinner the session was geared towards establishing a marketing plan for social media and therefore much more experiential and personally relevant. Whereas there are many opportunities to attend talks on social media very few that I am aware of actually offer the take home of a plan of action. Granted, there is only so much you can accomplish in a four hour session but feedback suggested that the opportunity to work with smaller teams of 5 worked really well. Delegates were particularly pleased to be at least talking to like minded folk that are social media evangelists but work in environments that are not ‘currently’ accepting of the social media cause. Therapeutic one imagines! One interesting reflection on the session was that the vast majority of the 80 participants were from the B2B area. I counted less than ten representing B2C companies.  Thankfully for the majority, my research tends to focus on the B2B applications of social media so we had lots to talk about. The live tweet feed worked well also. I asked a number of questions throughout the session aimed at polling the wisdom of the team. The contents of this feed will be the subject matter for a number of follow up blog posts so worry not – I’ll share those discussions once I have content analyzed the feed. I was also happy that most of the participants were already experimenting in the space which meant I got to kick the discussions up a notch and not have to pitch the analysis at the level of the beginner. The most pleasing aspect of the event was the passion people shared, to an extent I was preaching to the converted, but hopefully the session helped arm delegates with details on how you can build, and frame politically the case for social media in their organizations. I look forward to continuing the conversation with this fantastic group of people. There are even a number of tweet pics out there from the session Thanks Julie and Donna for helping to organize this event and thanks again to those who were there that made it such a success!

On Monday June 15th from 5-9pm I will be facilitating a first in kind class that presents an overview of strategies for social media use in business. The session's objectives are to produce a plan of action for delegates as they chart these new waters. What's different about the session is that it will initiate a direct call to action for attendees leaving them with a clear understanding of next steps. To my mind this is a deliverable worth having! We are proud to be working with Digital Rochester for this event and I expect it to be both heavily attended and extremely worthwhile. Further details including registration can be found here. Please note that walkins for the event are not permitted given anticipated demand for the event (we have 100 spaces available and I believe 70 registrations already). We will also be tweeting the event live on the night and sharing experiences of the social media space. One to watch for!