'amazon.com (Photo credit: soumit). “This is just Facebook for the Enterprise” is the most common way most people describe enterprise social networking platforms. After all, the look and feel of those platforms borrow a lot from the Facebook interface: status updates, @mentioning, groups, walls, profile pictures, direct messages, and so on. If you are trying to find a reference to guide you through the journey of making your enterprise social networking successful, consider going back in the timeline 10 years before Facebook, and set your eyes on another Internet titan: Amazon.com. MORE >>

'Image via CrunchBase. have been concentrating on listening lately. Part Part of it is because I work with Trackur , an online listening tool for corporations. Another part of it is because I am trying to simply improve at it in my own life. Communication is a two-way street but in the world today it is more often than not a one-way street that is led by an innocent enough egomaniac with a bullhorn disguised as a Twitter or Facebook account. It’s It’s that last point that makes listening even more important. Why you ask? Well, that is a very good question. So what should you do? MORE >>

'Photo credit: Wikipedia. commerce opportunity is evolving fast, but only 25% of B2B marketers are taking advantage of it, according to a 2012 Oracle study.  Time for another look.  The typical B2B company selling online is the classic catalogers like Edmund Optics and Seton , which were fast to supplement their print catalogs with e-commerce.   But with the new functionality now available, just about any business marketer can find ways to reduce selling expense and attract new customers by integrating e-commerce into their go-to-market strategies. Why are these online ventures working so well?  MORE >>

While I don’t believe that the richness of the online world can be reduced to a real estate analogy, that’s what I’m going with in order to explain both the way humans work, especially in concert and in community — and then I will mix my metaphors, add in some analogies about friendship and public broadcasting pledge drives — it’ll be a long journey — so, spoiler alert, I am going to give away the farm right now. Admit that you’re a company and organization that needs to make money in order to thrive. You’re allowed to market your tenants! MORE >>

Photo credit: edrabbit. really believe it’s bad advice to recommend that companies fire their social media consultants, experts and agencies only to bring everything internal. While “everyone” is on Facebook , social media is no longer a land of tinkerers, it’s a land of consumers. If you fill a room of potential brand ambassadors you harvest from your own ranks, I guarantee that only 1% to 10% of those people are active participants and the rest are passive, sometimes participants, most of whom are lurkers. And Kudos, but seriously a truly exceptional example. MORE >>