Anthony Bradley

Book Selection

Based on research garnered from their evaluation of over 400 companies, authors Bradley and McDonald explain the benefits, perils, and practical application of social media in business. Outlining core disciplines, the authors guide readers through social-media strategy, providing clear examples and practicable advice that have led to identifiable, proven benefits.

The Social Organization

How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees

Interview with Anthony J. Bradley

Unfortunately, some leaders out there are still relegating social media to marketing, saying “Oh that’s just Facebook and Twitter,” when it’s really not. In the past year major organizations looking beyond marketing to all their business functions, to apply social media to mass collaboration.

twsm What are some misconceptions about the use of social media in the workplace?

ab People believe that Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube, all of these spontaneously erupt, and all you have to do is enable the technology. But that’s not true, you have to have a well defined, well scoped, meaningful purpose that people will join and actually contribute to. That’s a major best practice in determining strategy.

twsm What are some international companies that execute social media strategy well?

ab The Guardian, Boots, Ducati, HSBC, Adidas, VisitSweden (Swedish government’s tourist arm). Of the 400 or so organizations we looked at, about 25% - 30% were European based companies. North America was the majority but Europe was right behind, the rest were relatively minor Asian and South American companies.

twsm What has been the most surprising recent development in social media?

ab One of the things that has changed rapidly in the past six months to a year is, there used to be a tremendous number of organizations either in, what we describe in the book as “fear” or “folly.” Meaning businesspeople say social media is for kids or are hesitant to take it on. But now, we’ve seen senior leadership take an interest in social media like never before. There is a significant rate of change in senior leadership’s belief that social media has significant business applicability across business functions. It’s a very good surprise. The bad surprise is that there’s still a large segment still relegating it to marketing and not thinking of it as more strategic business. There’s still a very, very high failure rate of social media primarily because its hard to find a good purpose. You can’t just put a platform out there; nothing happens.

twsm Do you have an example of a company benefiting from an enlightened social media strategy?

ab We’ve seen some organizations gain incredible benefits. One international organization shifted their customer support from call center to community support, which basically means customers helping themselves solve problems. The company would monitor issues posted in this environment, what percentage were resolved, and how quickly. They found customers were helping with the vast majority – almost 80% of the issues raised in this environment were answered successfully. Cost per issue went from almost $8 to $0.80. That is an order of magnitude; that is significant. And, customer satisfaction improved as well. We’ve seen a significant trend in this movement toward community-centered customer support.

twsm What is one of the most innovative findings of “The Social Organization”?

ab A major one is that the main value, the primary value, is mass collaboration: potentially huge numbers of people working together around a common cause to deliver tremendous results. Mark Zuckerberg didn’t build Facebook, we built Facebook – 800 million of us. Without us, his creation would be another website. What it’s really about is assembling communities of people around a common cause, to actually get work done. Communities of your customers helping solve problems, or getting the most utility or enjoyment out of your product.•

John Izzo

Stepping Up: How Taking Responsibility Changes Everything [Berrett-Koehler P., pp 192, $16.95] Expertly told and research-based, Izzo’s compelling argument contends that any business challenge can be solved if each of us were to look to ourselves as the agent of change, rather than looking to others.

Thomas Joiner

Lonely at the Top: The High Cost of Men's Success [Palgrave Macmillan, pp 272, $27] An expert in men’s health, clinical psychologist Dr. Joiner explores the effects that a pursuit of power and money can have on a man’s social and mental health; perhaps most significantly, he also offers solutions and advice.

Michael Beer and others

Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value [Harvard Business Review Press, pp 272, $29.95] The authors reveal the stories of CEOs who are making it their priority to