How Social Tagging Changes the Economics of Ecommerce: Customers Help You to Boost Revenue

How Social Tagging Changes the Economics of Ecommerce was a geeky session that explained how a potent mix of “people like me” navigation and digital leverage can drive sales and profits + The secret to emerging markets?

How Social Tagging Changes the Economics of EcommerceThe Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on social tagging. Before your eyes glaze over, bear with me and learn how this simple, revolutionary social technology can help your customers to help your business. Forrester’s Sarah Rotman Epps moderated a discussion with Brian Rosenblat, Online Retail Industry Lead, Endeca Technologies and Jay Shaffer, Vice President Marketing, PowerReviews, who represented companies that offer social tagging solutions, and they all shared numerous examples.

This was one of the most “actionable opportunity” sessions of the conference: tagging is a relatively unknown, simple, yet transformational Web 2.0 phenomenon that will gain traction in 2008 and explode in 2009. If you aren’t doing it, you will be at a significant disadvantage to your competitors who do.

The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference […]

Virtual Worlds and Gaming: Fertile Ground for Real Relationships

A Paradoxical Proposition, Are People More Real Where They Live Their Dreams?—Zapped by Conventional Thinking

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007Gaming and virtual worlds like Second Life have been a hot topic due to their novelty and, where gaming is concerned, their Gen X and Gen Y demographics. However, early adopter marketers who have flocked to virtual worlds to create presences there have often been disappointed. Forrester’s Paul Jackson is a long-time follower of gaming and virtual worlds, and he gave a fascinating and valuable session on the status and best practices for how marketers can approach this new medium. He also gave a rough ROI picture of investing. Just like anything, if you approach virtual worlds with appropriate goals, you can benefit significantly.

An Overview of Games and Virtual Worlds

Jackson began with a history of virtual worlds and gaming, which are both inherently social (and usually sticky). Gaming began in the 1970s with multiuser Dungeons, and many early games were played on the VAX. The 1990s introduced 3-D graphics and VRML as well as massively multiuser games like Lineage, EverQuest and the World […]

Your Customers Are Revolting ;-)...

… Risky, Loaded and Ready to Help You Improve Your Business

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 ChicagoThe Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on the disruptive power of customers’ Web 2.0 activity. Charlene Li, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, briefed the conference on the disruptive character of consumer empowerment, which she and Josh Bernoff call “groundswell.” She explained why customers were revolting, a “ladder of participation” to describe who is driving the change and some suggestions for turning revolt into reform.

The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference wrap as well as in-depth coverage of several sessions. Access all through the link to the conference logo (right). Other articles will be published in the days ahead, and we invite you to subscribe to the forum’s RSS feed to be notified as they are published.

I assume that the title’s double entendre was intentional, but in any case, it captures many marketers’ attitudes toward the so-called Web 2.0 revolution. “We don’t want our customers to change. We want to maintain our marketing […]

Case Study: Playboy's Entrée into Social Networking and User-Generated Content

Web 2.0 World Challenges Brands to Understand Value Propositions—Inner Human Desire Is the Keel

Forrester-HefnerThe Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on Playboy Enterprises’ experience with integrating social technologies into its multichannel offerings. Christie Hefner, Chairman and CEO, gave a doubly-valuable presentation because she addressed her company’s journey to online customer engagement and explained how Playboy’s transition was affecting its advertisers. It was obvious that she is a leader who rolls up her sleeves and understands her business.

The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference wrap as well as in-depth coverage of several sessions. Access all through the link to the conference logo. Other articles will be published in the days ahead, and we invite you to subscribe to the forum’s RSS feed to be notified as they are published.

Hefner’s advice for senior marketers was to remember that human beings are not fundamentally being changed, even though the way in which they relate and communicate may be changing dramatically. Our humanity, desires and impulses are a constant. Moreover, the […]

Case Study: on Delta Air Lines' Use of Social Computing

Social Computing at an Inflection Point—Preparing to Be Overwhelmed

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 ChicagoThe Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on Delta’s experience with customer blogs. Moderator Henry H. Harteveldt did an excellent job setting up the session and letting Laura R. Hunnicutt, Delta’s General Manager of Customer Experience, talk with the audience about some real-world practical problems of moving executives’ legacy thinking to Web 2.0. Having enterprise visionaries and thought leaders added tremendous value to the conference.

The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference wrap and will have several other in-depth articles in the days ahead. You can be notified as to their publication by subscribing to the forum’s RSS feed.

This session showed that social computing can have a powerful strategic impact at inflection points in companies’ histories. As everyone knows, Delta is recently out of bankruptcy, and the airline business is difficult on a good day. The company is in a period of high risk-high reward, and Laura gave the audience a heartfelt behind-the-scenes look at the company’s Web […]

Always in Beta: How big Business Can Benefit from

Dell and Procter & Gamble Innovation Leaders Share Web 2.0 Transformation Insight—The Slow Boil

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 ChicagoThe Global Human Capital Journal’s coverage of the Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 continues with this session on what I’ll hazard to call Innovation 2.0 ,^). David Armano of Critical Mass moderated this an infectious session. It was clear that Proctor & Gamble’s Stan Joosten and Dell’s Manish Mehta had been in the innovation trenches, and their comments were extremely valuable.

A key ingredient to Web 2.0’s transformational potential is that the technology is an order of magnitude more explicit, easy to use and less costly. It’s possible, and desirable in many cases, to take small steps. On the other hand, Dell took a risky step in launching Direct to Dell in the midst of serious customer service problems, and it leveraged blogs to turn the situation around.

The Global Human Capital Journal published the overall conference wrap as well as in-depth coverage of several sessions. Access all through the link to the conference logo (right). Other articles will be published in the days ahead, and […]

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007—Web 2.0 Poised to Cross the Chasm in 2008

Case Studies Presage Imminent Adoption of Social Technologies—Emerging Markets Prize In Balance

Forrester Consumer Forum 2007 ChicagoA who’s who of global marketing executives convened on the Hilton Chicago October 11-12, 2007 for two days of cramming on social networks, emerging technology and transformation. It certainly felt like an inflection point: analysts’ insights and technology pioneers’ zeal were tempered by corporate stories in the trenches. Based on my experience with previous adoption curves, I predict a significant jump in Web 2.0 adoption by corporations next year.

Depending on your industry, the next six months will be your last chance to be early to market. As success stories become more widespread and executives realize that Web 2.0 has very low barriers to adoption due to the social Zeitgeist and a relatively low price point, the use of social technologies will rapidly become mainstream. The main barrier to adoption is cultural resistance and organizational inertia.

Although this was not a technology conference, in my conclusions, I will provide some insights about why and how Web 2.0 represents a fundamentally new technology value proposition that makes it […]