May 2009
TED - Seth Godin on the tribes we lead
Celebrity Twitter Overkill: SuperNews!
Business Week - An executive guide to social media
For the following articles
go to: http://tinyurl.com/r98fpc
SLIDE SHOW: CEOS WHO USE TWITTER
Dozens of CEOs who find Twitter to be a personal and professional delight. Here's how they use the service, and who they like to follow
To prevent information leaks and other liabilities, companies are drafting guidelines for social media interaction. A rule of thumb: Don't be stupid
STARTING A CORPORATE SOCIAL NETWORK? DON'T
Save your company's cash. Leveraging Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter is fast, easy, and free
JEFF JARVIS: OPENNESS AND THE INTERNET: OPPORTUNITY AWAITS
As our social lives, business, and government become more transparent via the Internet, there are benefits for anyone who wants to create and connect
VIDEO: JEFF JARVIS ON TAPPING SOCIAL MEDIA
Jeff Jarvis, blogger, journalism professor, and author of What Would Google Do?, talks with Senior Editor Diane Brady about what executives need to know in the realm of social media
JAKOB NIELSEN CRITIQUES TWITTER
Not everyone is hearts and flowers over Twitter. Web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen discusses the hazards and limitations of tweeting
BusinessWeek Executive Editor John A. Byrne discusses how he uses the micro-blogging service Twitter and explains why he follows certain people
Acer Closes In On Dell For No. 2 In PCs
Nightmare In Round Rock: Acer Closes In On Dell For No. 2 In PCs
Posted by: Peter Burrows on May 07
Acer’s ambition to be the world’s largest PC maker by 2011 would have been laughable a year ago. But as my colleague Bruce Einhorn recently pointed out in his recent story on CEO Gianfranco Lanci, it’s no laughing matter for PC rivals anymore. In Gartner’s latest quarterly numbers, released yesterday, Taiwan-based Acer saw its global market share grow by more than a third, to 13% of the total market. It’s now neck and neck with Dell for No. 2 (Dell has 13.1%). HP retains the clear lead overall, with 19.8% share, but Acer is growing much faster.
Then there’s Dell. Its shipments fell 17% for the quarter compared to the year before. In fact, First Global analyst Amitabh Goel notes that the other top four PC makers (HP, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba) actually had a shipments increase of 10%. In other words, Dell is bearing essentially all the brunt of the economic downturn. Rarely has one company absorbed so much pain for its rivals.
It’s not likely to get better for Dell, either—not with companyies such as Acer willing to
Clearly, Dell needs to make some kind of dramatic escape from this trap. Just sticking to its knitting isn’t going to fix things. Neither, evidently, are moves that were once considered radical around the company’s Round Rock, Texas headquarters, such as the company’s decision to start selling at retail stores as well as on its website. That was two years ago.
What’s the answer likely to be? For starters, Dell seems intent on moving beyond Wintel in order to tap markets for new, cheaper kinds of devices. That’s why it has created a cell-phone based on Google’s Android operating system, as I reported in March, and why it evidently is also testing a notebook PC based on Android.
But Android itself won’t save Dell—certainly not if Dell doesn’t come up with truly killer implementations of Google’s easily customized code (As regards the cellphone, so far is not so good; Carriers apparently panned the product, one reason it hasn’t been publicly announced).
Rather, the company may have decided it has little choice than to do a big acquisition. It reportedly is looking to hire a top-flight M&A maven that would report to the CFO (why not to Michael Dell himself, I wonder?). Never mind that the 25 year old company has essentially zero success when it comes to buying and successfully integrating companies. Dell needs to buy its way into some promising growth markets, and do it fast—before its many corporate computing rivals grab all the tasty targets. Clearly, all the big players are jockeying to be far broader, one-stop-shops as the market moves into the cloud-computing era. It will no longer be enough to focus on one of the traditional market segments—that is, computers, networking, storage, software or services. If that fact was lost anyone, Larry Ellison left little doubt by buying Sun.
The price of more inaction could be high. In fact, Bill Whyman, an insightful analyst with International Strategy & Investment, noted in a May 5 report called “ORCL-JAVA AND THE NEW TECH ORDER” that Dell “could end up being acquired.” That would have sounded laughable a year ago, as well.
10 Corporate Twitter Accounts Worth Following
These companies have found interesting, inventive ways to engage customers on Twitter.
Twitter isn't just about finding out about plane crashes and what your best friend ate for lunch. Its uses are evolving, and big corporations are joining the fun. Some corporate accounts serve as a boring PR tool that spews press releases and follows everyone who tweets about their company. But others have found interesting, inventive ways to engage customers on Twitter.
Some corporations, namely @Palm_Inc and @WholeFoods, have used the service to release news and answer questions. Others, such as @DellOutlet and @MotoDeals, have become a hot place to go to find great deals on merchandise. And not to be outdone, companies like @ComcastCares, and @HRBlock, have used Twitter as a new extension to customer service, allowing near real-time responses to difficult questions.
We've compiled a list of 10 corporate Twitter accounts that can either help you in a jam or allow you to give instant product and service feedback to someone who will actually get the message.
1. @Palm_Inc – Palm has taken the inventive step of using Twitter to break news. It also uses the account to respond to customer queries. 2. @JetBlue – JetBlue gives travel tips and answers customer questions all day long. 3. @WholeFoods – Whole Foods gives trivia tips about its company, answers questions, and makes suggestions on where to donate to charity. 4. @HTC – HTC answers customer questions and lets them know about the latest product news, often before it lets the media know. 5. @DellOutlet – Dell's Outlet Twitter feed has more than 100,000 followers, and rightly so. It lets users know about incredible, and often very brief, deals. 6. @HRBlock – Just in time for tax season, H&R Block has a Twitter account that answers your tax prep questions and gives helpful hints. 7. @SouthwestAir – Southwest Airlines answers customer questions and gives a glimpse into the lives of Southwest employees. 8. @MotoDeals – Motorola's deal Twitter account gives followers links to great offers and tips on using the company's products. 9. @ComcastCares – The official Comcast Twitter account is a useful extension of its customer service outlet. One of our very own staffers tried the service out and was able to lower his cable bill through it. 10. @Starbucks – Starbucks uses its account to receive customer feedback, give information about new products, and quickly answer questions.
