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Do You Think You're Encouraging Innovation?
The illusory superiority bias is one of the more commonplace in society. If you haven’t come across it before, it’s the psychological reasoning behind our often false sense of self-confidence. In plain English, we often think we’re much...
Scientists Crowdsource Medical Research Ideas from Patients
I wrote earlier this month about the Harvard Catalyst project, whereby ideas for scientific research into diabetes was crowdsourced via the Innocentive website. The hope was very much that this approach would be the vanguard of a new...
What Do Events Do to Your Twitter Following?
Modern conferences are increasingly interactive affairs. It’s common for events to have Twitter walls throughout the venue where delegates, speakers and sponsors alike can share their thoughts on the days events.As a means of encouraging more...
Building an Open Source City
Jason Hibbets is an open source advocate, and the author of a book on building an open source city. An open source city is a place that applies the culture and philosophies of the open source movement.In the book, he outlines five...
You Will Probably Share This Without Reading It
Last year Dan Zaralla did some research into social sharing, and something fascinating emerged. He discovered that 16% of us regularly retweet content without having read what we’re sharing.Some further analysis by Chartbeat has supported...
Do You Tweet Less When You Get More Followers?
What motivates you to post on Twitter? Is it the love of sharing interesting things, or do you crave the adulation of an ever expanding followership?That was the subject of some new research by Andrew Stephen and Olivier Toubia from the...
Can You Predict How Many Times a Tweet Will be Retweeted?
A year ago some researchers at MIT believed they had stumbled across the secret behind why tweets get shared. They narrowed it down to a list of ten things that go a long way to ensuring your tweets get shared, including things such as...
Tim Cook on Collaboration [VIDEO]
Back in April, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at the 25th anniversary of the MBA at Duke’s Fuqua Business School. Of particular note are his views on collaboration. He talks about the kind of people he wants on board at Apple. The kind...
Crowdfunded Space Telescope Opens [VIDEO]
While it could be argued that crowdfunding a new skyscraper in Colombia is pretty cool, I think it’s fair to say that by far the coolest crowdfunded project was announced this week.It emerged this week that private mining company Planetary Resources...
How Much Is an Engaged Social Customer Worth?
Last year an employee was sued for taking the Twitter followers he’d amassed with him when he left his company. The case focused attention on just how much a Twitter follower was worth. Suffice to say that since then, a good deal of effort has gone...
Are Social Media Users Better Citizens?
The role of social media in civic engagement has been a hot topic ever since the Arab Spring brought the role it can play to the attention of the world. Earlier this year the Pew Research Center produced a report into how social...
Is Viral Marketing a Myth?
I have long been skeptical when it comes to viral marketing. That’s not to say that I believe that the concept of an idea spreading in a viral way is wrong, merely that I don’t believe it’s something that we can predict or control. I...
Social Media and Self Control
The Bike Radar cycling forum I frequent has a fascinating thread whereby a member asked for, and then proceeded to ignore, countless pages of dietary advice. The online car crash is regularly interspersed with photos of the original poster...
From CEO to Intern – How to Make Sure Employees Are On Message
Whilst many organisations continue to ban the use of social media at work, they are in effect preferring to bury their heads in the sand in the hope that the situation will go away. Ignoring for a second the multitude of advantages that can...
The Everton School of Community Outreach
For the past five years or so I’ve been involved in the GrandOldTeam community for fans of Everton football club. From its humble beginnings it’s grown to be arguably the largest Everton community on the web, with a very active...
The Use of Social Media in Disease Prevention
Whilst social media tools have primarily been used for commercial ends, there is a growing stream of evidence showing that it has scientific and social benefits as well. Nowhere is this more so than in the tracking and prevention of diseases.For...
Social Media Isn’t About Campaigns It’s About Strategy
When I talk to people about social media or see how companies are using the tools, the pervasive impression is that it is still used primarily in a campaign orientated way. Social media folks will be required to show evidence of their...
How Many Community Managers Do You Need?
There was an interesting article recently at Econsultancy on whether the role of community manager should be an in-house role or one that’s outsourced to an agency. The line taken was that it should be one that’s outsourced. A dedicated...
4 Tips for Politicians on Twitter
Senior executives and other important folks have a peculiar relationship with social media.A study earlier this year found that 80% of people thought that executives that use social media are better equipped to lead their organisations....
The Impact of Free Online Learning on the Workplace
A major role of social business is in the facilitation of knowledge sharing and learning. Much of that learning has traditionally happened via the informal, tacit exchange of information provided by conversations between employees. If...
