Social Networks Eclipse Email

Did you feel us move over the hump of email in February? According to this NY Times article, "time spent on social networks surpassed that for e-mail for the first time in February."

The questions for all of us is, "Are we holding on to our email and resisting the shift? Are we in that minority group that is hold back the rest of society from moving to social computing?

If yes, there are efficient conversations we are missing. That means sales leads, client/employee feedback, and industry knowledge.

About Scott Kelly

Scott is currently a marketing consultant helping organizations such as Greenville Hospital System and other non-profits adopt social computing tools. Previously he was an Internal Sales and Marketing Consultant at IBM Global Services responsible for developing and implementing the technology strategy for the Application Services sales force. The past year new technologies have included social software, mobile computing, and browser add-ons. Day to day responsibilities include assessing the needs of the sales force, creating the technology strategy, leading web development teams in creating the tools, marketing the technology, and ultimately training the sales force. Key projects were TeamIQ and Social Software Stories Video series.

As part of his responsibilities, Scott was frequently asked to present business use case scenerioes to sales teams on how new technologies such as web 2.0 will enable them to find information and experts faster. He has authored several articles read by thousands of IBMers and authors a weblog at www.scottakelly.com.

Prior to his current role inside IBM, he was in IT Governance using ITIL concepts and policies. In this role he consulted with clients such as General Motors, Nationwide, and NiSource in their change management and root cause analysis processes.

Scott spent several years in the insurance industry working for State Farm Insurance before joining IBM. During his tenure there, he became a Kentucky Licensed insurance agent in property & casualty and life & health.

International experience includes IBM projects in Madrid, Spain and Leeds, England, study abroad at the Copenhagen Business School, and MBA Emerging Markets field trip to Bangkok, Thailand.

Scott holds a MBA from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University where he was also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Management and Human Resources. His Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems came from Western Kentucky University. He currently lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, two daughters, and one son.

Freedom

On April 27, 2009 I went to the IBM office in Dublin, Ohio for the last time. I packed up my IBM Thinkpad (my best friend the past 3 years) and sent it to my manager. I drove out of the parking lot that day and one word came to mind, "freedom" (see Mel Gibson in Braveheart).

As I sat on the couch with my wife that night planning our upcoming move to Durham, North Carolina I received a call from a friend at a local non-profit. They had been discussing plans to utilize social media and she remembered my responsibilities at IBM of helping our sales force develop a social computing mindset. She said they wanted to enter the social media world and wanted my assistance.

I thought I would have at least one day to relax after leaving IBM, but the morning of April 28, 2009 (the day after leaving IBM) I met with my first consulting client. This is only the beginning.

Mayo Clinic vs. Ohio County (KY) Hospital

In a previous post I discussed a conversation I had with the CEO of a hospital in a rural area of Kentucky (or as I like to tell my wife, "God's country"). We were discussing the value of social computing in his organization and I honestly did not have a one minute answer that would make him run and jump into social computing.

Thankfully David Payne, COO of InHouseAssist, shed some light on the subject after finding my blog via a Gooogle search of "Hospital CEO using twitter." Here are David's words:

"Social computing offers something different. It allows talent to evaluate those in my profession based upon our ideas and approach to our work and while tied together in a community loosely, one need not commit until really ready. Social computing allows talent to evaluate opportunities in the market when they want and with who they want. And if you're in rural America you can now compete for the same talent as the Mayo Clinic as long as you can pull talent into your loose network and educate them about what advantages exist for them in that particular community."



It's the classic David and Goliath story. Social computing is David's stone that can bring down the giant. (Photo courtesy of the Guam Museum)

Poor folk love their cellphones

(This is based on a article in the New York Times titled, Let Them Eat Tweets.)

“Poor folk love their cellphones!” said Bruce Sterling, the cyberpunk writer, at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin. His message was that the clearest symbol of poverty is dependence on “connections” like the Internet, Skype and texting.

Guilty as charged. I do love my iPhone. I do love being connected. I feel productive. However, I am learning to disconnect more and more as I realize my children are growing up. I spent the majority of Saturday with my 4 year old daughter and 3 year old son. We first went to Honey Dip Donuts where I talked my son into two donut holes. My daughter did not fall for that one. She said we could split a donut. However, by the time I finished checking out with my son, my daughter had eaten 75% of the donut we were suppose to share. She is her mother's daughter.

My favorite part was on the walk home. We took our time. I had no where to be. They looked for clues that led to buried treasure. That walk helps me better understand the following from the article:

"Anyone with a strong soul or a fat wallet turns his ringer off for good and cultivates private gardens that keep the hectic Web far away. The man of leisure, Sterling suggested, savors solitude, or intimacy with friends, presumably surrounded by books and film and paintings and wine and vinyl — original things that stay where they are and cannot be copied and corrupted and shot around the globe with a few clicks of a keyboard."

(Thanks to Scott and Anne Bean for the picture of Honey Dip Donuts.)

Finding a house via Facebook

My family and I spent the last week in North Carolina looking for house to rent. My last day at IBM is April 27 and I am really looking forward to the flexibility freedom to do some things I've been wanting to do for a while now.

We first approached our housing search in the traditional way of searching realtor.com and engaging a realtor to search MLS. We looked at few options but were not happy with the results.

Then my very intelligent wife posted the following on her Facebook status, "Looking for a house to rent in NC." In response to that post her friend sent an email to the homeowners in her community. Just so happens that there's a UNC-Chapel Hill professor that is planning to rent us his house for 7 months while he is away. The price is right and it has a community pool and play area.

Angie joined Facebook and began a blog before I did. She continues to teach me how to utilize social computing in our day to day lives.

Fortune Article

As a follow up to my previous post, Fortune published How to Find a Job on March 30, 2009. Ironically enough one of the individuals featured in the article has received two job offers. I am still not participating in the recession.