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Hi, 

It was great to get some positive feedback and encouragement last week from the first outing of Social Business Bites (fresh, tasty, nutritious!). Much appreciated!

So without further ado, here are your Bites for the week.

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10 tips on building a social business from Big Blue

http://www.itbusiness.ca/article/10-tips-on-building-a-social-business-from-big-blue

This is not a plan of action for social business, but rather, as the title indicates, a list of tips. But they are, by and large, good and useful tips.

The emphasis is on people, including the people in your company/enterprise and the people who are your clients. There is not a mention of any of the "usual suspects" list of social platforms. 

The article is a bit of a grab bag and the tips (or at least the headings) are somewhat cliche, from Attract the best talent (we wouldn't be trying to do that anyway?) to Deepen client relationships (again, really?). 

But reading beyond the tip headings, there is some quite meaty advice on things to incorporate in the process of building a social business - quite challenging advice in parts, actually. 

Read especially, and re-read, item 10 - Build a security-rich social computing foundation, which is a prescription for a whole lot of work on such issues as social media policies. Daunting, but necessary.

A reference to something called Supplier Connection jumps out as the only brand mentioned in the article. Surprise surprise! It's a Big Blue (IBM) service. But it looks like a good service, to connect small suppliers to big companies (only for the USA, it seems) - 

https://www.supplier-connection.net/SupplierConnection/index.html

"The Definitive Professional Publishing Platform" (from LinkedIn)

http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/02/19/the-definitive-professional-publishing-platform/

LinkedIn's new publishing feature means you can now blog on LinkedIn (or will soon be able to), giving you potentially a much bigger audience and bigger opportunities for engagement than you might otherwise have. 

The invitations to participate are now starting to come through. I got mine a few days ago. If you haven't received your invitation from LinkedIn yet or don't get it soon, feel free to contact me and I'll try and find out what is happening (not that I have any special clout with LinkedIn, but I have networks with people who do!).

The new functionality is in a sense a general opening up, to a huge number of potential participants, the much more limited Influencer program featuring President Barack Obama, Arianna Huffington, Sir Richard Branson and other notables. 

Some commentators think this is the beginning of the end. Others, of whom I am one, see it as a great opportunity for members to create a much bigger readership and following than they could just on the basis of their own blogs.

If you are interested in using this feature (no harm in at least trying it) and have any questions, please email me and I'll see what I can find out.

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Till next time

Be well, be social :)

Des

PS: Do you have one question about social business that you would like to get answered? If so, please email me at des@deswalsh.com and I will do my best to answer. No charge, no strings :).

PPS: If you are not on the list yet to receive this regular update in your email inbox, and would like to try it, you can register for that at this link (there is an easy unsubscribe link in every update) .

My contact details

Phone: International +61 413 089 355    Australia 0413 089 355

Skype: deswalsh (if you want to connect with me there, just type in "Social Business Bites" - or email me and we can set it up).