Margery Lynn, who has been charged with its expansion in South-east Asia, said, “My objective is clear – to understand how best we can lend our expertise in social media marketing, workforce collaboration, and social business intelligence to help build social businesses in this market. Then, of course, productively delivering on these practice areas for our clients.”
She will also be bringing the group’s newly-launched Social Business Index (SBI), which covers over 26,000 brands from over 20,000 companies and over 100 million social accounts worldwide. Currently, Facebook, Google and News Corporation lead the list.
The Social Business Index provides free insight to the public on how social a given company is, and how they compare to their industry, their competitors, as well as a best in class break down by company, subsidiary, geography, department and brand. It’s described as “a lightweight glimpse into Dachis Group’s big data analytics platform”.
Explained Lynn, “The Social Business Index (SBI) provides ongoing real-time ranking, analysis, and benchmarking of Social Business adoption and performance.
“There are already a host of global travel brands involved, such as Singapore Airlines, Air China, Expedia, Starwood Hotels & Resorts WorldWide, InterContinental Hotels Group, The Walt Disney Company, and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
“So I believe the SBI is a great reference for organizations, including those in the travel segment, to gain a better understanding of their aggregate performance of specific social business engagement behaviors.
“We are still building out the local travel category and invite organizations to visit www.socialbusinessindex.com and register.”
On the shift in thinking to “social business”, she said, “We believe that the opportunity that the changing trends in technology, society, and work afford does not end with social media marketing.
“Despite perhaps beginning with social media marketing, the implications of becoming a more dynamic and socially-calibrated business can positively affect businesses’ bottom line; when they approach social from a strategic perspective and continually gauge the effectiveness of strategies and tactics to engage their internal and external audiences.”
Travel, she said, was an important part of the group’s plans “when it comes to realizing our vision for social businesses”.
“We have a depth of experience working with travel brands around the globe that includes for example, Marriott, IHG, Starwood, British Airways, and Disney on a number of different levels. But sometimes it is our experience in other business verticals that inform and push our thinking in this one.”
She said the biggest challenge in growing Dachis Group’s business in Asia is keeping up with the rapid growth and change. “I have to be obsessed with social media, but also the nuanced end-user behavior and adoption across South-east Asia, particularly, the realm of mobile technologies and applications are keeping me up at night.”
For her, the future of social is upon businesses. “Many businesses today are for the most part operating with legacy systems, command and control cultures, and dated processes, which ultimately affect their competitiveness.
“So beyond businesses playing catch up, I feel the next decade of developments “in social” will change by degree, rather than by kind.
“In other words, social will become more mobile, apps will become more prevalent (even in enterprise collaboration tools), and social networks will become accessible in different ways with the advancements in cloud computing and multi-device accessibility.”
Since arriving in Singapore about two months ago, Lynn said her priority has been to immerse herself into the Singaporean culture, online and off. “I find the diversity of food, the extent of shopping, and the consistent heat, oh yes the heat, wonderful, and unmatched to any city in the world I have lived prior to Singapore.”
