As reported in Part One of this blog post, I 'work socially' as CEO of NewsGator. Here is a look at the afternoon of just one productive workday using social computing tools. I continued my goal of educating and informing my thriving network of influence as noted by an asterisk*. Note that these are excerpts rather than exhaustive details:

1:15 – 2:00 pm

1. Voted for a feature request from a customer in our Idea Stream module. Added my opinion.
2. In the NewsGator Activity Stream, I "liked" a customer project status update that is "Green" (green = good) and has progressed through deployment successfully.

3. Saw a tweet asking the Twitter-sphere about anyone's experience with NewsGator. Shared the tweet and contact info internally with our inside sales team for follow up. Seven minutes later, the head of inside sales assigned it to someone on his team via his mobile device. The assigned individual reports that he just concluded a demo with them (a Fortune 20 firm) and will follow up with more collateral and customer references. I sent an update via Direct Message in Twitter to the tweeter*.

4. Dropped a hilarious flow chart into the NewsGator Activity Stream for anyone whose hockey team didn't make it into the playoffs and directed it to our Canadian friends* along with the "Avalanche" hashtag. (Sadly, the Avs did not make the playoffs this year).
5. Directed a microblog reference to an upcoming technical webinar to our lead database developer as it might be useful training for him.

2:00 – 2:15 pm

Completed a few of my expense reports. We haven't solved that one, yet! Although, there are social computing apps that allow you to scan receipts directly onto the smartphone.

2:15 – 3:15 pm

Participated in internal meetings and customer/partner conference calls.

3:15 – 4:15 pm

1. Forwarded a corporate NewsGator tweet about a webinar we recently did with the president of AIIM, John Mancini.
2. Directed a microblog post to our internal Social Computing Coaching community on "Adaptive Social Business Strategy" from an analyst firm we are working with. The community manager in turn posted it to relevant communities on our customer Extranet*.
3. Shared an article from our News Stream module (which appears in our activity stream) from CMSWire in which IBM says "merge email with your activity stream." Feeling very self-referential and modern to be mentioning that in this blog after having shared it in our activity stream, directed it to our Product Management community*, and added the keywords (hashtags) "competition" and "IBM."
   a.) Subsequently added a link to an article that appeared later that specified the cost of an email box per corporate worker at between 5,000 and 10,000 Pounds per year.
4. A project manager asked a question in the Activity Stream about the best source of info on best practices for enterprise social computing pilots. I'm alerted* as I'm considered a "valuable contributor" around "best practices" by our social computing system – Social Sites 2010. I point him to three communities that have useful assets and the two internal folks best positioned to help him (all through our internal activity stream, but via the Q&A functionality).
   a.) One of the people I alerted responded within three minutes to the project manager*.
5. Cut and paste an email from an investment banker querying about a prospective partner for us into the Activity Stream. Direct (@) it to our head of corporate development and also to our lead developer working in that functional category. I also respond to the email. Seven minutes later the development lead (who is 2,000 miles away) responds with a link to the latest positioning doc on our new offering coming out in a few weeks*. I hadn't seen the doc yet so I reviewed it and thanked him for sending it.

4:15 – 5:15 pm

1. Finish up a few client/partner/board phone calls.
2. Must…buy…stamps…. Old media is still alive!
3. Wander the halls looking for victims to play a game of pool, foosball, or darts. I will lose…

********

Conclusion: Seven more examples of network edification and action…I'm feeling very socially productive and ready to see what this evening has in store. Check back tomorrow to find out.

What is an example you can share about how social tools have made your personal network more efficient and productive?