Don Bulmer

Royal Dutch Shell

Don Bulmer is Vice President of Communication Strategy at Royal Dutch Shell.

Theory of Relate(ivity) - Part One

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Posted on 2011-11-07

At the end of the day, it’s relationships that matter most. Right?

Be it in business, in one’s personal life, politics, or otherwise - the best relationships (when managed well) keep you grounded and honest. They offer learning experiences. They are influential and provide support in unusual ways that overtime can sustain even the toughest of challenges.

Casual, social, formal or personal – the connections that people make start with how they relate to one another or to a cause, an issue, a religion, a culture, a belief, a principle or even to a company.

Seven billion actions.

I've had many great learning experiences over the past year but none greater than my role as an adviser to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

In February, I was part of a small group of professionals invited to help the UNFPA develop a ...

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A Social Movement for Seven Billion People

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Posted on 2011-06-26

In February of this year I was invited to participate in a workshop at Columbia University School of Journalism in support of the the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The UNFPA is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programs to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person...

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Influencers to Brand Advocates

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Posted on 2011-03-18

I had the great opportunity to participate in a panel discussion this morning, hosted by BrightTALK in coordination with Think Influence.

BrightTALK is a San Francisco-based company that specializes in providing online events for professionals and their communities. Think Influence is a grassroots community of peers (across industries) focused on the exchange of ideas and best practices on the role of influence in business.

The panel discussion was focused on the topic of 'influence' with particular focus on what influence is and how to identify, create and harness it in a world heavily dominated by all things social (social media, social networks, and social business).

The panelists included:

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Research Findings Highlight the Evolution of Social Business

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Posted on 2011-03-16

I am proud to release the results of the 2nd annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research study by The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR); a benchmark on the impact of social media on enterprise decision-making.

The study is a result of collaboration between me and Vanessa DiMauro as part of our fellowship with SNCR. My colleague at SAP and Senior Fellow at SNCR, Peter Auditore, also contributed to the analysis.

In the...

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Placing Value on Social and Online Media Buzz

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Posted on 2011-02-08

Is it really possible to measure the impact and quantify the monetary value of 'buzz' generated through social and online media channels?

A few weeks ago, a New York-based company called General Sentiment released a report that attempted to do this.

Below is a graphic from the report where General Sentiment equates the value (in USD) of media mentions and buzz for 20 global companies, measured from October to December of 2010:

General Sentiment is a technology company that provides research to help businesses evaluate their brand performance in the media (social and online).

Among other things they claim to have...

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Every Company Is a Media Company: SAP’s 2010 Influencer Summit

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Posted on 2010-12-10

This year’s SAP Influencer Summit was not only a successful model for influencer engagement, but an excellent example of Tom Foremski’s quote: “Every Company is a Media Company.” SAP’s amazing team of communication, marketing and business professionals just wrapped up their 2010 Annual Influencer Summit in Santa Clara, California.

The Influencer summit is a marquee event for SAP that dates back to 2001. And when we started the event (in 2001), the core audience was a small group of elite IT industry Analysts representing many of the top research firms in the industry. Over the years the event has evolved tremendously – in scope, size, audience and importance to SAP and now includes a wide range of industry influencers.

The reason for the increase in scope is tied directly to the changing nature of influence in our industry. People who make decisions to purchase business software and other IT related hardware and services increasingly rely on multiple...

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If Facebook Were a Country…

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Posted on 2010-11-01

By the numbers, Facebook is well over 500 million members strong.

As a community, its members spend over 700 billion minutes a month and share over 30 billion pieces of content (per month) in the Facebook environment (via status updates, comments, videos, links, etc.).

If you compare Facebook to the populations of the largest countries around the world it would rank 3rd behind China and India.

Like China and India, Facebook is an ‘emerging’ economy that business professionals are trying to understand. It has its own social norms, privacy issues, cultural sensitivities and community rules that govern how business is done and how its members engage and derive value.

Unlike China and India, however, the ‘...

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Managing Experience and Influence in a Social Business Environment

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Posted on 2010-10-28

“Influence is like water. It is always flowing somewhere.” – Gary Hamel

There is amazing truth to Gary Hamel’s observation when associated to the hypercompetitive and social business environment that we live and work in today.

Over the past two years we have seen new ‘sources of water’ or ‘pools of influence’ form in and around our companies and our respective industries at an extremely rapid pace (fueled by the affects of social media tsunami).

As a result, many marketing and communication leaders (and their agencies) have struggled to make the right adjustments required to help their companies navigate the new realities of managing influence and doing business in a social environment.

The truth is, we live in exciting times.

Old communication and marketing platforms and the 1:1 relationship models that we have all come to appreciate have...

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13 Rules of Leadership for Communication, Influence and Social Media Strategy

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Posted on 2010-08-15

For many years I have drawn great inspiration and lessons from leaders of all sorts - political, corporate, social and the like.

A political and social leader who has had among the greatest impact on me is former U.S. Army General and U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell. In his autobiography 'My American Journey' Mr. Powell shares many stories, insights and lessons learned throughout his storied career.

Perhaps the most important offering in the book are the '13 Rules of Leadership' that he shares.

I refer to these rules often and each time I look at them I learn something new.

I would like to share them with you - along with commentary as to how I apply each as a communication professional leading in an environment of constant social and business change.

Interestingly, I found a great article authored by David Zinn that was published in 2000 - where he applied the same rules to coaching in sports. A few of his...

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The Leadership Imperative to Facilitate Innovation and Design Thinking

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Posted on 2010-06-13

In a recent blog post I discussed the virtues of Design Thinking as a framework to facilitate the creation of innovative marketing and communication strategies.

In this post, I offer thoughts on what leaders need to do to create a culture where innovation and design thinking can actually thrive.

Lessons from Harvard Business Review.

In an article published in the December 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review entitled “The Innovators DNA" authors Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B. Gregerson, and Clayton M. Christensen discuss the characteristics of leadership that drive innovation cultures within organizations. The article is the result of a six-year study to uncover the origins of creative - and often disruptive -...

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