Comments on the Social CRM Report by the Altimeter Group

The Altimeter Group recently released "The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM, The New Rules of Relationship Management" Report, authored by R “Ray” Wang and Jeremiah Owyang; you can find the report here.

Here a few comments; interested in yours once you have had a chance to read the report:

Overall:

• Monumental effort; I applaud the initiative and energy: Over 100 conversations; 12 influencers called out, 30 Vendors providing input.
• Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the result these efforts benefit us all; nascent areas (such as Social CRM) require formality, semantics, frameworks and the results of this effort provide that and more.
• "Avoid the Hype – Deploy Social CRM for Business Value" Bravo! Simply love how this is a business focused, centered, measured no nonsense approach..

Some specific points / comments on the report content:

• "Social CRM enhances the relationship aspect of CRM and builds on improving the relationships with more meaningful interactions."

Indeed; but one of the key things to keep in mind is that these interactions are now social; you don't behave the same in different contexts, you are a leader in some situations and a contributor in others, you are quiet on some and vocal in others. The content is important and a key element of the context are those that surround you (physically or virtually).

• "Social CRM programs may start at the departmental level, but over time, must gain corporate buy in to transcend functional fiefdoms in sales, marketing, service, etc."

Indeed; Social CRM follows (or should follow) the same path that traditional CRM had.. the old "who owns the customer relationship" question is here again (actually.. never went away).

• "Customers Have Moved – Organizations are Falling Behind"

Absolutely true; however caution needs to be raised here that the answer does not lie into fully automated and human devoid systems and approaches.. we will require systems, we will require scalable processes and procedures, but we will require humans behind and at the front of these.. remember the Clue Train mantra..

• "Social Customer Insights Form the Foundation for All Social CRM Use Cases"

Indeed; listening is the key to understand who, what, where, why, how much, how often of your target audience; understanding what they need and figuring out how to make that converge with your business objectives will lead you to define the right strategy and tactics.... Hopefully listening to your clients is not a new concept at your company; likely where you will need to develop capabilities and find new skills is on the interaction part.

• "Using Peer 2 Peer Lead Generation." "Proactive Social Lead Generation reaches customers who would like to be educated by the organization or its ambassadors."

One of the key opportunities for us to figure out and harness; clearly we are entering the area where the place for relationships to be gained and marketing to be executed is the feed.. How do we harness peers to help the right information flow to the right place and with the right level of endorsement / credibility?

• "Peer-2-Peer (P2P) Unpaid Armies (SP3). "Harnessing your advocates."

Of key importance for the organizations to scale (besides the systems, processes & procedures) is the humans; these humans are inside & outside your organization.. find them, engage them, understand them, "compensate" them (no, not money)

There is much more to call out; but this is already a long post....

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com

Connecting the dots across great snippets 02/16/2010

Connecting the Dots across some snippets below:

• Understand & appreciate what is important for the tribe (target audience) you care about; their passions, frustrations and the context in which these occur..
• Create the spaces & experiences for them to convene; make them so they are perceived as easy (technology simply enables and gets out of the way) and be respectful of the tribe members choice to be there
• Give up control; but don't give up leadership... (of the intent, the direction, the focus)
• Deeply integrate the outcomes of the interaction with the tribe members into the inner workings of your whole enterprise..

Here the snippets

Form this post by Lauren McKay on Accenture's Social CRM Report:

• "Staying in control of your brand is different than it used to be..." "..any true social media strategy must be developed -- and executed -- enterprisewide. Most companies, he says, have yet to progress to that level of maturity"

This great post by Paul M. Banas "What to Listen for" calls out a few of the key areas any Social Media Strategy needs to be based on / listen to:

• Tension (unfulfilled needs & desires)
• Passion (Compelling Emotions)
• Context (What is the surrounding environment that triggers, hosts the above)

Great Insights can be gained from these TED Talks:

• Alexis Ohanian: You no longer control the message; and that is OK (if you are Genuine and truly take the time to listen and harness the Social Power)
• Clay Shirky: It gets Socially interesting when it gets Technologically boring (alas the end user experience must perceived as simple & accessible)
• Clay Shirky: Aim to Convene your users / clients / target audience but not Control them
• Stefana Broadbent: connection & intimacy are not opposite, actually connectedness enables intimacy.
• Seth Godin: You can tell when you are running into someone in a tribe (by watching for the signs, by listening)
• Seth Godin: you don't need everyone, you need a good number that cares enough
• Seth Godin: Tell a Story, connect a Tribe, Lead a Movement and Make Change

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com

Nuggets from here & there

Struggling with writers block lately; let's try a different format.. nuggets from here & there..

• From the Social CRM Summit Tweets: In customer's mind, the experience *is* the company.
• On the space of How to use Social Media; Story Telling: (paraphrasing) "If your messaging and your keywords are misaligned.. that means your end users see your company differently that you do.." (if that is not a 'let's check this more closely" sign I don't know what is)
• I have pointed out many times the Social phenomena is really technology eliminating friction, aggregating & accelerating behaviors that are deeply embedded in our souls; check this article about Social Moms if you need any proof.
• The multiple facets and angles on the Social Media ROI can be found (looking hard) in this post by Robin Hamman; a snippet:

"it’s possible to do even more by integrating social tools into core business processes: invite audiences and consumers to co-create innovative product and service offerings, bounce ideas off them, let them get their hands on and provide early feedback about new products, involve them in marketing, encourage them to assist other customers – essentially, involve them in a range of activities which have a known cost, but also a measurable ROI, to your business."

• We spend more and more time in Social Media.. we need to get more out of it... where is my digital music device programmed by those that I designate (implicitly) as friends whose music taste I like? where is my ability to indicate I am in the market for a car and receive information Posted, Twitted, Shared by the friends I have (implicitly) designated as people I trust on car matter?
• According to Gartner: "Through 2015, only 25 percent of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity." this sounds like having a proven & tested vaccine and choosing not to use it.. we need to work on eliminating the blocks and bring forward the benefits of these methodologies.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com

Social CRM; the group as the unit of focus

Early efforts in Social CRM too / platform enablements have been focused on the individual:

• Capturing Social activity and informing network value calculation through it
• Identification of behavioral characteristics (connector, maven. Etc.)
• Facilitating two way communication through Social Channels
• Etc.

This is great progress but I think we are yet to see one key aspect of Social CRM; the group as the unit of focus…

There is plenty of academia research on the topic; we behave in different ways as members of a group as we do as individuals.. and these behavioral characteristics change from one group to another (our work, our family, our church, our sport communities).

What are the platform / tool capabilities that will allow us to work with groups as social units and “affect” their behavior by introducing members (i.e. advocates), information (support? Offers?), shared purpose (challenges? Causes?).

• Identify groups/subgroups as they come together (i.e. a group that continuously uses Twitter to discuss a topic)
• Identify the composition & behavior (distinct behavioral characteristics that are present in the group; how many of each?)
• Pattern matching; where does the activity of this group seems to be going based on observations of similar groups we have had in the past? and what variables can I introduce to affect this behavior?

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com

Sounds, Scents, Sensations & Tastes..

These last few days I have gone through a number of happy personal events that helped me remember how strongly my happiest memories are tied to things like the music I was hearing, the scents I was perceiving, the sensations I was experiencing or the tastes I was enjoying at the moment.

I wonder how many opportunities there may be of using these strong tools to awaken emotions and have people react and come together… A baby’s cry, hospital smell, the sound of rain over a lake, a long forgotten song, the scent of cinnamon, bubble wrap popping, the taste of dark chocolate..

Some of the most popular Social Media sites have helped us “traverse” our lives on some important axis.. The relationships and experiences we had when we were younger, our current and past friends, the Music we like… There are many core and strong axis that I think are still available for others to play with.. food for thought.

What do you think?
Filiberto Selvas
Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com

Current phenomena: Acceleration and Aggregation of an old phenomena

THE RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IS REALLY A REPRISE

Great post; these snippets say it all:

"for the vast majority of human history — all media was social media. Media was what happened between people. Whether you think of the proverbial campfire — around which group rituals were performed and mythologies passed on — or of simple everyday interactions: teaching, gossiping, making music, making each other laugh — media was participatory. Media was social."

"we share stories. We're designed to. If something surprises, delights or disgusts us, we feel an innate urge to pass it on."

What are the implications of this? for me the implications are that the understanding (and the explanations on how to leverage) have to go back to old roots as well; we should pay close attention to Sociologists, Anthropologists and Psychologists on how they think, interpret and explain social media.

Filiberto Selvas

Virtual Goods; a growing opportunity for Brands

Virtual Goods: deep integration with social experience + social endorsement = brand heaven!

"Over two week-long periods in October and November, users sent more than 1.1 million (virtual) Nestle Toll House cookies. The campaign registered a 16% brand lift, and a 17% lift in intent to purchase. About 3% of the people opened the cookie gifts, compared to the 0.02% to 0.04% who click on Facebook banner ads."

"side-by-side tests of generic vs. branded virtual goods in the same catalogs (show) people preferred branded goods 10 times more. "

Filiberto Selvas

tags: Social, Media, Virtual, Goods

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