Gain free insights into how to build a better business.
Learn valuable tips for successful technology implementation and also gain insight into (data) insights.
We’re pleased as punch to announce the launch of Pathlight Solutions, a new firm focused on transforming business.
Our suite of workshops, tools, and services show companies how to holistically fuse business, technology, and people requirements to ignite positive change.
Find out how to determine social media and SCRM value and ROI at a complimentary webinar sponsored by Pathlight Solutions, a subsidiary of Intellicore Design Consulting.
Date: December 10, 2009
Time: 2 pm EST (USA)
Presenters: Kathy Herrmann, partner, Pathlight Solutions (and Intellicore Design Consulting).
In the webinar, you'll discover:
Who should attend: C-Level execs – as well as anyone interested in understanding how to perform a rigorous valuation of social media and its supporting technology.
Register today for the must-attend Social Media and SCRM Valuation and ROI webinar and focus your efforts on determining whether social media is the best customer-facing initiative for your company to undertake.
If you have any problems registering, contact me for help here.
I just finished an interesting article by Steve Woodruff who asked the question “ROI in Social Media – Where Does it Belong?” He launched his article by writing:
“What’s the ROI of Social Media?” I hear that question all the time, and it drives me crazy.
Huh. I’m driven crazy by the opposite question…Why wouldn’t you expect to provide social media valuation to your executive team (just as you would for any other corporate initiative)?
I’m a big believer in the value of wildcat corporate initiatives. And I get that sometimes those buggers are hard to quantify. It can happen when you’re blazing new trails and surrounded by unknowns.
Despite the unknowns, you still need to put a value to the opportunity. Doesn’t matter if you’re drilling a wildcat well in a new territory, developing a new product like an iPod, or diving into social media.
Why the need to access value? Because when it gets right down to it, most companies are opportunity rich but still resource limited (especially relative to personnel). And rather than throw money at any old opportunity, you need to find the ones that will give you the best return.
Soooo, segue to an article I wrote on Social Media ROI at the end of October.
Here’s a true but little known story about me....I decided to attend Virginia Tech after I visiting a family friend who was a student there.
Diane took me to a frat party and I had fun...a lot of fun...and VT zoomed up to my top college choice, thanks to my "punch"-influenced impressions. (Fortunately, the gods were with me, because VT turned out to be a great choice for me career- and otherwise.)
I bring up the story, though, because it reminds me of what's happening in social media...where execs are being asked wing social media decisions based on impressions. Social media initiatives provide real-world benefits -- but execs can and should expect to consider their economic value relative to other customer-facing initiatives.
Yes, it's hard to determine a social media ROI because of the combination of a long-term investment and unknown variables. But...
Not having a clear idea of how to determine a social media ROI doesn't mean it can't be done.
Want to know how? Think like an upstream oil company.
Yes, really.
Thanks to all the folks who took time to write articles and share their thoughts.
So many good topics on technology, CRM, and social businesses. So many opportunities to comment.
And I did, I did. Here are the places I visited this week.
Sales is much more than just sales people
A Twitter discussion on the lead to opportunity life cycle moved to a Mitch Lieberman's blog (sometimes you need more than 140 characters for conversations). My 2 cents on the customer life cycle and it's place in lead nurturing through opportunity to conversion to customer.
Also be sure to check out the article I wrote as a follow up to Mitch's. It's Take ownership of your customer relationships - And win.
Who owns prospects and customers in your company? Do you know? Just as importantly, would folks in other departments give the same answer?
You need "yes" answers to all those questions or you'll mismanage your customer relationships.
To get to "yes," your customer-facing teams need good definitions of your company's Customer Life Cycle and Rules of (Customer) Engagement.
Let’s dish on strategies to propel your company's business success by spring boarding on well-defined customer relationships – and then layer in the technology tools for managing the customer.
This week, I had much to say about a number of topics.
Holding central place is my continuing championship of letting business objectives and strategies lead technology. The latter is the servant of the former, by gum.
Go. Read.
The Next Big Thing is not Social “XYZ”
Wim Rampen wrote a short article that generated active discussion on the topic of the co-creation being at the core of Social CRM and Social Business Design. Much of the discussion centered on the Next Big Thing.
I'm a technology lover and, hey, partner in an IT firm here. In my mind, though too much discussion still centers on technology, when many businesses are still at the starting point of defining objectives and strategies for social business design.
