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Dr. Natalie and I hosted the first roundtable in our Simplifying Social Business roundtable series, sponsored by Focus.
Today's roundtable was The Promise of Social CRM, pt 1. We talked about the social business model and began to define Social CRM.
We want to thank Focus for the opportunity to share our social business thought leadership today and in the coming weeks.
Be sure to look over the Q&A. There’s a great handful of conversations that started around the roundtable.
If you are in business today you’re inundated by the plethora of information about social business, social CRM, and social media and the like.
It’s true, social media has changed how we interact – at least in our personal lives.
The bigger question for business leaders, though, is whether social media will help them solve their business problems. And if so, then the question becomes one of how to combine traditional business methods with social media to do so.
Answering those questions is a passion I share with Dr. Natalie Petouhoff. To help business leaders, we’ve teamed together to write an eBook series called Simplifying Social Business. Look for it on Kindle and Nook.
This week and next are going to be exciting in the Kathyverse. In conjunction with Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, I’m launching the Simplifying Social Business ebook series on Kindle and Nook.
In addition, starting next week, Natalie and I will host on ongoing weekly Focus roundtable series on the same topics.
Woo hoo!
In the eBooks, as well as the weekly Focus roundtables, Dr. Natalie and I discuss what business leaders need to know to successfully implement holistic social strategies. We’ll arm folks to effectively break down siloes to engage, influence, collaborate, and create with customers, partners, and employees using the social business model.
The social business model is fundamentally changing the business landscape because it supports how real people relate and do business with each other.
Social companies understand that a certain amount of process is necessary to remain effective and efficient. However, these companies also know success in a social media world means going beyond adding a human touch to business. It means being human.
The social customer wants their questions answered and their problems solved. They want to have confidence in their buying decisions. And they don’t want to worry about your processes, departmental siloes or other activities they view as impediments to getting what they need.
How then, does a company learn how to implement social business strategies that get results?
Mark Ritson takes a hostile and suspicious view of social media benefits in The seven dumbest sins of social media, released last week in Marketing Week.
I don't agree with the depth of his criticism, I do share some of his sentiments. And for the record, I'm pro-social media.
What Mark is really complaining about is some folks are getting so caught up in the shininess of social media they’re forgetting something important.
Social media is not exempt from Business 101 fundamentals.
At the end of the day, there's only one set of reasons for businesses to do social media and they are to:
The first Dreamforce, the Salesforce user conference occurred in 2003, showcasing 50 exhibitors and drew 1,130 attendees. My first thought in seeing that was…really? Dreamforce has only been around for 8 years? It feels like much longer...in a good way.
This year, Dreamforce will have 270+ exhibitors and I'm guessing will exceed last year's 23,000 attendees. I did the math for you. Last year's attendees exceeded the first year's by 19x. And what’s important about that is it reflects how much bigger Salesforce has grown over the same period.
In 2003, Salesforce had 6,400 customers. Today, the company has almost 98,000 or about 14x more than in 2003.
Eloqua and Jess3 teamed together to create a nifty infographic about the rise of Dreamforce.
Dr. Natalie Petouhoff and I spoke this week at a Focus roundtable about social customer service. We shared success stories and offered suggestions for offering stellar customer service via social media, while still achieving ROI. Discussion topics covered:
Click here to hear the event replay.
We didn’t plan it this way, but this is also an unofficial run-up to a new eBook we'll be releasing on Kindle and PubIt in the next week or so.
I’m loving using Google+ and am looking forward to it coming out of beta so more people can get involved. If you’re new and need help with understanding how to do messaging, then Gord McLeod over at GeekBeat.tv has what you need.
For example, I wanted to figure out how to send a message to one specific person, like a Twitter DM. As much as I enjoy reading the conversation streams, I wanted to make personal connections with folks too. Gord has the answer -- and he's now my new best friend.
Check out:
How to Take Advantage of Google+ Messaging
How to Use the Advanced Secrets of Google+ Messaging
