Archive for March, 2010
admissions
A recent eSchool News headline: Are unions blocking school reform? A provocative title – but I think the wrong question.
We always look for silver bullets and scapegoats – movies like the one referenced in the article (Waiting for Superman) can be the worst offenders – it’s very easy to present one side of an argument. Superman names unions and teachers as the scapegoats, and evaluating (and paying) teachers based on student test scores as the silver bullet.
We are also cause-fiends, as with Michael Moore films, people jump on the bandwagon, believing that in a mere 102 minutes a film-maker can objectively and thoroughly explain education in America, clearly show who’s good and who’s bad, and in this case, lay the blame on unions and teachers. Seems naïve and inflammatory to me.
Unions do have problems – they’ve been around for decades, but working conditions, salaries, etc. for teachers haven’t substantively improved. In fact, one might argue that teachers are worse off today than they were three or four (maybe less?) decades ago. Worse, the quality of graduating students (the work product of schools) has also declined. Change is needed, but is it all the teachers’ and unions’ fault? I don’t think so.
If I were Randi Weingarten (president of the American Federation of Teachers), I’d consider an altogether different strategy. I would admit that unions are part of the problem, but they’re not the whole problem. I’d start every speech with “AFT’s mission is to work ourselves out of existence within ten years. Unions exist because management didn’t care enough for the workers – we want to work with governments and administrators in this country to create schools where teachers no longer need the protection of their union, where there is joy and learning in schools, and all students graduate prepared for their next step in life. We aspire to work ourselves out of existence.”
She can change the basis of her union from one that opposes management to one that enables it. To get management to put their sacred cows (moronic standards, standardized testing, 13,000+ districts, poor pay, etc.) on the table, she must put everything (tenure, open to change, quality teachers, etc.) on the table as well. She could quell the issue of ulterior motives (prevent innovation, expand membership dues, increase political power) by taking the high road – her goal should genuinely be to admit that we (including unions and teachers) have problems, that our previous approach hasn’t worked, and if we work together on specific change that leads to sustainably improving student outcomes at scale, good things will come (for students, schools, teachers and yes, even the union).
I am convinced that there is no such thing as a public school teacher in America that chose this profession for the money. They all came because they were called – it is/was in their hearts and their stomachs. It may have waned over time, but the intention was good. I believe we vilify teachers because they’re an easy and convenient target, and because as with anything, it’s easy to find bad teachers among the more than three million teachers in America.
Going back to the opening paragraph, the right question is – do we really want better? If yes, (and I’m not sure I believe we really do), then let’s stop spending tons of money NOT changing things. Let’s start spending less money more effectively to create something worthy of our children and their future.
Unlike the vaunted but ultimately limp recent healthcare summit, Secretary Duncan‘s would-be education summit should include unions, administrators, superintendents, teachers, students, politicians, etc., and it should only have one objective (one they can’t leave the room without accomplishing – a cage match as it were) – unanimous agreement on the goal [note singular] for education in America. Subsequent summits will decide how we get there, but the first step is knowing what success looks like, and that all stakeholders have unequivocally signed up.
We can then challenge the administrators and unions to take a clean slate approach to design great school system(s) that meet that goal. There are many exemplars – High Tech High and Seattle Girls’ School come to mind right away, but there are others. There is no disputing the quality of their graduates, but what strikes me is how exacting both are about hiring, ensuring flexibility, trust and open-mindedness (of the students and teachers alike). Note that despite public school salaries, they have hundreds of applicants for each open position. Hmmm…
It begins with a great leader who has the fortitude to remain true to his and her (respectively) convictions. I wrote about how “he” creates a public a week ago. But how do we do this at scale? We know it is rare (if not impossible) to have a great organization remain great with a poor leader.
Sadly, the public school principals that I’ve met are little more than operations bitches for the district. Unlike Larry and Marja, they have zero latitude to be real leaders. This means that as much as they might have innovative ideas, creative approaches to management, a desire to give their teachers the room to be great, etc., they’re shackled. Going back to Weingarten, I imagine her teachers would be much happier and more effective if their bosses (principals) were leaders like Larry and Marja, and all of them shared a common goal and were empowered to achieve it. Why is it not possible to trust well-vetted and qualified leaders to do what’s right?
Education is a system – it has many components, including districts, administrators, teachers, students, parents, unions, publishers, sates, the feds, etc. Today there is way too much overlap among the players, too much oversight over mundane issues, and enough internal mistrust to create an impossible situation. The approach I suggested for the AFT could easily apply to all the other stakeholders. But until there is a common definition of success, and until every part of the system is held accountable for achieving it, we won’t get anywhere.
In the end, we should not vilify any one part of the system – we should instead agree to a clear goal for education, and admit that the system as its currently defined doesn’t work for broad public school education. Admissions are the first step..
Red Chair Portland (#RedChairPdx) recap
Hi everyone! I am finally back from all my recent travels, so blog posts will be resuming shortly. I have tons of content to share, lots of video to edit and many things to discuss, but since I have a mountain of work to catch up on first, here is a short video that recaps the inaugural/pilot #RedChairPdx event last week.
The short version: It went well, it was an excellent start, and expect a Red Chair training event to come to a city near you very soon.
The slightly longer version – from the Red Chair blog:
Thursday March 11 was Red Chair “Executive,” the full-day session that aimed to provide executive level delegates with a framework with which to bake social media into their business. We explored the nature of social communications, the difference between social media and socialized digital communications, the types of SM-build scenarios (centralized vs. decentralized), the phases of integration across the enterprise, what each phase entailed, working across silos, hiring and developing talent, building an IT ecosystem to foster internal knowledge sharing and collaboration, the customer support/community management/PR triumvirate, the legal underpinnings of Social Media usage for companies, how to manage Social Media from within every department while keeping all communications “on brand,” how to properly approach Social Media measurement, and lots. lots more. The session was held at downtown Portland’s Executive MBA center, which was pretty ideal, really. Centrally located, spacious, full A/V capabilities, etc. For this first event, we managed about 15-16 delegates, three of who flew up from California to attend. In terms of numbers, we expect that attendance will grow into during the rest of the year, but at a hard cap of 35 seats per session, hitting almost half that with our very first event – with no momentum yet – more than met expectations for the launch.
Friday March 12 was Red Chair “Studio,” held at the Webtrends headquarters, also in downtown Portland. This event was aimed more towards mid-level to account-level managers, and was essentially a half-day version of “Executive” the day before. Maximum attendance in the Webtrends training room was 36, and we filled 35 seats. So… Just one seat shy of being sold out. Again, not too bad for a launch. In this session, we focused a little more on management and measurement than build and integration. As with “Executive,” brilliant crowd. And a complex mix of specialties to boot: Copywriters, Social Media directors, agency account execs, digital strategists, PR professionals, content managers, creative directors, marketing consultants, etc. We even scored a quick preview of some of Webtrends’ new features and a demo of its pretty clutch Facebook capabilities. (If you haven’t looked into Webtrends’ tool yet, you should.)
I’ll add a little bit of video of each event a bit later. In the meantime, I want to thank my partners and sponsors in Portland for making #RedChairPdx a success – not only the event itself, but the launch of the entire series: Ant Hill Marketing,Webtrends, and 52Ltd. With very little planning time compared to a lot of other events, virtually no budget and more importantly very little supervision, they were able to pull off the logistics and marketing that ultimately made these two days of training possible.
Also, HUGE thanks to everyone who attended either (or both) events. All of this is meaningless without you guys. 
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
breaking benjamin-simple design
“Simple Design” I live a chemical life I’m on a mission to try You went insane for a day I’ll have to shove it away My only option is gone Smile as they break and they fall You want a simpler life You can’t erase what was mine You must be out of your mind! This was a simple design! You fuck it up everytime How could you leave me behind It’s alright, it’s alright ’cause I know what you want but you’ll just have to wait If I had it to give I would give it away I’m living it up while I’m falling from grace There’s no way, there’s no way that I’m running away I’m used to making it worse Made up of four letter words You wanna know what it was Now isolated and gone You fall apart at the seams I’ll never know what it means Try not to pull it apart You’re aiming straight from the heart It had to be the worst for me I don’t know what to say so let me be And now I find you left me behind I don’t know what to say so nevermind! You’re mine!
LikeMinds 2010: Clarifying the operational framework of Social Communications – Prologue
L2R: Chris Brogan, Scott Gould, Joanne Jacobs, Jon Akwue, Olivier Blanchard, John bell, Drew Ellis, Yann Gourvennec – photo by Benjamin Ellis
There is so much I want to write about the #LikeMinds conference and summit that I could go on for weeks. (And I may yet.) For now, all I can do is give you a glimpse of what is to come, and promise you a deluge of strategic, operational, and tactical insights into how to deploy, integrate and manage social communications.
Feel free to keep calling it Social Media if you must, but I am moving on to “Social Communications” until I find a better term.
Why the change in vernacular? Two reasons: 1. Terminology matters. Using the right words is important. 2. It never was about the media. Not for one second. The reason why so many people are confused about this, from integration and strategy to implementation, management and measurement is because of the focus on the media. Stop. Just stop. Think. Refocus. What are we talking about here? (Trust me, it isn’t the media.)
And if this is the part where you expect me to say “it isn’t about the media, it’s about people,” you’re only half right. Cliches aside, it’s about people, sure. It’s about a lot of things, really. It. But at its most basic level, all we have been talking about is communications. That’s it. Twitter, Facebook, the internet, mobile, all the technology, the media, the platforms, they’re things. They’re boxes. Pipes and wires and glass. There’s a bigger picture here that is tool-agnostic, universal, and easy to understand, define and reframe if we just take a couple of steps back and change our perspective by a fraction of a degree (which is what we did at the Summit.)
This stuff really isn’t brain surgery. How Social Communications can be engineered into your organization, it’s a lot of moving parts, sure, and it’s hard work if you want to do it right, but it doesn’t take quantum physicists to deconstruct the processes, methodologies and best practices. If Likeminds proved anything, it’s that beyond the presentations and show-and-tell sessions common to most “Social Media” conferences, when people who work in the Social Communications enablement space 150 hours a week get together to work out the kinks, the kinks get worked out.
Incidentally, perhaps the reason why so many companies and so many would-be consultants and “gurus” are still confused about how this all works is because we’ve been using the wrong terminology all along. How can you understand something you can’t even properly name?
Social Communications it is, then. For now. It isn’t a big leap really, but try it on for size. Drive it around for a few days, see if it grows on you. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, we’ll keep trying.
I don’t have time to write a real post before catching my flight back to the US. I leave Bovey Castle in Dartmoor before dawn to catch a train from Exeter to London. Then it’s the Heathrow Express, then Delta to ATL and ATL to GSP. So I can’t share videos, pictures and thoughts with you yet. And my presentation from the conference will be available on Slideshare in a few days, so hang tight. I need to add some commentary to it before I upload it.
Until then, you can get caught up on videos, photos and insights from the Like Minds conference here and here. Among the keynote speakers: Ogilvy Worldwide’s John Bell, Chris Brogan, Orange’s Yann Gourvennec, Joanne Jacobs and Jonathan Akwue, who are all brilliant beyond words. No matter what presentation you watch, trust me, you’ll learn something valuable.
One last thought I want to leave you with before I go try and grab a few hours of sleep before my early ride out of here: We’re going to crack this nut wide open for you. Social Communications, the whole bit, we’re going to lay it out for you, piece by piece, brick by brick. The white paper that will come out of this summit will outline a lot of it for you. Much more than we expected. The level of clarity we reached through the exercise surprised me, frankly. That’s what happens when the right people sit together and focus on the right things long enough to get something done. Why we don’t do it more, I don’t know.
So hang tight, get caught up on all of the #LikeMinds content, and I will be back with more updates throughout the week.
Oh, and please help me spread the word about Red Chair Portland on March 11 and 12. I am updating my deck to include some of the key findings and insights our group worked out during the summit, so… it might even be worth flying into PDX for this one.
Cheers,
Olivier
The State of the Twittersphere 2010
The state and future of Twitter is passionately debated as users and industry pundits explore whether or not the platform and the relationships that connect one another are in danger of slowing or worse, regressing. Over the last year, Twitter experienced its most phenomenal growth to date, fueled by the adoption of the communication network by highly visible and influential personalities that attracted legions of new users to establish one-to-many and ultimately many-to-many connections. But, then the meteoric ascent practically leveled-off…
HubSpot released a new report that captures the state of the Twitterverse, opening a window that instantly transforms speculation into analysis and setting the stage for informed discourse and exploration.
According to the report, Twitter’s user growth peaked at 13% in March 2009 falling to just 3.5% in October 2009. And while this is the most recent date for which HubSpot has access, it is revealing nonetheless.
The steep decline, as I’ve said many times, has less to do with exposure and more to do with the initial Twitter experience for prospective users. Millions upon millions of new prospects are introduced to Twitter everyday by brands and media properties who place Twitter center stage in broadcast, print, and in person.
Follow us on Twitter.
Send us a Tweet.
Tweet us to win.
Receive special discounts, promos, and coupons just by following us.
Once they arrive at Twitter, there’s very little instruction or incentive to take the steps to not only create an account, but also adopt it as a form of daily or even weekly communication.
Although user adoption is slowing, existing users appear more engaged. According to the report, the average user is following a greater number of people and earning a greater reach through an increased number of followers. Existing users are also posting more content.
Once engaged in Twitter, the seduction of response, by a stranger or someone we know, combined with the allure of popularity is enticing and intoxicating. Many people fall victim to its addictive qualities as you are rewarded with feedback, connections, and presence through engagement. As such, Twitter is a rich network of opportunity to increase stature as measured through online social capital. Experienced users realize that the value of participatory media is powered by so much more than just simple tweets or conversations.
Paying it forward, reciprocity, and recognition are the investments we make in earning attention and awareness for the value we bring to the table.
When we realize that Twitter is far more than a tool to enliven self-actualization, “I Tweet therefore I am,” we uncork the essence of who we are today and who we wish to become tomorrow. As such, we embrace nuances of self-branding by presenting ourselves through bios, locations, and outbound profile links. Users are making the connection that they can define and shape the experience of those who clickthrough to their profile in order to better present the persona they wish rather than the personality left open to interpretation and perception.
Social Media is making this world a much smaller place, linking us through the words we place into action and the topics, interests and passions we share. We’re forging highly focused and expansive networks that engender opportunities for collaboration, education, and entertainment and as a result, we’re finding comfort outside of our comfort zones. We are now citizens of international provinces where we establish the governance and culture and set the course for our new found freedom.
Relationships are seemingly evolving into relations, where we invest in connections of those we know and also wish to know. However, while many users maintain following and follower networks numbering in the thousands, 82% of Twitter users maintain a network of less than 100 followers and 91% follow less than 100 people.
The Twitterverse is a living and breathing ecosystem that moves and adapts to current events and the moments of opportunity when someone is prone to sharing, responding, or viewing the activity of their friends and contacts. Dan Zarrella and I previously discussed the art and science of retweets, and in this report, HubSpot examined user characteristics and patterns of use.
What, when, and how we share, read, and bookmark tweets is governed by what I call the attention aperture. Our attention aperture opens and closes to match our daily regiment. We are only susceptible to learning at different times than we are to sharing. And through the analysis of the greater collective, we can observe patterns in this activity.
HubSpot observed that Thursday and Friday are among the most active days on Twitter, with each accounting for 16% of total tweets. Furthermore, 10 – 11 p.m. is the busiest hour on Twitter, accounting for 4.8% of the tweets in an average day.
HubSpot also documented the distribution of Tweets per day to get an idea of when people are updating their status, but also most likely, ready to be introduced to new, relevant content.
In the report published in collaboration with Dan Zarrella, we observed that Monday and Friday were among the greatest opportunities for retweeting as those windows represented ideal time frames for when the attention aperture was wide open.
Believe it or not, I’m often asked, “what’s the secret to retweets.” People are often introduced to formulas and methodologies that are questionable at best, but presented otherwise. My response is direct and honest, “say something worthy of retweeting.” And for good measure, I always throw in, “120 is the new 140. If you leave room at the end of your tweet for @username and potential commentary, you make it effortless for someone to RT you.”
Billions of Tweets Now Served
According to the data, it appears that the growth of Twitter is indeed leveling. However, existing usage is only skyrocketing among the core group of users who didn’t necessarily need Twitter to tell them how to get value out of ongoing engagement. According to recent research conducted by Pingdom, Twitter is serving more than 40 million tweets per day.
Most notably, on January 12th, 2010, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams published a Tweet that marked the company’s busiest day…
Across all metrics that matter, yesterday was Twitter’s highest-usage day ever. (And today will be bigger.)
In reviewing the astronomical rise of Tweets published by existing users, we see that Twitter is now serving more than one billion tweets per month – crossing over for the first time in December 2009.
From January 2009 to January 2010, the growth is practically blinding. Tweets, in just one year, ballooned 16x.
In the last three months, Twitter experienced month-to-month growth close to 17%.
November 16.8%
December 16.6%
January 16.9%
Pingdom estimates that Twitter will process around 1.4 billion tweets as soon as February 2010.
50,000,000 Tweets Per Day
We can’t help but feel like we’re running on a perpetual treadmill of rapid evolution courtesy of the blurring pace at which the real-time is Web is accelerating. When reviewing the recent Pingdom data, the first thing that comes to mind is, that was then, this is now.
Why?
In February, Twitter added its data to the mix revealing the magnitude and velocity of tweets. As of today, more than 50 million tweets are published in the statusphere, not to mention the distribution and syndication of those tweets across multiple social networks. According to the Twitter team, that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.
For perspective, in 2007, Twitter hosted 5,000 tweets per day. In 2008, the number climbed to 300,000 per day. In 2009, Twitter was publishing an astounding 2.5 million per day and over the course of the year, it soared to 35 million, up 1,400%
Folks were tweeting 5,000 times a day in 2007. By 2008, that number was 300,000, and by 2009 it had grown to 2.5 million per day. Tweets grew 1,400% last year to 35 million per day. Today, we are seeing 50 million tweets per day—that’s an average of 600 tweets per second.
The state of the Twitterverse or the Twittersphere if you will, has less to do with what “is” and more to do with what’s possible. I’m focusing my time on the latter. However, it takes Twitter, as a technology and as a business, to realize that what it is and what it wants to be, is distanced only by the actions it takes today. Meaning, the user experience starts upon the initial visit to Twitter.com and it continues long after registration. There’s much to be done – especially as Twitter has yet to truly demonstrate its value as an independent network for the masses.
I Tweet, therefore I am…part of a larger movement to expand awareness, literacy and connections that escalate causes and conversations that are greater than, but still complement, my purpose for engaging online.
Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook
Social Capital: The Currency of the Social Economy
The convention for creating financial opportunities is evolving and changing the way we seed prospects, promote our expertise and prowess, and connect with those who can help us learn and advance through the facilitation of strategic and mutually beneficial alliances.
Digital capitalization is laying a foundation for expanding the need to cultivate and participate, not only in the real world, but also in the online networks and communities that can benefit us personally and professionally.
In an era of democratized publishing and equalized influence, it can be said that engagement and participation are a new, powerful and effective form of “un” marketing. At the very least, this is an epoch of empathy.
Social capital is a strong ally, an elite catalyst for lucrative relationships, and now a metric for qualification, consideration and ultimately success (however you define it). This is a state of human economics that is thoroughly discussed in Tara Hunt’s book, The Whuffie Factor. Our “Whuffie” or social capital and intellectual assets are defined by both online and real world conduct and its “balance sheet” is available for anyone with a web browser to review, assess, and analyze.
Reputation, trust, and relationships, are each earned at varying levels, through our action and words. Our interaction reinforces impressions and engenders experiences. As such, our personal and professional brands are essentially reflections of our contributions. In the end, we get out of it, what we invest in it.
By participating in relevant online communities and publishing content that promotes our expertise as it empathizes with those seeking information and direction in a way that literally speaks to them, we begin the process of building and shaping our online reputation, brand, and persona that traverses virtual, augmented, and actual realities. The ideas and wisdom we share and the relationships we forge only fuel its proliferation and stature.
Like any form of capital, Social capital rises and falls with the market and the individual to which it’s governed by the state of the industry and affected by the state of corresponding affairs. As it escalates, however, it unlocks opportunities that are commensurate with the community’s assessment of its value. In the same regard, the community will not support or reward lackluster, opportunistic, also-ran, or hollow engagement in the long term.
Again, social capital is measured by individual value and collective perception.
The Human Algorithm
But trust and reputation are only as valuable as their ability to represent you in your absence. And as in anything online, perception and presence are the focus of proactive programs that enhance the discovery process and steer recognition and stature in your favor.
As search plays an increasingly important role in the investigation process of surfacing qualified candidates and social objects around relevant topics, we quickly become brand managers for our intellectual and personal assets. Our livelihood now pivots on our ability to connect dots between who were are, what we stand for, and the value we offer.
You will be Googled.
You will also be Twittered, Flickrd, YouTubed, Facebooked, and LinkedIn’ed.
While Google is the standard by which all search is measured, those active in defining their presence in traditional search will do so through organic as well as through optimized techniques such as SEO. However, as search becomes social, the role of queries disseminates beyond Google with content sought and channeled directly within Social Networks as well as new breeds of real-time search platforms. As such, prominence is then ascertained by the digital shadows we cast across the traditional and social Web (yes, there is a difference) and also through our investment in driving strategic visibility. Essentially, our brand as defined by our views, opinions, thoughts, observations, and actions, becomes a social object that requires dynamic cultivation and placement.
The Human Algorithm becomes our lifeline to regulated exposure while also providing a foundation for constructing and enhancing our presence directly within the channels where prospects are seeking information.
Social Customer Hierarchy
As social media becomes ubiquitous, businesses will no longer possess the means to effectively scale and sustain participation across all conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other online communities. Whether you agree with this or not, brands will face the need to prioritize who they engage based on what I refer to as the Social Customer Hierarchy. The level of influence and authority a customer or prospect holds determines their placement in the chain of preeminence.
Yes, we earn prominence and amass social capital through productive contributions to online societies. In the process, we increase our stature and amplify our voices and it will escalate consumer matters when other traditional means are exhausted. Brandishing this distinction however, erodes value, and over time, ranking and credibility are diminished.
Our online reputation and the activity that contribute to its definition are investments in our social capital. The return on these investments is evident in the opportunities and relationships that ensue and proliferate. Our social graph, the connections we forge and actively nurture, represents a very public testimony. If you’re not actively investing in its significance, you may actually take away from its net worth.
Connect with Brian Solis: Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google Buzz, Facebook
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Social Media 101
Should your company be blogging? What’s Twitter going to do for you? Why is Facebook all the rage? I’m happy to report that my new book, Social Media 101 (amazon aff link) is available for purchase.
Here are a few places where you can buy it, should you want it:
Social Media 101 – 800CEORead
Social Media 101 -Amazon
Social Media 101 – Amazon KINDLE edition
Social Media 101 – Barnes & Noble
Social Media 101 – Books-a-Million
Social Media 101 – Borders
(I’ll add more as they come about)
**Audiobook coming soon, but not for a bit. Kindle coming soon, but not for a bit.
Who Should Want This Book?
First off, the book is a collection of information that you might have read about here on chrisbrogan.com. Most of it comes from blog posts, tidied up to be useful to you. But that’s the point.
This book is for people who are less likely to read my blog. It’s also a way to have my information distilled in a static form so you can refer to bits as you need them. That’s one benefit to it.
Another benefit? You can share this with folks who might not normally read the blog who might need to get what we’re doing here in social media.
Make sense?
It’s Not the NEW Stuff
It’s the basics. It’s the little tricks and ideas. It’s suggestions of what to do next. Is it new and mind-blowing? No, not really. It’s important. Yes, it’s important.
Special Thanks
This book wouldn’t exist without my mom and dad. Steve Brogan and Diane Brogan did tons and tons of work on this book. My wife, Katrina, helped out, as well. Imagine that: a book brought to life by family. Hands-on by people who are NOT social media experts, but who get it. They all use these tools in their own ways, very differently from me. And yet, they use them.
Will you?
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Using Twitter Search for Business
I spend a lot of time in Twitter search. I do it for several purposes. One is for my client partners. For instance, if I’m thinking of ways to do things for MolsonCoors, I might start up searches on various beer brands to get some competitive analysis. I might start figuring out if there are location-specific tweets about Molson products. For instance, during the Vancouver Olympics, I might have found several people tweeting about their beers while out and about enjoying the events. I could do something with that.
But there are lots of ways to use it. Do you need to find more case studies? Here’s a simple search for case studies: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=”case+study”+filter:links
Do you want to know who’s talking about burgers near San Francisco? http://search.twitter.com/search?q=burger+near:SF+filter:links”
Want some negative proof? I sniffed around for “site sucks” – http://search.twitter.com/search?q=”site+sucks” – to see who’s saying what about bad websites (note: don’t forget to speak the way your tweeters would speak).
Maybe you’re in pharma? I checked out “allergies plus meds OR medication – http://search.twitter.com/search?q=allergies+medication+OR+meds”
There are lots more opportunities to consider. One of my favorites? http://search.twitter.com/search?q=”looking+for”. It’s like permission to sell. Right there. (If you’re not a jerk.)
Oh that Twitter. Such a silly tool. Why even bother? (Keep telling yourself that.)
Bonus Round
Save your searches. Cook them up and put them in your Google Reader or your Seesmic Desktop or your Tweetdeck. Build STATIONS around these kinds of searches. Build response protocols for them. (I’ve barely scratched the surface, but wanted to start somewhere).
And you? Success stories?
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Customers Ignite a New Era of CRM
- March 5, 2010
- View Comments
What follows is the unedited version of my latest post at AllThingsDigital…
The Altimeter Group today released a new report on Social CRM and while analysts release reports all the time, this is different. The report is free to read and share under Creative Commons and this is a big disruptor, one that reflects the socialization of information and the spirit of social media.
The New Rules of Relationship Management
The essence of the new report by Altimeter’s R “Ray” Wang and Jeremiah Owyang is putting the customer first. While that seems like a simple principle, it’s easier said then done. The case the duo make is rooted of course in social media and the self-actualization of personal influence.
As the report notes in the beginning:
Rapid adoption of social networking enables users to connect with individuals and communities who share mutual interests, increasingly leaving organizations out of the conversation.
Simply hiring more people to keep up with social marketing, sales, and support will not be sufficient, as consumers and their new channels will always outnumber employees. As a result, companies need an organized approach using enterprise software that connects business units to the social web – giving them the opportunity to respond in near-real time, and in a coordinated fashion.
And indeed, they’re right.
Social media didn’t invent conversations, it simply amplified and connected them to audiences and the actions that are triggered as a result. With the right tools, and more importantly mindset and resolve, we can now uncover these incredibly valuable, insightful and prominent conversations where and when they happen. Listening is only the beginning however. As in anything, we need a little less conversation and a little more action.
As the report notes, Social CRM does not replace existing CRM efforts, it complements it with an outbound extension to connect with the very social beacons that shape and steer perception – those previously untouched with inbound only infrastructures. Essentially the “s” in sCRM should be viewed as a verb…as in socialize. Actions speak louder than words and thus, sCRM transforms words and intent into action.
As the “Godfather of CRM,” Paul Greenberg notes, “We’ve moved from the transaction to the interaction with customers, though we haven’t eliminated the transaction – or the data associated with it… Social CRM focuses on engaging the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. Social CRM is the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”
The Socialization of an Entire Organization
The social customer is only one part of the equation. As any listening program will reveal, conversations map specifically to departments within an organization and as such, all units affected by outside activity will socialize over time. This is why I believe that over time, we should focus less on the “C” of sCRM and focus our attention, energy and ingenuity on the aspects of SRM – social relationship management.
The Social Web is distributing influence beyond the customer landscape, allocating authority amongst stakeholders, prospects, advocates, decision makers, and peers. SRM recognizes that whether someone recommended a product, purchased a product, or simply recognized it publicly, in the end, each makes an impact on behavior at varying levels. Therefore customers are now merely part of a larger equation that also balances vendors, experts, partners, and other authorities. In the realm of SRM, influence is distributed and it is recognizes wherever and however it takes shape.
SRM is a doctrine aligned with a humanized business strategy and supporting technology infrastructure and platform. SRM recognizes that all people, no matter what system they use, are equal. It represents a wider scope of active listening and participation across the full spectrum of influence mapped to specific department representatives within the organization using various lenses for which to identify individuals where and how they interact.
But we must begin somewhere and for many businesses, the evolution from CRM to sCRM is in fact, revolutionary.
After months of study and interviews with over 100 organizations, Altimeter Group identified 18 use cases for Social CRM to help businesses assess, adapt, and create new programs and processes to socialize their brands.
As the report notes, Social CRM programs start at the departmental level, but require corporate support to transform fiefdoms into united efforts. The challenge lies in mobilizing and organizing resources around distributed conversations and building the connectors that link CRM systems to social networks. And, organizations must prioritize based on market demand and technology maturity.
Customers have already migrated towards new channels and in the process, companies that are not in pursuit are quickly falling behind. Relationships between organizations and customers might be better defined simply as “relations” as the existing framework was traditionally optimized around the organization and not the customer.
Traditional CRM projects have failed to grasp the complexities of the customer-company relationship. Though these CRM programs started out with the goal of providing a single customer view and 1:1 relationship management, early efforts quickly refocused on automation of front office tasks and improving management visibility across marketing, sales, service and support. Because these programs have often failed to support the front office worker’s needs to manage relationships, internal adoption halted as users grew to resent, and in some cases revolt, against CRM.
To begin at the beginning, businesses must deploy Social CRM for business value and not get caught up in the hype of Twitter and Facebook. We have to go where our customers seek, discover, and share information. Alitimeter suggests focusing on bite-sized entry points as today’s tight budgets, limited resources, and little time will ensure that companies get the most bang for the buck initially.
In the report, each one of the 18 use cases brings definable metrics that should be incorporated in each Social CRM program.
- Begin with the end in mind
- Metrics should be aligned with an organization’s entry points
- Quantify the baseline and determine the effort
- Adjust ROI targets to align resources with efforts to move the needle
- The goal – drive business value
The 18 recommended use cases are organized in seven categories and in order of operations. As observed, most organizations start their initiatives by building out the “5 M’s” and deploying a customer insight program that matures with experience and earned intelligence. I previously discussed the maturation of social media infrastructure in business usually evolves in at least 1o stages.
Social Customer Insights form the Foundation for All Social CRM Use Cases – Everything begins with listening
1. Social Customers Insights
Social Marketing Seeks to Achieve Customer Advocacy
2. Social Marketing Insights
3. Rapid Social Marketing Response
4. Social Campaign Tracking
5. Social Event Management
Social Sales Enables Seamless Lead Opportunities
6. Social Sales Insights
7. Rapid Social Sales Response
8. Proactive Social Lead Generation
Social Support and Service Drives Sustainable Customer Satisfaction
9. Social Support Insights
10. Rapid Social Responsse
11. Peer-2-Peer (P2P) Unpaid Armies
Social Innovation Streamlines Complex Ideation
12. Innovation Insights
13. Crowdsourced R&D
Collaboration Reduced Organizational Friction and Stimulates Ecosystem
14. Collaboration Insights
15. Enterprise Collaboration
16. Extended Collaboration
Seamless Customer Experience Sustains Advocacy Programs
17. Seamless Customer Experience
18. VIP Experience
The Customer (R)evolution
The methodologies, systems, and people that entwine CRM are unquestionably forcing a historical (r)evolution from the outside in. As customers earn prominence online and ultimately in the marketplaces they define, CRM is far more consequential to the prosperity and relevance of businesses, than perhaps ever before.
This is about earning a prestigious position in the hearts, minds, and ultimately decisions of customers, prospects and those who effect their actions, today and tomorrow. Essentially, with the socialization of media and the redistribution of authority and influence, we are competing for the future simply by listening, responding, learning and adapting.
The social customer is disrupting the balance of power and they’re actively exerting their new found eminence within every social network and community that thrives off of shared experiences. The socialization of CRM is effectively measured by the dedication of resources and resolution the organization commits not just to social media, but to all existing channels where customers, influencers and prospects seek help.
Divided we share…United we change.
