How much progress have we really made?  We still enjoy good conversations and sometimes we need someone to connect us with others who are interested in engaging dialogue.  We’re not looking for idle chit-chat.  What does it look like to peek inside the digital switchboard of a Social Connector? We are looking for advice on buying products, insight to future business ventures, or for personal development and direction.  We are Social Connectors in a digital switchboard era.

Digital Consoles of a Social Connector

• Blippr “Well, you’re right, it is funny. But, blippr is much more than just a trendy set of letters. It’s a really easy way to discover, talk about, and organize great apps, books, games, movies, and music. We figure that hey, why not make it easy to talk about and then find even more great stuff to talk about?” Blippr.com
• American Express Open Forum “See why small businesses have the power to reengineer our economy and how OPEN Forum has tools that can help them.” OpenForum.com

• Mashable: HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter “Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service.” Mashable.com

Social networking sites have become the personal operated switchboard exchange panels for the 2010 individual.  A recent article shows that more people share links to resources on Facebook rather than through sending an email.  Links shared on Facebook not only benefit the friend to friend connections but to others who see the shared link.

Digital Circuits of a Social Connector

• AddtoAny “According to AddToAny, Facebook now dominates sharing, with 24 percent of shares from the widget consisting of users posting items to the social network.” Mashable.com
• StumbleUpon “Using a combination of human opinions and machine learning to immediately deliver relevant content, StumbleUpon presents only web sites that have been suggested by other like-minded Stumblers.” StumbleUpon.com
• FriendFeed “Read and share however you want — from your email, your phone or even from Facebook. Publish your FriendFeed to your website or blog, or to services you already use, like Twitter.” FriendFeed.com

Have the social norms of sharing links and recommending our friends and colleagues allowed us to tap into an altruistic thread deeply embedded within our social DNA?  I realize my question may seem all too idealistic to the realist and social media pessimists, nevertheless I claim my stake in the optimist camp.  Social Connectors look for opportunities for sharing and introductions.

Digital Frequencies of a Social Connector

• Mr. Tweet “To get found by people who would be interested in what you do, there is no better way than to get MrTweet recommendations from your fans!”  MrTweet.com
• Twellow “Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people who matter to you.”  Twellow.com
• Plaxo “It’s a dashboard for seeing what the people you know are creating and sharing all over the open web. You can hook your Pulse account up to all the places where you create or share stuff (your blog, Flickr, Twitter, Yelp, and more than 30 other sites).”  Plaxo.com

Are you a Social Connector? Are you building social capital to fund the new entrepreneurs, innovators and catalysts of tomorrow?  This is the tribe to which I belong.  We have built upon the adage “Its not what you know, but who you know” and re-branded it to say, “It’s what you know and who you share it with.” That is how to define someone who is a Social Connector.” We think in terms of personal vitalization, social equity, and global collaboration.

By the way, if you liked what I have shared with you, I hope you will share it with someone else.  Don’t just send them the link, tell them why you are sending it to them because that’s what Social Connectors do.

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The revolutionary creation of movable type provided the method by which a mass communication would take place.  Scholars argue that it was the Gutenberg’s press that ushered in the Renaissance era, an era that at the core was a cultural shift and a resurgence of learning.  Had Gutenberg created the original Wordpress?

Interesting enough is the fact that the single letters were assembled in a rectangular box and then placed in what some historians believe was a press influenced by the wine presses in the German region where Gutenberg lived.

Without trying to make too much of a correlation to the communication era we are living in now and the communication revolution of the 14^th century, is it possible that we might be in a Gutenberg moment?  Over the last 500 hundred years, we have gone from a one-to-one form of communication to a one-to-many form of distribution of information to now a mass-to-mass distribution of information driven by individuals.

Have we stumbled upon this moment not realizing the significance? Have we, by adding 140 characters to tiny rectangles linking to world changing events, unknowingly participated in a cultural shift once again? Have we rearranged the letters and symbols in such a way that a new mobile type has dawned?

Speaking from my own experience, I would have to answer, yes!  I have been engulfed by this social wave and experienced the passion of learning new things based on the timeless categories of relationships, life, and purpose.

Every day I find new blogs, updates on Facebook, tweets on Twitter, pictures on Flickr and videos on YouTube all making unique expressions, some beautiful in design and each adding value to a global community.

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CoTweet is a solid and simple web-based solution with scheduling features, but currently cannot link to any other social channels such as Facebook or Linkedin.  You can assign Twitter followers to other CoTweet users which would be useful in a customer service environment.  There is an area to add notes on a specific Twitter profile as well as view number of followers/following and previous conversations.  Two small features missing are the capabilities to mark Twitter profile as VIP, or linking identified Twitter profiles to Plaxo.  CoTweet users can sync a Bit.ly account for tracking Tweet click throughs, but that is as far as it goes with regards to tweet analytics.

HootSuite also a web-based solution multi Twitter account client application.  HootSuite offers Twitter and Facebook update sync through Ping.fm (this can feed other social channels if you wish) and you can schedule tweets for both channels.  However, the URL shortner Ow.ly has some resistance in the Social Web community because of the annoying banner across the page when visitors click through.  The benefit to HootSuite Ow.ly URL shortener provides click through analytics within the application.  Similar missing features as in CoTweet is the ability to add notes, mark as VIP contact, or link to other social media networks.

PeopleBrowsr is a power house application on Adobe AIR or as a web-based application.  Don’t bother with the AIR app: stick with the Browser version.  In Business mode, users can click on a Twitter avatar in the tweet stream and select from various activity functions such as Follow, Favorite, Group, Note, VIP, Email, Plaxo, and Rate.  PeopleBrowsr provides users the ability to schedule tweets for multiple social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Plaxo and FriendFeed just to name a few.  This multiple social network feed is something that no other social client application can do. The only drawback to PeopleBrowsr is that they have the Twitter API on their server which results in a slight lag in the update columns, however users have a small chance of reaching the 150 API limit on PeopleBrowsr causing application crash.  (Note: When scheduling tweets to Twitter and Facebook, the associated Facebook account will automatically update where as the Twitter tweet will go out as scheduled.)

Seesmic is a leader in the Adobe AIR and web-based client applications, but still lacks the fundamental elements needed in a Social CRM tool.  The most recent update has caused many users to go back to TweetDeck.  I have had several friends report that it crashes more often than before the update. Seesmic will address these issues in their next update.  Seesmic and TweetDeck both offer iPhone applications for mobile users.

TweetDeck is on top of the Twitter client AIR applications right now and is one of my favorites.  Many people don’t realize that it offers multiple account management as well as a Facebook integration.  Keyword searches and unlimited tabs can be useful in tracking brand mentions.  Unfortunately, TweetDeck doesn’t offer tweet scheduling, notes, or tweet rating capabilities.

My goal was to outline the pros and cons of some of the free Twitter client applications available for individuals, small business, and non-profits.  Leveraging the information contained in the real-time social streams is a valuable asset to small businesses.  Listening for mentions of your own brand as well as that of your competitor is a best practice of business growth 2010.  Stop shooting in the dark. There is an application that’s right for your business.  What is the most important Twitter client application feature that suits your needs?

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How can a company create social space for coworkers? Is it possible to create a place where employees feel as though they have a voice that will be heard?  Is it possible to cultivate an environment where frank discussions can take place without turning into total chaos? Yes.

One company that has ventured out in internal social networking waters is Bestbuy.  Bestbuy has an internal website where employees can login and talk about things that make work better or worse.  It’s called BlueNation.  The success of BlueNation is that it is supported by senior management and provides space for voices of the 1000s of BestBuy employees across the country.  BestBuy understands that people want to feel connected to the success of something larger than themselves.

Is it possible for a small business with less than 50 employees to have the same kind of web 2.0 internal communications without spending $250,000? Yes, the tools are emerging! Yammer is a tool that is available for as little as $5 per month per user.  Here are a few screen shots to give you an idea of what Yammer can do to improve your company’s communication, interaction, and efficiency.

Social Community for Business

Yammer is a simple way for employees to connect and share by posting messages. As employee participation grows, Yammer becomes a corporate social network, discussion board, and knowledge base all rolled into one easy-to-use interface.

Create and Organizational Chart

Social Community for Businesses Yammer

Organizational Chart

Social Community for Small Businesses

Create Discussion Boards

Social Community for Small Businesses

Expandable Applications

Social Community for Small Businesses

For more information on Yammer visit their website for free download

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Zynga Texas Holdem for Facebook

One of the things I like about watching The World Series of Poker on ESPN is the player hand percentage of winning. Although those percentages can change with the flip of one card, knowing the percentages is a strategy many players employ.

Right now Social Media is a fluid and daily changing river of digital channels. New start-ups are entering the social wars every day. Knowing which ones will make it to the river can be a risky bet. One of the ace of spades in social bookmarking  is StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon was founded in 2001 and was purchased by eBay in May 2007, until April 2009, when two of the founders, backed by investors, bought it back.

In June of 2009, StumbleUpon showed its cards introducing Su.pr a powerful URL Shorten tool. With combined Twitter and Facebook integration, Su.pr providers quick bookmarking that can be linked to Twitter accounts and/or Facebook accounts to let others know what sites you have stumbled upon. The ability to schedule updates as well as a simple dashboard to track the clicks per update allows Su.pr users to know what tweets are most popular. It’s like knowing the percentages for the winning social poker hand.

Social Web Tool Su.pr

“Su.pr’s analytics are similar to those that fellow UR shortening service bit.ly provides, except that Su.pr is connected to website discovery service Stumbleupon, which gives each link an extra distribution push. Links can be voted upon by the StumbleUpon community (which the platform estimates as 8 million users), and if it becomes popular the link can become viral. For StumbleUpon, Su.pr is a way to seed the service with links people are already pushing out to their real-time streams.” TechCrunch July 8, 2009

Stacking Social Web Tools Twitter and Facebook

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Talking with business owners, I find this story parallels the current process of finding a Social Media monitoring and measuring tool that can be integrated with current CRM data systems.  The problem is finding a solution that is flexible to accommodate both technologies and that doesn’t break the bank to convert or deploy.

If your business has a CRM system in place and is looking for a free Social Media monitoring and tracking tool, take a look at PeopleBrowsr and HootSuite.  Make sure you create a new lead category in your CRM system for Twitter and for Facebook (assuming you already view those as a lead generation sources).  Both of these tools are free and available online for download.  Using these free tools can give your team a better idea of what is important when engaging the public through Social Media channels.

SocialCRM Tools

PeopleBrowsr will allow you to mark profiles with various tasks and statuses like VIP, To Do, Favorites and manage multiple Twitter accounts.  Scheduling tweets at a later time is also a nice feature from PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite is also a great tool to use for multiple Twitter accounts and is less complicated than PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite uses their Owly URL short system for updates to Twitter and Facebook which provides tracking of links by number of times viewed by day, month or by individual tweets.  These tracking tools provide HootSuite an advantage over PeopleBrowsr in that respect.

Free SocialCRM Tools HootSuite

If you are considering a move from your current CRM system to something new, Radian6 just announced their integration with Salesforce.com.  This combination offers the complex functions like PeopleBrowsr and the tracking and monitoring functions like Hootsuite within a 2010 CRM platform.  Salesforce.com clients are Starbucks, Dell and SunTrust.

Premium SocialCRM Tools - Radian6

Another CRM solution that is moving forward in combining CRM and Social Media functionality is SugarCRM.  SugarCRM is an open source scalable and customizable CRM system.  New modules are being added, such as GetSocial, which allows Twitter updates to be integrated within the tool.  SugarCRM clients include Avis, H&R Block and Coca-Cola Enterprise. Sugar CRM and Salesforce.com both have extensive community forums to provide technical support and discussions about future product enhancements.

SocialCRM Tool - SugarCRM

Deconstructing the old methods of communicating with your clients can lead to opening new channels of communication with new prospects and enhance relationships with existing clients.  The painful process of tearing down the rigid and static system can be a healthy process for building a more flexible and fluid CRM system.  Welcome to SocialCRM.

Update on the girls bed:  This weekend I took the boards from the old bunk beds and began to form a new day bed with space for a trundle.  I hope my girls like the new bed.  It’s white and it was custom built to meet their needs.   There’s nothing better for a Dad than to see a smile of surprise and excitement on his daughters’ faces.

Deconstructing the Old to Create a New SocialCRM

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Corporate brainstorming sessions centered on the question, how we “reach” new customers is a complete waste of time, energy and resources.  The new question is:  How can we “meet” our consumers in their environment to learn how they think, feel and use our products or services?  The new business strategy of “social customer engagement” is the core of SocialCRM.

Over the last couple of decades, focus groups were the cutting edge method of learning how customers think and feel about a company’s products or services.  The setup of focus groups was wrong from the start.  With two-way mirrors and a third party facilitator, organizations sat on the other side in a dimly lit room hiding from their customers.  Under the guise of wanting honest comments, were they simply afraid to face the good, the bad and the ugly about how people felt about their product?  Corporate culture had handicapped companies abilities to have an honest conversation with people.

Regardless of the corporate culture impairment, the public is talking about their experiences with a company or their products.  They talk through text messages, 140 character status updates and tweets.  Companies like BestBuy, Comcast and JetBlue are just a few companies who are braving the Social Media waters and finding a sea of information.  Not only are they listening to what is being said by using social technology, but they are responding and acting on those status updates and tweets.  These progressive organizations are learning the new rules of SocialCRM.

Rcently there was a SocialCRM conference in Boston attended by several hundred people while an even larger group attended the event through streaming video and instant chat.  Representatives from large companies and social technologies formed a panel to discuss the impacts of Social Media and social customer engagement strategies. CLICK HERE to view a thread of the comments from that event.

So how does your business get started with SocialCRM through customer engagement strategies?

Search – Do a Google search on your company or product name.  Look for forums, groups or blogs where community participation is already being used by your customers.

Listen – Don’t jump into the conversation and try to defend your product. Don’t try to explain why you are right and they are wrong.

Respond – Ask questions to gain further clarity of comments or complaints.

Act – Make contact with those who are positive influencers of your brand and find out how to empower them to continue their advocacy of your brand.

Repeat – Search, Listen, Respond, Act

The Rules have changed, the new SocialCRM

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SocialCRM Facebook Page

These information rich databases are the digital assets of a business. SugarCRM is just one example of a web-based or on-demand customer relationship management tool used by successful businesses.

Many businesses use these CRM databases to forecast future business growth, to obtain client comments related to service experiences, or to market new products or services.  However, this information exchange is limited in scope due to natural barriers within internal communications.

Do people really say what they feel when a customer service representative calls?  Would they speak freely as they would with a friend or coworker about how they were treated?  For some reason, people have no problem saying exactly how they feel on their Facebook page.

Businesses are beginning to understand that their best and worst clients are speaking about their experiences everyday through digital voices.  Relying on postage paid comment cards isn’t going to get the job done anymore.  Whether it is a status update on Facebook, a tweet on Twitter, or through a comment on a blog post, people like to talk about their experience.  SocialCRM and customer service are two sides of the same coin.  Try a Google search with the name of your company and add the word sucks or great. You might be surprised at the results.  Proactive business may use Google Alerts to stay informed in regards to positive or negative digital feedback indexed on Google.

SocialCRM Twitter Account

In addition to Google Alerts, some progressive companies are listening to comments made on Twitter.  Whether by using the Twitter search tool or by using Tweetdeck, companies are tracking keywords directly or indirectly about their business.

All of the tracking in the world doesn’t make any difference unless you do something about it.  Some companies simply try to have negative comments or posts removed from sites, which is almost impossible if it goes viral.

Within minutes, one post or video can spread through hundreds of websites.  Many company policy and procedure manuals are being rewritten as a result of these new channels of communication.  Not only is it comments from clients, but it is also comments from employees surfacing on the web.

Evidently, a lot of people are really bored out of their minds at work.  People are being fired over tweets and status updates.

It is evident that companies are afraid of what they can’t control.  The reaction of many companies is to block social media sites altogether, but at what expense?

What if there was a way to encourage the use of social media in the work place?

What if the channels were built in to the way business did business day to day?

Yes, it would require additional training and responsibility.  The way society interacts is changing. Why wouldn’t our business communication models change too?

Who is the catalyst for change in your organization?

Is the Marketing Manger the one to initiate the change?

Is it the Customer Service Manager?

Is it the Chief Executive Officer?

Whoever is the person to bring about fundamental change in your organization, they need to have access to the information and tools in order to make change happen.

If you need help convincing senior management that SocialCRM is essential, here is a great video.

Imagine combining the information from Facebook profiles and Twitter updates and merging that data into your CRM tool.

How might that information be helpful in maintaining the best relationship with your clients? How might that information be used to provide relevant product or service recommendations to your future clients? How might your customer service agents benefit from knowing in advance the concerns of your less than satisfied customers?

LinkedIn Profile for SocialCRM

The information contained in a LinkedIn profile reads like an online resume.  Current and previous employer, level of education, hobbies, plus business contacts are included.  Think about the possibilities of leveraging that information to make personalized portfolio suggestions to your clients.

Imagine the possibilities of developing marketing plans that deliver custom content based on social media profiles.  The effectiveness of a campaign built around a client’s preferences, this is the goal of every marketing manager.

Few campaigns are successful because they lack the raw data to really understand how the client feels about your products.  Those feelings are now being expressed in 140 characters and can be indexed to better understand the true client to business relationship.

It’s time to set aside the fear of the unknown and put away all the excuses.  It’s time to fully engage your clients.  It’s time to empower your staff to listen, communicate, and energize your client relationships.

Creating your own SocialCRM Development Team:

• Begin by making a list of people you trust to speak on behalf of your organization.
• Select a small group of employees with great communication skills.
• Be ready to identify your biggest fans and find ways to build equity in their personal branding.
• Develop a process or workflow based on company name, products, or services mentioned in social media sites.
• Create your company branded Twitter account
• Create your company branded Facebook Page (Difference between Fan Pages and Group Pages)
• Set up Listening Dashboard – Tweetmeme , TweetGrid , Twitscoop
• Set up SocialCRM plugin – GetSocial
• Select other Social Media tools (35 Social Media Tools)

Research shows that companies who have a company branded social media site have greater client interaction than those who do not.  This requires a shift in marketing philosophy altogether.  The shift is from talking to people about your company to people talking about your company to others.

Building a 3D client view with SocialCRM is not limited to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles.  Imagine what happens when you turn the SocialCRM cube 90 degrees.  I’ll save that for another post.  I hope this article has sparked your thoughts about the future of CRM and Social Media.  I would love to hear your comments or feedback on what’s working for you or where the SocialCRM processes are breaking down.  Is it technology? Is it policy? Is it people?

SocialCRM for Small Business

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In March of 2009, Facebook made a few changes to the structure of their site impacting the differences between Fan Pages and Group Pages.  The core change was how people can suggest or promote their pages.  I hope this post helps to define when to use a Fan Page versus a Group Page.

FAN Pages:

Indexed by Google – Fan Pages are indexed by Google providing SEO benefits for any business looking to grow their digital footprint.

Adding Applications – Fan Pages allow the use of adding Applications or widgets that can enhance the user interaction with Fans and a Business.  A complete list of applications can be found in the Facebook Application Directory.

Strategic Updates – Fan Page updates can be sent by age, gender and location by text with hyperlinks included.

Homepage Streaming Messages – Fan Page updates will show as notifications on a fan’s homepage, but also will display as a status update in the friend stream on the homepage.

Facebook Insights – Internal Facebook system providing metrics for number of fans, unique visitors, number of reviews and total interactions.

Suggest to Friends – This new feature allows Fans to send a message to friends to suggest becoming a Fan.  This was a key feature change in March making Fan pages more viral.

Group Pages:

Group participation – Group pages can be Open, Closed, or Secret offering various levels of participation.

Bulk Invitations – Group pages can send bulk emails to friends inviting to become a member.

Threaded Conversations – Group pages offer conversations in a threaded format providing for a more organized process of publishing information about certain topics or issues.

Officers – Groups pages allow the addition of offices which can be a measure of goodwill or just for community building fun.

Not indexed by search engines.

No Applications can be used to enhance page.

Summary

Facebook Pages are primarily used to promote businesses, non-profits, celebrities and artists to Facebook users.  Facebook states that “only the official representative of an artist, business, or brand may create a Facebook Page.” In other words, Pages are intended to be an “official” web page for your organization on Facebook.

Facebook Groups can be created by anyone interested in promoting and organizing people around a specific interests or cause. All members of a group have the ability to contribute content that appears on the Group’s wall – photos, videos, discussion threads.

If you have already created a Group page and want to create a Fan page, it’s not too late.  In fact, you can send a bulk message to your Group to let them know and urge them to become a Fan! Before you make your Fan page, here is an article on The Five Elements of a Sucessful Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page for Tallahassee Small Business using Social Media

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A similar assessment might be taken in regards to activities and conversations within social media.  Thousands and thousands of updates about experiences at coffee shops, restaurants and grocery stores are posted everyday.  Each of those updates/comments are recorded and posted on blogs, walls and message boards.  These digital logs are a new kind of online account statement.  Each update is an informational transaction.  The insight that could be learned by these digital statements could result in valuable assessments for a company that was paying attention.

Recently, I was preparing a Social Media proposal for a new client who requested case studies to be included in the documentation.  I came across hundreds of studies.  Surprisingly, this kind of market research has been circulating since 2005.  Everyday the conversation of how do businesses engage in social media arises, to which I reply, it’s never too late to join the conversation.  I always recommend listening and observing as a starting point.

If you are in charge of marketing at your company or you are the owner of a small business and need more convincing that Social Media is a viable means to grow your business, I am including some of the case study websites that I have found extremely helpful in attempting to reconcile the online statements of social media.

Case Studies

35 Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action

Word Of Mouth Marketing Association – Comprehensive Case Study Library

Groundswell by Forrester Research – 65 Corporate examples and 25 full case studies

Social Media Statements Tallahassee

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