The traditional business to customer model has been altered dramatically over the last 18 months due to emerging social technologies (Video). One-way communicating and shotgun media blasts are being ignored and blocked by audiences in every market segment. From XM Radio, iTunes, Hulu, TiVo, RSS Readers and On-Demand Programming, the consumer has taken over the channels and the remote control. Businesses are faced with the challenge of how to reach their target audience. It is the “reach” perspective that is blinding their ability to adapt to the evolution of the new customer demands.
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
- What is your media channel doing to understand social web communities?
- What role does senior management have in developing new ways to train staff on social web strategies?
- How do you respond to Jeremiah’s statement about “old models” of advertising?
- How does your company view new opportunities in Social Colonization?
- How do you deliver smaller more contextual, relevant products to you clients?
One of my favorite morning emails is the one I get from Seth Godin. Every day Seth stretches my thoughts about how I think about what kind of business I do and how I approach it. The main idea from today’s email was this: You can change everything!
Here’s my favorite 30 Ways to change everything a la Seth Godin:
- Publish your best work for free online
- Close your worst-performing locations
- Open a new branch in a high-traffic location
- Hire the best salesperson away from the competition
- Join the competition
- Host a conference for your competitors
- Connect your best customers and organize a tribe
- Fire the 80% of your customers that account for 20% of your sales
- Start a blog
- Start a digital bootstrap business on the weekends
- While looking for a job, spend 40 hours a week volunteering and freelancing for good causes
- Go on tour and visit your best customers in person
- Answer the customer service line for a day
- Let the most junior person in the organization run things for a day
- Delete your website and start over with the simplest possible site
- Call former employees and ask for advice
- Listen to ebooks in your car instead of the radio
- Sell your cash cow division to the competition and invest everything in the new thing
- Find more products for your existing customers to buy
- Quit your job
- Have all meetings in a room with no chairs, and everyone wears a bathrobe over their clothes
- Open your offices only four hours a day
- Get an RSS reader and read a lot more blogs
- Go offline for longer than you thought possible
- Write five thank you notes every day
- Stop sending spam
- Have everyone at work switch offices
- Buy some art
- Make some art
- Do the work
I can’t think of a better day than Monday to see a list like this. If you find yourself stuck in a rut, take a look at this list and take action. Life is too short to remain stuck in the mud. Not only is today Monday, but it is the first Monday in May. May’s birthstone is the Emerald, which means love or success. If you don’t love what you’re doing, if you’re not experiencing the kind of success that you want to have, do something about it. Carpe Diem!
I love to hear from my blog readers. If this blog post inspired you to make a change, please contact me. Whether you soar or flop, the point is to step out and do something! I value your comments, thanks for keeping the conversation going!
The rules are changing! Are you still in the game? Experts are saying that within 5 years information will be primarily collected and delivered not randomly searched and selected. What does this mean? With so many websites, blogs, and videos on the information super highway today, one can do exhaustive research on any number of topics. Recently, I was helping my oldest daughter with a book report on Norway. Within minutes, we had articles, pictures, maps, and population graphs in hand and ready to glue to her project foam board.
Imagine this: What if I could erect a temporary traffic sign on the side of the information highway that instructed all articles, images, and/or videos pertaining to my desired topic to stop and leave a copy, which is then forwarded to my desktop mailbox? I wouldn’t have to go out and do all the research. The research would just come straight to me. Not only is it what I want, it is when I want it.
You don’t have to use much imagination because this bring-it-to-me magic information detour sign not only exists, but is growing exponentially. Over the last several years, the development of RSS (an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) has reached amazing height delivering information. RSS is a web feed format that is used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based.
As a business owner, why is this important to me? First, the use of an RSS feed based on your industry can keep you on the forefront of innovation in your field of work and ready to adjust to market conditions. Second, creating your own channels of distributing information via blog, audio, or video will open direct lines of communication with your current clients, as well as future prospects that are already in the market for your particular goods or services.
Just having a company website on the web isn’t going to deliver thousands of new customers to your door. You must have an open line of updated information readily available. If your digital space doesn’t have a fully functioning RSS icon (the little orange button) just waiting to be clicked, this is your last at bat!
Here are a couple of resources to create your own RSS feeds:
- FeedBurner
Advanced feed management technology that helps bloggers, podcasters, and commercial publishers get more value from the content they create.
www.feedburner.com - Bloglines
Free, web-based news aggregator that makes it easy to keep up with your favorite blogs and RSS newsfeeds.
www.bloglines.com - Feedreader
Windows application that reads and displays RSS newsfeeds based on XML.
www.feedreader.com - SharpReader
RSS aggregator for the .NET framework.
www.sharpreader.net - NewsGator
RSS news aggregator that runs in Microsoft Outlook.
www.newsgator.com - Google Reader
Customizable aggregator for feeds from news sites, blogs, and other sites with a sharing facility.
reader.google.com - Awasu
Free Windows RSS news-reader.
www.awasu.com - NewzCrawler
Web news reader and browser which provides access to news content from different sources.
www.newzcrawler.com - Pluck
Offers an Internet Explorer add-on which integrates a bookmark manager, web sharing, RSS reader, and search.
www.pluck.com - RSS Bandit
An RSS/Atom aggregator for desktops written with the .NET Framework.
www.rssbandit.org - Radio UserLand
Blog tool that builds a site, organizes and archives posts, and publishes content.
radio.userland.com - Rojo Networks
Discover, organize, and share the wide range of dynamic RSS content on the Internet.
www.rojo.com - BlogBurst
Syndication service that places your blog content on top-tier online destinations to broaden reach, increase page views, and gain visibility.
www.blogburst.com - PubSub
Allows you to subscribe to queries that are then matched against newly published information from sources such as blogs, newsgroups, and SEC filings.
www.pubsub.com - All Headline News
Continuously updated news and headline links from thousands of news sources. Also offers RSS feeds.
www.allheadlinenews.com - edgeio
Collects and organizes classified listings published on other RSS enabled web sites or directly onto edgeio. Browse or use keyword search to find and access the RSS feed you’re looking for, or to upload your own RSS feed.
www.edgeio.com - RMail
Subscription service that lets you watch an RSS subscription via email.
www.r-mail.org - AmphetaDesk
Cross platform, open-sourced, syndicated news aggregator.
www.disobey.com/amphetadesk - Feedmarker
Free, web-based RSS/ATOM aggregator and bookmarks manager.
www.feedmarker.com
If you would like to ask questions but would rather keep them confidential please indicate “Just between you and me” in your comment and I will keep your questions confidential. I have had several people contact me and I value your comments, thanks for keeping the conversation going!
