CRM

Venn Diagram of Samy & Amy Meltdown

Yelp may not be the go-to source for restaurant reviews. Why? Amy's Baking Company has 1131 reviews, 99.9% of which are snarky, mean, negative “reviews.” How many of those 1131 reviewers actually ate at the restaurant and how many just piled on for flash mob social media bashing? 99.9%[read more]

eCommerce site building

Building and maintaining a great e-commerce site can be overwhelming at times as it seems there is no end to what needs to be focused on. Wordpress is a great tool for e-commerce sites just starting out. But even small sites focusing on e-commerce should follow these simple rules.[read more]

Amid all of the noise on social media, some messages are just more important than others. Creating an inbox, complete with filtering and priority alerts, enables users to elevate messages from their most important contacts - their customers, leads, or influencers.[read more]

eCommerce

If the $42.3 billion spent online this past holiday season has taught retailers anything, it’s that capturing customers—and their dollars—online is crucial. But online is a big place. And mobile, which can seem like an entirely different universe, looms ever larger. So where to even start?[read more]

Content marketing for Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is the largest card sending holiday of the year, and more consumers buy gifts for Mother’s Day than any other, except Christmas. Restaurants capitalize on Mother’s Day because it’s the year's most popular day to dine out. Here are some relevant content marketing tips for your brand.[read more]

digital engagement / Shutterstock

Whether a customer stands on the stage of awareness, consideration, purchase, or post purchase, touch points open and close. And it is in those moments that engagement, regardless of source or shape, affects the next steps and impressions of customers.[read more]

consumer strategy

Recently I read a remarkable document from Netflix aimed at investors, titled “Netflix Long Term View.” (The fact that the phrase “long term” was in a document from a public company was only one remarkable piece of the story.) Netflix has a “North Star,” and it’s based on customer satisfaction.[read more]

Shutterstock

A community manager is the person who manages the social identity of a brand, from Instagram to YouTube to Tumblr. When companies launch (or decide to perfect) their social presence, the first major decision they need to make is whether or not they will manage their accounts internally or hire an agency to do so.[read more]

customer relationship management / shutterstock

Customer retention is a critical issue. It seems the two strategies for most companies center around “Keep them from leaving,” or “Let’s make them want to stay.” They sound the same, but they are really quite different – and produce very different outcomes. Which strategy do you use?[read more]

Jon Ferrara, CEO of Nimble

Check out this video to what I call "Jon Ferrara's Gospel" from the Social River. Jon does an awesome job of mixing the lessons he's learned over the years creating successful businesses, with great insights into where he sees CRM/Social Selling/Social Business going in the years ahead.[read more]

Your loyal customers and employees love your brand, love your content, and want to support your company. But on the road to advocacy, the best intentions get waylaid by Inconvenience, Forgetfulness, and Busyness. Here's how to use email to make sharing more convenient so you can reach more people with your best content.[read more]

Customers can make or break any brand with single tweet. This is the risk brands take when they start establishing themselves on Facebook or Twitter. Brands should understand that people own brands once they engage with them on social platforms.[read more]

social media management tools

Social media is one of the most effective ways for you and your business to get more traffic and generate new leads. Having a presence on all the major networks is a business necessity these days. But what tools are the social media gurus using to manage these multiple accounts?[read more]

email marketing no-no

Brands can’t serve customers well by assuming they all want the same thing. Ask them. Or look at the analytics of who’s opening the emails. Technology makes it so easy to customize email marketing. It’s easy. It works. And it’s essential to good customer service.[read more]

reputation management

To defend their name, many businesses pursue legal action or hire some “specialist” in reputation management to go on the offensive. But the bottom line is that when something negative is said about your company online, you are more than likely stuck with it. So what do you do?[read more]

bottom line/shutterstock

With so many numbers to track, how do you figure out which are worth tracking for your product or service? The motto “measure what matters” could not be more valid when it comes to social media.[read more]

Ethan McCarty, Director, Enterprise Social Programs IBM

Last week I had the privilege of touring IBM’s Design Lab. My tour guides, Ethan McCarty and Laurie Friedman, showed me how IBM, at one time one of the biggest spenders in B2B advertising and marketing, has created an entirely new model for its marketing strategy.[read more]

online community failure / shutterstock

Online communities, when successful, can transform an organization and are an imperative for the future. Who wouldn’t want to develop better mechanisms for learning from their customers, prospects, employees, partners and other stakeholders? I share these failure factors not to frighten but to forewarn.[read more]

Social data: bright idea

Brands are increasingly using social media monitoring for Customer Service, and this is radically changing the industry. Monitoring was once heavily research-focused and data-heavy, but is evolving towards combining social media listening with customer engagement and social CRM.[read more]

Customer service social media

Customer service has reached a stage where the focus is on real engagement, not just listening. But what must still take root is the idea that companies should reach out proactively as soon as customers show signs of dissatisfaction or need for assistance, rather than waiting for them to get in touch.[read more]