About Social Media Today
customer relations
Why Relationships Matter and ROI Doesn’t
I had somebody tweet me saying that I was naive and misguided if I thought ROI wasn’t important. He missed the point. I’m not saying that ROI isn’t important, because it is. What I am saying is that being able to track an ROI isn’t important on some of the things that we know we should be doing. [read more]
Social Media Literacy for Business Owners: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Image via Flickr
Do you know where your customers are? They may be online, cultivating social media relationships with your staff. Today's customers crave connection. If you don't connect with them, your staff may do it for you. Is that really something you want going on without your knowledge? Build your social media literacy to boost business and keep customers. [read more]
Help Me, Help You - A Digital Marketer's Plea
It's one of the great scenes in Jerry Maguire. We all know it. Jerry is standing there in the locker room, at his wits' end, begging a towel-clad football player to please for the love of God just give him something to work with. It’s not uncommon for marketers, especially those working in digital marketing, to find themselves in a similar situation. A client wants something up: a Facebook Page, a website, that promotion they’re launching on Twitter, etc. NOW. And herein lies the problem. They want it now. They think that building out a promotion on a Facebook page takes mere minutes, so despite your better judgment, you say "Okay." Then, you get bupkis. It's enough to leave you standing there waving your arms and screaming that phrase we've all come to know too well. “Help me, Help YOU!” [read more]
Customers: Do You Freak When They Tweet?
Do you have a plan for when your customers or prospects tweet your pricing? Do you have a process or workflow that will respond to someone when they crowdsource your pricing? This is the new frontier of virtual guerilla sales warfare — you need to be ready. Consumers have figured out that they have a very powerful... [read more]
Put Your Social Customer at the Center of Your Online Strategy- HBR says customer service is a strategic function now...
The Jan-Feb HBR features the article “Rethinking Marketing,” by Roland Rust, Christine Moorman and Gaurav Bhalla. In it, the authors argue that B2C companies need to adopt strategies that put the customer in the center, and tailor products and services to small segments, rather than pushing products and services onto the... [read more]
The Somebody Else Economy
For all of the immediacy and connectedness of online experience, I'd argue consumers feel a gnawing distance from one another and the marketplace. Pay retail? That's for somebody else. Wait in line? There's a way around it. Get better service? There's a special number to call. Terms of agreement? There are always exceptions.... [read more]
Using Social Media to Deepen Customer Relations
An obvious win for companies looking to jump into Social Media is in the Customer Support area. As more and more customers voice their opinions online, the choice is not if you should be responding using Social Media, but when are you going to start responding!I recently saw figures from Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research that showed 92... [read more]
Are You Getting Engaged?
When was it not a good idea to talk with your customers as if your business depended on it? How is it ever possible to go a whole day without being of service to someone? Why would you not share tips, advice, and learning with your team? Where exactly was it deemed acceptable to base your conduct on anything but honesty and ethics? We... [read more]
Enterprise 2.0 Best Practice 3#
Give Customers Control over How They Participate in the Community This is the third best practices in the series for improving customer service through community-based collaboration. My previous post treated two industry best practices but if you're yet to read them, you can catch the previous post here: Enterprise 2.0 Best Pratice 2#:... [read more]
Listen to Your Customers - Online!
Like other corporate executives, Michael Dell wants to know what his customers think about Dell computer products, customer service, and other areas.But rather than wait for customer complaints or praises to affect other people through blogs, discussion boards, or the media, he has a staff of 42 employees who monitor the social web and... [read more]
Top 5 Reasons A Content Management Company Will Go Out Of Business
Several months ago a content management vendor told me that the oncoming recession was causing it problems with revenue generation. I said perhaps, but it's also possible its problems were related to the fact that its customers were really angry and really vocal. It's too easy to blame market conditions without taking a hard look in the... [read more]
Finding & Utilizing User Generated Content
User generated content can be an elusive piece in the social media mix. Where do you find it? How do you leverage it? This is one of my favorite parts of my job. As a Community Manager I'm doing the following things concurrently: 1. Listening - My email brings in the Google alerts that I have set up. They provide me with the doorway to... [read more]
The Impact of Words: Using Tag Clouds
We have talked here before concerning one of my favorite aspects of my job over the years: messaging workshops . At the time I wrote: I absolutely love this exercise, it illuminates the disconnect between what customers, partners, media, analysts and even internal owners see as your core value proposition. Who are you? What do you... [read more]
Why should every business have a blog?
Occasionally, when I'm talking to people about the work I do building blogs for clients, they'll ask the question that everyone still seems to have about blogging: “I don't get it. Why does having a blog help?” I usually look at them like they're crazy for a few seconds, and then say, “OK. Give me an [...]Link to... [read more]
SNCR Survey And Social Technographics
by Josh Bernoff WI got a nice email from Jennifer McClure, Executive Director of the Society for New Communications Research. They're doing a survey on Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age Of Social Media. Go ahead, take it yourself. They'll send you a free copy of the research. While you're taking the survey, you might want to... [read more]
And On the Tail: “Airline”
The latest mergers rumored in the airline industry are proof that brands in air travel have become irrelevant, only to be replaced by blank, white tails on which the word "airline" will appear. Delta and Northwest are close to acquiring one another's planes, gates, labor contracts and fuel costs. United and Continental are said... [read more]
Social Media: The New Tool of Protest Movements?
Here is a very fine piece by Bernhard Warner, a freelance journalist and media consultant, appearing in the UK's TimesOnline. Entitled, "Social protesters stand up to Microsoft," it's actually about online social media protests in general, with Mircosoft being used as a recent example in the context of a broader point Mr. Warner is... [read more]
Are you sure you want to fight your consumers?
Attitude has a lot to do with social media. If you want to change the way the world sees your organization, you first have to change the way your organization sees the world. Gaping Void once wisely scribbled; Ask yourself: If a consumer decided to take a swing back at you for saying something stupid, would you win the fight? And even... [read more]
Will Samsung's Video Promotion Recipe Make a Tasty Treat?
Samsung Mobile is running a promotion via YouTube that is a crazy collection of some of the right ideas that just don't go together in a recognizable and tasty dish. (Thanks to Orli whose Go2Web2.0 blog is terrific)It's as if they looked at the recipe list for video-based engagement but forgot the idea or concept to hold it all together... [read more]
Where the f$#@ is my market?
There is one small detail that a lot of us forget when we jump in to a new venture. The one nit-picky thing is that it is usually a good idea to have a maket to sell in to. Some products find a market. Some will disrupt a market. A few will capture a market, and even fewer will create a market. Is there such thing as an Enterprise 2.0... [read more]
Jonathan Salem Baskin is an author who writes a regular column on Advertising Age & posts on his award-winning blog. More »
John Bell heads up the 360° Digital Influence team & teaches graduate studies in Digital Influence at Johns Hopkins University. More »
Don Bulmer is Vice President of Communication Strategy at Royal Dutch Shell More »
John Byrne is chairman & editor-in-chief of C-Change Media Inc. & the author or co-author of eight books. More »
Gini Dietrich Gini Dietrich is the founder and chief executive officer of Arment Dietrich, Inc. More »
Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of Leader Networks & has been creating successful online communities for over 15 years. More »
Maggie Fox is the founder and CEO of Social Media Group & was named one of the Top 100 Marketers in Marketing Magazine. More »
Laurent Francois I lead the marketing&development hub @ Express Roularta Services, a media company. I focus on 2 main brands (L'Express, More »
Rachel Happe is a Co-Founder and Principal at The Community Roundtable & a blogger at The Social Organization. More »
JD Lasica is a consultant who is considered one of the leading authorities on social media & user-created media. More »
Brian Solis s author of Engage and is recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders & authors in new media. More »
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“Up until this point we have always understood content through the lens of the distribution channel it sat within. The channel, in fact, gave its name to the content (TV is a form of distribution but we think of it as a form of content) - or, as per your reference to McLuhan, "the medium was the message". The social media revolution is all about the liberation of content from its means ...”
“Alternatively, and this is what I believe, GM is simply not very good at Social. The easiest way out of that situation might well be to blame the tools, rather than the craftman. From what I've been observing, GM has been using Facebook, and especially their brand pages, as little more than a glorified megaphone. ”