I went to the BlogWell conference last week, hosted by GasPedal. Interesting stuff. Five things stood out to me:
1. “Social media” is growing — and fast.
Most companies now “get it.” They understand the need to do more than just have a blog and a Facebook page. They have to actually get out there and interact with customers online, usually wherever the customer is. The forward-thinking businesses are all over this. The larger an organization is, the slower this kind of thinking seems to ripple through and become reality. But, it’s happening. Embracing social media is no longer an early adopter phenomenon. Social-media usage seems to be well into the “early majority” phase. Maybe further along, even.
2. There’s a fool-proof way to protect your brand online. It’s called honesty.
Companies who haven’t had an online PR branding nightmare (like the celebrated Dominos fiasco) need to learn from the mistakes of others and get some training and planning in place. There’s really no excuse here. Andy Sernovitz made a great point about how the people who are most engaged with social media (the kind of people who blog and attend events like BlogWell) are the ones who need to be driving ethics and transparency in their organization. So if that is you, you need to lead. Make everyone in your organization understand that it’s usually simply about disclosure. Another great point he made: If you have to ask if doing something might be unethical, it probably is. More on rules of disclosure here, if you’re interested.
3. Communities in general need better reputation systems.
SAP has a nifty-sounding reputation system in place (based simply on points) to encourage community activity, but I would like to know more. I will have to dig into the recesses of the Internet and find that, I suppose. Point me to it if you know where it is.
4. Social media consultants are this year’s life coach.
There sure are a whole lot of buzz-tracking tools, social-media-monitoring tools, and social-media consultants out there. Too many.
5. Social CRM has a big future.
Lots of folks tossed around the phrase “social CRM” at the event. More and more, I’ve been thinking of social CRM as an evolution — a next step in the integration of social media (including social networking, of course) into everyday business life. Not just *which systems* companies will choose to integrate as a bridge between customers/salespeople/service people, but also *where* companies will choose to present themselves to their customers. On their site? On every social network? In one place? Should they funnel everyone to one place, or do they try to track everything that’s going on with a CRM system that has been gussied up with a Twitter feed? What’s this new social CRM supposed to look like, anyway?
Let’s face it: CRM systems are boring. Social CRM systems don’t have to be. They can encourage your most reticent employee, who may not want to participate face-to-face, to be extremely outgoing and help customers they might otherwise ignore or take for granted. It can help spread a customer-service attitude through an organization, or at the very least help organizations spot the employees who are customer-service-oriented. For real. Not just as lip service. It can make an organization more vital and human — less corporate, if we want to think of it that way. Consumers like things less corporate — especially if they spend half of their waking hours in a corporate environment. I think they’d rather get authentic (and informal) help when it comes to getting support on their own time.
Needless to say, I think Get Satisfaction fits into this social CRM future as a way for companies to tie it all together. And with a friendly interface. I sometimes think of our system as a social CRM “lobby” where customers can find ways to get connected to the right person to help them. I think there may be a better metaphor than a lobby, but I’m going to have to think on that one a bit more. Feel free to offer up your own metaphorical musings if you can think of a better one.
Those are five things that grew in my mind after attending the event. If you haven’t gone to a BlogWell conference, think about attending the next one in Minneapolis. Stuff will grow in your mind, too. It’s bound to.
If you want to read more about the BlogWell conference, I recommend David Spark’s blog post about it.
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