In June 2008, I presented at a conference in Southern California where I debuted The Essential Guide to Social Media. While it seems like a lifetime ago, I remember this event distinctly because a couple of the questions at the end of conference addressed luxury brands specifically. And, they’re questions that many ask or have yet to ask today. What role do luxury brands take on the social web and what is the corresponding voice and personality associated with the…
21 Rules of Engagement in Social Media
What follows is a modified excerpt from Engage!, the complete guide for businesses to build, cultivate, and measure success in the new Web. Chapter 17 Social Media is reinventing marketing, communications, and the dissemination of information. For many businesses and organizations, social networks represent hallowed grounds, bringing together customers, prospects and the people who influence their decisions in a shared, balanced, and interactive medium. While businesses now have access to these rich channels, the true promise of social media however,…
SCRM and SRM: Potay-to, Potah-to When Done Right
This is Part Two of Two in a series exploring the promise and potential of Social CRM and SRM. In Part One, we reviewed the importance of sCRM as well as introduced the concepts of Social Relationship Management (SRM) to look beyond customers in Social Media. Originally intended for inclusion in Engage!, Paul Greenberg contributed his view of sCRM and SRM to continue the discussion… There is little doubt that customers are ruling the roost right now — to a…
Question of the Week: How Should Organizations Respond to Social Technologies?
This week, I’m participating in “The Question of the Week” series hosted by Nokia’s IdeasProject. Each week, Nokia partners with industry thinkers to spark productive conversations and generate promising ideas. On June 6th, this Sunday, Nokia and I will select the best response and as a way of saying thank you, Nokia will send a new phone to the winner. This conversation is important and one that faces almost every business today. And as a result, the answers that I…
Social CRM is Just the Beginning: Looking Beyond Customers
In Engage!, I review the important catalysts and methodologies defining the new era of Social CRM or sCRM. In the discussion, I also introduce the idea of SRM (social relationship management), a concept that may at first blush, seemingly appear to introduce yet another acronym or perhaps challenge the promise of sCRM. However, its only intention is to spur thinking beyond the literal frameworks of traditional customer relationship management, whether it’s social or one-way. Much of this chapter was cut…
Top 10 Ways to Become a Real Social Media Expert
The headline is shared mostly in jest, but this topic is one worthy of serious attention. The question at hand is whether or not the general advice shared in popular blogs and books when designed to be snappy, shareable, and consumable, help or hinder the ability to learn critical and important lessons in social media. I recently read a post by Alan Maites that used an article that I wrote for AdAge as the nexus for an industry-wide quest to…
Q&A: Is One-Way Communication an Oxymoron?
Every now and then, I’m asked to answer questions for other blogs and media outlets – more so lately due in part to the recent release of Engage! The conversations that always trigger new insights, ideas, or perspectives and sometimes, I believe that the discussion is worth sharing with you, here. This is one such discussion hosted by my friend in Belgium, Jean-Paul De Clerck. #Engage! 1) A thought: Social networks are merely a technological extension of our human nature…
We Are The Champions
An important reminder that you are on the right path… Social Media marketing is not new nor is it widely established or even understood. However in 2010, it will completely transform the way businesses attract customers and the way consumers find the businesses and services that matter to them. And like that, an overnight landmark, which really is over a decade in the making, will challenge business owners, more so than today, as they now compete for the future, right…
How Businesses Learn the Value and Impact of New Media: Uh-Oh vs. Aha Moments
In celebration of National Small Business Week… This year, Social Media marketing will gain significant support in resources and investment across businesses of all shapes and sizes. So what’s new? Now, a line is being drawn between edglings and underlings. Where we choose to stand affects the presence of our brand and value in new markets and our ability to capture attention where and how it is focused – both online and in the real world,. On one side of…
Social Media in Small Business is Anything But Small
In celebration of National Small Business Week… For entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, and consultants, one of the most exciting prospects of social media, lies in the ability to dramatically amplify your visibility and value proposition among existing and potential stakeholders. Social Media finally places small, local and emerging businesses in the spotlight in ways that up until this point, were largely unattainable. New Media is rapidly shifting the landscape of how people find and share information and much of it…
