At least once a week I read a new blog post or article in some industry report touting customer service as the new marketing. There are even groups cropping up in SV and other tech cities for just this purpose, conducting webinars, dedicating entire conferences to shedding light on this new movement- huh? I must be missing something, or I’m just too dense to see it- here’s how I see it….
Reminder of the details for the BlogHer ‘09 conference, don’t miss it! BlogHer event There are links in this post to sign up for both BlogHer and Blogher business- its a great price for a full event- can’t wait!
So many times I read on Twitter or other blog sites how companies are displaying anti- social media behavior. This can range from the ostrich approach, just pretend its not happening and it will all go away to pushing out employees who embrace and push companies to consider social media. Of course, those of us to are in the social media circles think and many believe the issue is companies are anti- social media, they are afraid of this channel, they are just stupid and don’t get it.
I read this a few days ago, and forgot to post it. The more thought about it the more I wonder how other people feel about “us regular folks” selling our souls to the ad man? Do we think we are sell outs just like our celeb friends who go on TV for anything from ice cream (which we all know celebs don’t eat- look at them) to hair care products (which you know they don’t use) to lending their voice to an automobile (that you know they don’t drive). Why shouldn’t “us regular folks” get part of the pie for being a twitter celeb?
For many years, I have believed the CRM, BPA, CEM (choose your favorite acronym) movement was a way to allow big business to act and feel small to their customers. I spent years working in this space, selling CRM to companies as the magic pink pill. In the end most CRM initiatives ended up being about simply improving customer service. After all, CRM is not about the product we offer, how we position the product, the expectations we set, how we sell our product, or how we manage our customers, its all about those folks who service customers who don’t make them happy- right?! Wrong
Seth’s blog Too Small to fail, makes me think that if ALL companies approached everything they do by acting small, while thinking BIG, most companies would save quite a bit of $$ and reap the benefits of increased retention, increased wallet share and ultimately increase their profits. Thanks Seth for the thought provoking post.
If you are a business providing products or services of any kind, and you don’t have a strategy for finding out what people are saying about you online- in the new social circles, you should cringe when read this article. The numbers don’t lie, more and more people are actively online participating in all sorts of social media activities and many are directed toward product and service reviews. If you have customers you should think about your strategy for social media and how to get in the game.
