Made Social on 28 September 2010 | View Comments
In advance of Social Collective on Thursday, we have been inviting select people to guest blog and join the SoCol debate, each offering a fresh point of view. We have been asking a range of people to contribute, including those working in social, client side, techies, journos etc with a view of building a wider picture. All the questions you’ve put forward throughout this process will be discussed in a panel with a selection of our speakers at the end of the day on Thursday.
Here’s a look back at the top five most shared posts from our guest blog series:
The top five most shared Social Collective guest posts
1. Social Media is Dead; Long Live Social CRM by Eric Swain
2. What are the secrets to building a sustainable community? by Rob Howard
3. Helping clients better understand and engage in social media by Jonny Stark
4. Sshhhh; Social Media is a Feminine Model by Michelle Rodger
5. The Secrets of Pitching Social Media by Paul Sutton
Based on our top posts for the year, we’ve pulled out some initial questions for discussion in the panel on Thursday. Feel free to add your own questions in the comments section below. We will also open the mic to the floor for a few final questions at the end of the panel session.
- Are we too focused on social media tools of the trade and not enough on strategy?
- How does one develop a successful social media strategy?
- Is it possible to implement social media campaigns on a project basis or does it only work if relationships are long term?
- How does one become/ position a client as a social media personality?
- What are the key points to cover when pitching social media to clients?
We hope you will join us on Thursday to continue the conversation. All our blog readers are entitled to a discount by using the code SOCOL33 – click here to get your ticket.
Of course we will be continuing our guest post series – if you’re interested in contributing or have something you would like to say, let us know by leaving a comment.
Here’s a look back at our full guest post series to date:
The Social Collective guest blog series:
Online influence: Social Collective versus the social individual by Paul Miller
What are the secrets to building a sustainable community? by Rob Howard
All’s fair in love and work by Rebecca Taylor
Reaping the social harvest by Kate Spiers
The web might be dead, so what does this mean for our clients… by Andrew Davison
“The Talk” by Max Tatton-Brown
Sshhhh; Social Media is a Feminine Model by Michelle Rodger
Social Media is Dead; Long Live Social CRM by Eric Swain
Power to your employees! But do brands have the guts? by Danny Whatmough
Helping clients better understand and engage in social media by Jonny Stark
The social media strategy series: Getting Buy In by Gemma Went
The tall and the long of it by John V Willshire
Social Media in the 21st Century – Deja Vu all over again by Paul Smith
The Secrets of Pitching Social Media by Paul Sutton
The social media strategy series: Is social media right for your business? by Gemma Went
Talk is cheap by Peter Bouvier
Show social or show business by Chris Hall
Back to the future… by Adam Vincenzini
Managing Client Expectation in Search by Chris Hyland
Get Excited And Make Things by Stuart Witts
Made Social on 10 August 2010 | View Comments
In advance of Social Collective, we have been inviting select people to guest blog and join the SoCol debate, hopefully offering a fresh point of view. We have been asking a range of people to contribute, including those working in social, client side, techies, journos etc with a view of building a wider picture. Any questions raised during this process will be addressed during a panel at SoCol in September.
The latest in the series is from Eric Swain, aka @ericswain.
Social Media is Dead; Long Live Social CRM
By Eric Swain
Social Media is a crap term. Always has been. Certainly for the purposes of business and certainly increasingly as we understand the social landscape better.
The term “Social Media” is a mere label that is too focused on the tools. And because of that it is imprecise and insufficient for our purposes in the world of business. It doesn’t really fit what we are trying to achieve. What does it mean for us? Community management? Facebook marketing? Twitter offers? YouTube videos? Social PR? Content marketing? More? All of them?
It’s too broad and fails to get to the heart of the matter.
Businesses are out of the loop.
In today’s commercial landscape we need to recognise that our customers have adopted (at astonishing rates) social networking practices and are carrying on conversations about us, our products, competitors and industries. Without us. Happily without us, actually. In fact, after years of being fed a load of marketing crap (who believes that that soap powder really is “new and improved” anyway?), consumers are disinclined even to trust us. We need to pay better attention.
Today we as businesses are presented with an opportunity to use the social networks to help us truly service our customers; to truly follow the old cliché adage that “the customer is number one”. We have an opportunity to actually put the customer at the centre of the business; to give them the involvement that they increasingly demand.
Social CRM
Customers control the conversation. How does the company respond? Social CRM (or becoming a social business) means moving beyond listening and engaging with customers to gleaning real, actionable insights that will help a business make their customers’ experiences better – better customer service, better communication, better support, better marketing, better products.
Social CRM is about creating organisation-wide processes and structures to:
1. take in all the data (unstructured, raw, semi-structured) from our listening and interaction
2. analyse that data for what’s important and meaningful from the customer’s point of view
3. feed those insights into the organisation to create better outcomes (or to enhance the successful existing outcomes)
4. and then deliver those better outcomes.
It’s a cyclical process that demonstrates to customers that we value them and are paying attention.
The best marketing strategy is to deliver a remarkable customer experience. Why not let our customers tell us what that is?
About Eric Swain
Eric is Managing Director and Co-Founder at the agency Spice, where he helps companies make sense of a brave new world where the customer controls the business ecosystem and the conversation.
He’s been knocking about the place for the past 20 years as a consultant, director, or head of sales, or marketing (or both) for companies from tech start-ups and mobile app developers to vending machine brokers.
Once described as “smart, good looking, athletic, persuasive and brilliant” on the back of an anonymous feedback form, Eric is enthusiastic about real, honest communication and enjoys writing his own online bio whenever he gets the chance.
View other posts in our guest blog series:
Power to your employees! But do brands have the guts? by Danny Whatmough
Helping clients better understand and engage in social media by Jonny Stark
The social media strategy series: Getting Buy In by Gemma Went
The tall and the long of it by John V Willshire
Social Media in the 21st Century – Deja Vu all over again by Paul Smith
The Secrets of Pitching Social Media by Paul Sutton
The social media strategy series: Is social media right for your business? by Gemma Went
Talk is cheap by Peter Bouvier
Show social or show business by Chris Hall
Back to the future… by Adam Vincenzini
Managing Client Expectation in Search by Chris Hyland
Get Excited And Make Things by Stuart Witts
