SelvasCano

New Blog Location

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:26:58 Z

New Blog Location:

www.socialcrm.net

See You there!

Social CRM

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:17:04 Z

What do I mean by Social CRM?

What fascinated me, and brought me into, what I originally called Online Communities and then Social Networking was the realization that it was a natural extension and expansion of my old (and perennial) love: Customer Relationship Management. However, as I know it is clear for you, actual application sometimes (many times) falls short of the possibilities; very few have used Social Networking to create the opportunities for relationships to be established with and among their customers and partners, and leverage those relationships to create more, and better, opportunities for all.

As I move forward into new (and exciting) opportunities I thought it was a proper time for me to open a new Blog; I will devote this Blog to capture the thoughts and reports on the efforts I will pursue to help companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes to understand and act on the opportunity they have to use social networking as a relationship channel, and use those relationships to improve the value obtained by all participants.

Here is to the future!

P.S. this is my last post at this location; you can find me @ http://www.socialcrm.net/ from now on J

Filiberto Selvas

Do you “connect” with your customers? Like a good performer does?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:46:47 Z

I just came back from a concert (Luis Miguel, Seattle) and I couldn’t resist observing it as a “social experiment”, let me explain: In the few live concerts I have had the pleasure to attend I have always observed there is a moment when a “connection” happens between the performer(s) and the public; it is almost a magical moment, a moment in which there is a “synchronization” between the “waves” these two entities (performer(s) and audience) emanate and it is almost as if from that moment on it was one playing the other interchangeably.

It took Luis Miguel a good 50 minutes to reach that point; I have been in other concerts where the magical moment happens with the 1^st song, I was even once in an event when it happened through the declamation of a poem that was meant as an interlude!

The point is: there is a magical connection moment, and from that point on it becomes a bidirectional positive cycle feed between these two entities….. Do you have such connection with your customers? Is there such a positive cycle feed among you? A connection causing each of you to feel more enriched and satisfied because of it? And having everyone going home happy? (as I came home from this concert).

I hope you are; we all should have such connections.

What do you think?

Onward!

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:01:29 Z

16 ½ years ago I joined Microsoft based on two promises:

That I could develop my career any way I wanted.
That all my efforts and the efforts of many others around me had as the ultimate objective to bring the power of computing to all.

In looking back I am amazed and thankful for all that I have been able to do working with so many others inside and outside Microsoft; this phase has brought me personal and professional growth beyond my expectations, I have:

Had the privilege to meet and collaborate with hundreds of amazing individuals; and working with them brought forward (little by little) the benefits of computing to more and more people.
Experienced what it means to call three cities in two countries “home”.
Had the opportunity to meet and marry a wonderful woman (yes, thanks to Microsoft!)
Gained and extra citizenship, but more importantly a kinship with so many people in so many countries.
And so many more blessings that would make this list endless.

However the time has come for me to close that chapter and open a new one: I have accepted the position of Social Media Strategy Director at Avenue A Razorfish. This change offers me the incredible opportunity to continue to focus in an space I am passionate about, and do it through helping many different companies to understand and take advantage of it. I look forward to this new phase with excitement and anticipation, I can only imaging the growth and blessings that lie ahead and the opportunities for impact that will come with those.

I want to thank you for your company in this incredible and exciting journey! I really hope we will continue to work together in the road ahead.

Filiberto Selvas

To, From & Among

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:33:05 Z

In reading a relative unrelated post an old idea (one seeded and feed by many other posts & conversations) came back to me; here it is in a nutshell:

Most social networking efforts tend to “stand apart” from the source/hoster/initiator. Participants have to “go there” and they tend to become “isolated by groups” (internal versus external,

I propose that in the future social networking will become so fully integrated in products, services and companies communication efforts that it will be indistinguishable; and it will facilitate connections and communications among sets and subsets of groups according to likes/dislikes and commonalities (expressed or inferred); it will then become the root of Relationship Management (I am purposely avoiding the “customer” portion of CRM, as this will not be limited to that) and it will open incredible opportunities to generate new business models, products and services in itself. Common platforms are emerging and there will be benefits for many to share those platforms so that this sets and subset of groups will not be limited to a specific company or product and thus the networks scope of impact will be deep and extended.

So, if this is so open and available; what is the key differentiator that will render business opportunities you may ask? The business opportunity will be there, for those that are good at listening and acting based on what they hear.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Social Bookmarking “Perspectives”

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:34:22 Z

Social Bookmarking is one of the most underappreciated “experience tools”; I believe this is because we tend to look at it and present it in customer experiences from a “single perspective” and with that we limit its value and possibilities. Allow me to illustrate:

Think about the elements of social bookmarking as follows:

And draw a very simplified version of a group of users, Bookmarks and objects:

Let’s explore a few “perspectives” and with that what “possibilities” could be included in the customer experience:

1) What other gift ideas for the anniversary gift?

2) I want to connect with those that share my passions and interests.

3) What else is there to know about my passion that I don’t know about yet?

4) Based on the people that share my interests; what other things should I be looking at?

As you can see the “perspective” of social bookmarking that you choose to present offers different values and “experiences” to your users.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

The importance of understanding and catering to the user culture

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:53:31 Z

Even when this interesting TechCrunch post by Serkan Toto talks specifically about Japan, and the importance to pay attention to cultural differences to make inroads in a different market, I think it should be read with a slightly more generic mind frame: what does this mean not only for different country cultures, but also for different audience cultures? What does this mean for a CIO Social Network versus a junior high soccer Social Network?

Couple interesting snippets:

“..the country’s biggest social network, positioned itself as a tool for communicating at a distance through diaries and communities to meet like-minded members. It doesn’t primarily exist to make new friends (poking is restricted) or as a platform for public self-presentation.”

Note the statement makes it clear that meeting likeminded people does not imply making friends, it also makes the point that there are cultures (Japan in this case) where public self presentation is not desirable (at least not openly) and not a pre-requisite to meet those likeminded people (i.e. I can expose my interests and passions, without exposing myself)

“Without apps that make sense, Facebook is crippled.”

I would like to read this one as: without contextual and relevant value for the participants there is no adoption/usage.

In summary: it is extremely important to understand the natural tendencies/behaviors your audience already displays; the technology and programs you may bring forward are about increasing and focusing these behaviors but not changing them (at least not until you have had a chance to establish trust and critical mass).

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Of missionaries and visionaries

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:07:45 Z

This is not my original thinking; it was seeded in my mind recently by a treasured advisor (Thanks Randy), but it has remained with me, resonated and is bubbling out.

According to Wikipedia:

“a Visionary is a person with a clear, distinctive and specific (in some details) vision of the future, usually connected with advances in technology or social/political arrangements”

“Missionary: "mission" is derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning "act of sending" or mitto, mittere, literally meaning "to send" or "to dispatch” in summary a missionary “gets us there”.

We need visionaries; but we can’t get there without missionaries; “there is a promised treasure” means nothing without the “and here is how you get to it, let me show you”.

Social Media/Networking, like many other spaces, has plenty of visionaries. We need them to also become, or be complemented with, missionaries… yes, it is a dirty job (missionary evokes the image of that person that made mistakes. was chased, misunderstood, mistreated, etc.) but without them wouldn’t get there.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Hidden Gems: Visualization of roles in Social Media

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:22:31 Z

Visualization is very important for human beings; even when the most fortunate of us have five senses, we are clearly biased towards obtaining information through our eyes… there are good reasons why the phrase “an image is worth a thousand words” was coined. In this line I want to highlight the work of Marc Smith, Microsoft Researcher; it was actually Marc’s lectures that introduced and hook me onto Online Communities & Social Media/Networking. Here a sample of Marc’s work: “Visualizing the Signatures of Social Roles in Online Discussion Groups” available @ http://www.cmu.edu/joss/content/articles/volume8/Welser/

Another snippet of Marc’s work to get you interested:

Take user participation in an online community/social networking space (let’s assume threaded discussions for now).
Create a graphic which will be composed as follows:

Y axis plots the number of days a user participated in an specific period.
X axis is the average number of posts per thread
Plotting each user the size of the “plot point” is determined by the number of posts the user created in the period. The color is determined by the date of the most recent post (recent participants are red hot, not so recent are cold blue)

A sample graph would look like this:

See those bubbles in the upper left corner? Those are your answer people, you want to engage and establish a relationship with them.
See that blue bubble in the lower right corner? That is either a spammer or a troll, block that user.

Clearly the above are generalizations; depending on your objectives you want to foster different type of behaviors (sometimes you want discussion, sometimes answers and sometimes connections). Regardless of your objectives having the ability to graph behaviors this way to facilitate interpretation and identification of the right individuals is simply invaluable. Thanks to Marc and other for their work and showing us the way.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

An important pebble

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:29:31 Z

I keep a pebble that was given to me by my son after he found it in a playground: “this is important dad, can you keep it for me?” The pebble was not that important to me, but I decided to keep it for him.. and later it became a symbol that helped as a reminder that I need to think about what is important for others.

When you are setting up your Social Networking efforts you need to think about your customers (target audience) pebbles, it has to be about what is important to them.

Are you a major distributor of early elementary education materials setting up a SN effort for teachers? Organize and present it around what is important to them (The glorious objective of educating and preparing children for the future).
Are you a manufacturer of sports equipment? Organize your SN efforts around the joy of the sport: practicing it, watching it, coaching on it, etc.

Resist the temptation to structure your SN efforts around your features, capabilities, organizational structure, business objectives, etc. All of those will have to be presented and become a part of your SN efforts in the context of what is important for your customer.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Winds of change blowing this way

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:40:10 Z

I struggled to just select a few snippets from this article By Brian Morrissey; I really liked the implications and points made throughout the brief two pages, but here the two key pearls of wisdom I want to highlight:

· Social Media requires a different way to do business; it demands engagement and dialogue (inside and outside of the company); truly embracing this change will be challenging for many.

· Social Media is not only about getting your message out, and is not only about saving costs on customer service; it is also about relationships and engagement that lead to better products and services.

Here a few snippets:

“This is a major shift in how businesses operate," Dachis said. "Businesses are inherently antisocial. ... They're silo oriented and they don't talk to each other.”

“social media is increasingly seen as a catalyst for changing how companies operate. It points to a new corporate structure that favors open over closed, dialogue over monologue, and decentralized power over command and control.”

“The biggest challenge is moving away from thinking about it as marketing and PR," said Peter Kim, a Forrester Research analyst. "It's about product development, it's about IT. It's got to cut across all functions of the company.”

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Yahoo Reputation Design Patterns: great resource!

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:56:33 Z

Doesn’t give you the detail; but it helps understand the space and when to apply what reputation devices.

http://tinyurl.com/6jlul3

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Social Media Strategists: Can we learn from the past?

Fri, 30 May 2008 02:44:11 Z

For a while know I have been worried that Social Media, Social Networking, Online Communities seem to be heading down a path that is familiar to me, and that I’d rather have all of us avoid if we can….

I did an experiment: I searched for the key reasons CRM projects failed; I took snippets of one of the the articles I found (here the original, credit and eyeballs due to Adrian Mello) and I replaced CRM by Social Media…. Please read the results below; sounds to me we are at risk of repeating the mistakes, and we need to make an effort to learn from the past:

· …It's much more common for SOCIAL MEDIA projects to fail because of a lack of alignment with the business goals, inadequate organizational preparation, and other problems arising from ineffective business planning and management….

· ..One of the biggest sources of failure arises when enterprises put SOCIAL MEDIA tools in place before forging a clear customer strategy…..SOCIAL MEDIA tools can be used for a variety of purposes so companies need to identify their goals…Do you want to reduce the costs of handling customer inquiries? Do you want to acquire new customers? … Without answering these questions companies usually pick the wrong SOCIAL MEDIA tools. <or program strategies>

· Some enterprises have a customer strategy, but it's far too broad. Overreaching SOCIAL MEDIA projects usually fail…..Companies can avoid failures by establishing carefully defined short-term business objectives.

· Although project objectives should be highly specific, they must still fit into an overall strategy…. When they are administered as isolated "stove pipes," SOCIAL MEDIA programs usually fail…..Individual SOCIAL MEDIA projects need to be coordinated and project leaders need to communicate with each other.

· ….Even enterprises that develop a sensible customer strategy will still fail in their SOCIAL MEDIA efforts if they don't modify their organizations to reflect that strategy. A SOCIAL MEDIA rollout must shape appropriate employee attitudes and behavior before the technology is deployed…

· ….A common misconception about SOCIAL MEDIA is that it deals only with superficial processes due to its customer-facing nature. To be successful, SOCIAL MEDIA requires deep change within an organization…..

That should be enough to make my point; what do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Words to remember, words that should be celebrated

Fri, 23 May 2008 06:09:11 Z

Someday (not so far, I hope) all companies will do business this way, and they will look to the past and say: “but of course, how could they think about doing it any other way?”

““Insight from hundreds of customer relationships has informed our knowledge of what it takes to reinvent historic business structures. We co-create solutions with our customers — partnering with them every step of the way to help them perform and compete better in the global market.”
Steve Papermaster, Chairman and CEO of nGenera ”

This quote found @ the “every dot connects” blog.

So… what are the tools? What are the programmatic elements we need?

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Doing business is a team sport.. and the team spans beyond your company.

Wed, 21 May 2008 04:40:58 Z

I recently came across this article by Andrew Rudin; it outlines the learning the author gathered through a symposium and expert panel lead by Rob Cross. The points made resonate so much with the concepts I have been advocating for that I considered it worth to quote and comment:

“it’s important to “understand the key influencers and reputation holders in the customer community and how to leverage those connections for new business.” It’s myopic to think of the Account Executive as the focal point for facilitating those connections.”

“the best performing account teams not only had strong client connections, but also better networks into their own organizations.”

“Value is added when tacit knowledge for best practices, innovation, and revenue generation is exchanged between individuals. ”

Bottom line: doing business is a team sport… and guess what? The team members are scattered throughout your organization (not only in your sales department) and outside your organization (your customers, your partners, the people/companies that provide complementary services to yours).

Do you understand who is connected to whom, how and why? If you don’t you may be missing great business opportunities!

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

“Mr. Enterprise, tear down this wall!”

Fri, 16 May 2008 08:33:12 Z

Quoting The Cluetrain Manifesto, thesis # 93:

“93. We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that

separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but they're

really just an annoyance. We know they're coming down. We're going to

work from both sides to take them down.”

I say the foundations have been laid now:

Inside:

IBM: RIM, IBM Get Social with Software; Demo

Oracle: Oracle creates Web 2.0 division

Microsoft: Sharepoint, Collaboration and Social Computing

Jive: Clearspace

Etc.

Outside:

Jive: Clearspace Community

Wetpaint: Balco

Ning: REST API’s

Google: OpenSocial , Friend Connect, etc.

Etc.

How long till the walls crumble and these two worlds get fully conencted?

Filiberto Selvas

Dangerous times

Wed, 14 May 2008 05:27:17 Z

If you have read my blog (or seen the picture in the home page) you have figured out I have been around the sun a few times already; so don’t take this as an “I know better” and instead take it as an “I have seen it happen”.

Social Media / Social Networking / Online Communities are going through dangerous times, now everyone knows about it, wants to have one and there are so many doing it that you just have to wonder what “it” is…

I remember a time when CRM was not a widely known acronym, but SFA was.. I remember how, suddenly, CRM became a common term and everyone “had to have it” (regardless of what “it” was). I also remember how time went by and companies began challenging the ROI for the effort without looking at how they went about it.

Social Media / Social Networking / Online Communities are no different from CRM, from the perspective that you have to be ready to deeply change the way you do things if you intend to truly obtain value out of them.

Are you really ready to do that?

Filiberto Selvas

Mi Micro-Brand

Wed, 07 May 2008 06:21:31 Z

I found this post by Hugh MacLeod thought provoking…

“It seems to me a lot of people of my generation are locked into this high-priced corporate, urban treadmill. Sure, they get paid a lot, but their overheads are also off the scale. The minute they stop tapdancing as fast as they can is the minute they are crushed under the wheels of commerce. You know what? It's not sustainable.”

That resonates incredibly with me.. My wife and I seem to be in the most intense time of our life: we found ourselves in this continuous logistics exercise trying to do the best for each individually, and our son, and the family as a whole... while at the same time continuing to produce and with that maintain the <confessedly amazing> life style we have come to enjoy.

What is the alternative? Here what Hugh proposes:

“The Global Microbrand: a small, tiny brand, that "sells" all over the world.”

“… the Global Microbrand is sustainable. With it you are not beholden to one boss, one company, one customer, one local economy or even one industry. Your brand develops relationships in enough different places to where your permanent address becomes almost irrelevant.”

What is my unique contribution? What is my Global Micro Brand?

· I am experienced and versed in relationship management technologies and business strategies… CRM, Social Media, Online Communities, etc.

· I have never been afraid to play different roles: lead, facilitate, communicate, coordinate, bring people together, negotiate, study, analyze, document..

· I have a need to learn new things; I love to connect dots (as in: how does this works with that, and creates something different?) and to apply new concepts and ideas to old problems.

· But most of all: I deeply believe “We” (not "me") are great, I strive to achieve the common good (I believe in win-win) and I don’t crave power for power itself (I do like recognition and retribution for my efforts, I think we are all entitled to that)

This has to be the most self praising post ever! But I told you Hugh’s post was inspiring J

What is your Micro Brand?

Filiberto Selvas

The future of the Internet; my personal read (standing on the shoulders of giants)

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:31:58 Z

What happens when you compose the thoughts of these Luminaries about the future of the Internet?

Here my read:

More people will be able to engage as consumers and producers of information. We will be able to express and work as individuals, as well as members of communities at many different levels; Congregating around common interests rather than physical location, race, age or anything else. As a result of this openness and inclusiveness the culture will change and new social systems and ways of working together will emerge; the proverbial “global consciousness” will become a reality.

Her snippets of what they said:

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

“people are building new social systems, new systems of review, new systems of governance. My hope is that those will produce... new ways of working together effectively and fairly which we can use globally to manage ourselves as a planet.”

Professor Nigel Shadbolt

“80% of all content now generated on our databases in our computers is user generated and only 20% is enterprise. So how are we going to manage that tsunami, that overwhelming avalanche of information?”

Professor Wendy Hall

“The technology and the interfaces will change so that it's much more accessible on a mobile device…People who couldn't possibly afford a computer will have a mobile phone…”

Mitchell Baker, Mozilla

“… the possibilities are so great and they are so individual and so personalized and they lend themselves to building communities.”

Mark Bernstein, Parc

“It is a communication revolution... it's allowed the sharing of a common interest that would have no other way of connecting.

…a very refined electronic community and a set of communities that will operate at many different levels; individual interests as well as broad social efforts.”

Tim O’Reilly

“….back in the 70s there was all this talk about global consciousness… and it really is going to happen…Except it's going to happen mediated by computers…. We are connected now to this network of devices….and they augment our intelligence and our ability to share, to communicate, and we as a culture are changing as a result.”

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Social experience Yes! Online Community in the Corner, No!

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:50:59 Z

Once again I am losing my rhythm; I hate it when that happens. I will not allow my day job to get on the way again (J )

Yahoo Open! …Interesting announcement; however what catches my attention is this specific quote that Charlene Li includes in her post about it:

“This is about making Yahoo! social in every dimension. Social is not a destination -- it's a dimension and it will infuse all aspects of a consumer's experience on the Web.”

Let’s complement that with some words taken out from the Yodel Anecdotal post itself:

“There’s a massive, latent social network within Yahoo!, and we’re going to bring it to the surface. We’re making Yahoo! more social, but we’re not building yet another social network. We already have an incredible social network… we just need to unlock it.”

What can I say: Yahoo gets it! Think about how many companies can say the same regarding the latent social network (Google, Microsoft, Phone Companies) but how few simply get it and are transforming their experience into a social experience..... or instead keeping the social network / community as something out there in the corner.

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Main links:

Thu, 02 Dec 2004 05:09:40 Z

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:07:23 Z