How do companies deal with this?  When the customer’s voice, in many cases, is louder than your own and when customer issues are put to public trial before you even know you’ve been charged with anything.  Let’s call this defense (yes I’m excited that America’s favorite past-time has started this weekend).  What about offense? 

     1.  Now you can begin to understand who might be in the market for your product. 

     2.  You might know when a customer is having issues with their product before they come to you (assuming they give you a chance to fix it). 

     3.  Can you fix a produt flaw as customers begin to first talk about it

 There are many other ways to take advantage of customers talking in online venues (see attached diagram from Altimeter Group’s research on SCRM released in March).  Everyone from the industry can tell you that Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) will help companies figure all this out.   The interesting part (as Jacob Morgan points out) is that companies don’t know to ask for a SCRM solution.  In fact, even if you could buy a SCRM solution if probably would not matter all that much.  SCRM is about much more than some piece of technology implementation.  The keys to being effective with your CRM, whether social or not, lie in a company’s ability to capitalize on information as they get it.  To be able to course correct in the midst of a product launch when it was not in the plans.  That seems to be what SCRM is about.  It’s the ability for companies to adapt to their customers rather than adapting to their internal technology paths.  It’s the ability to re-think how data is captured, stored and analyzed to produce better information than what your overpriced sales dudes can provide for you.

These are the opportunities that SCRM make available for companies.  Much like “getting a website” was to marketing in the mid 90′s, SCRM is a virtually untapped opportunity to differntiate your company…in your customer’s eyes.  So we know the value that SCRM can bring, now what are you supposed to do?  Unfortunately, there is not one answer that fits every situation.  There are some guidelines to follow and there are even enough examples out there to begin to model successful efforts if you are able to find them.   To help develop some better models and open us up to some expanded thinking on the topic is one of Altimeter Group’s famous business analysts/strategists, R “Ray” Wang.  Ray brings well earned, highly respected insight to this discusssion on creating value in organizations through Social CRM.  The title and questions are as follows: 

Topic:  SCRM and the Value to Organizations

Q1: What are the basic tenents of SCRM?

Q2: How can you begin to tie social into existing CRM?

Q3: Build a list of useful SCRM use cases. 

This week’s event will take place Tuesday 9/7 at noon eastern.  To participate simply follow #sm76 from any Twitter client or follow along from our LIVE page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com

Marketers have been conditioned to grow brands by popularity over the years.  Show enough TV spots and billboards, add a catchy tagline and consumers will recall your brand when they are in stores.  This has worked well for many consumer goods products for decades.  Until now!  In the world of push marketing where consumers had no choice but to trust what you were saying (it was your brand why would you lie?), popularity worked.  If more consumers knew your name, the more you came up in general conversation, the check-out line and in your home.

The world is different now though.  The web and all things digital have changed the game on us.  Influence is quickly becoming the currency of choice on the web.  So what changed?  Now there is the expectation of a conversation not just a press release or a slogan.  Some of the most popular brands in the world have been smeared in the social dust (think Nestle, United Airlines, & Dominoes Pizza).  But these are all the most popular brands in their respective markets, right?

Let’s look at this issue from the perspective of individuals not businesses.  Everyone is in a rush to get the most followers on Twitter, the most friends on Facebook and the most viral views on Youtube.  That would equal popularity for most people.  Yet according to a recent study by ForeSee Results, Facebook ranks at the bottom for customer satisfaction.  What?  500m people and no one likes them?  That, my friends, says very clearly that you do not need popularity to have influence.

Or another example from the Bureau of Labor Statistics cites that in 2010 the most popular job (by volume) is that of a shop clerk.  The $20+k job has more than 4.2m people doing it, yet some of the least popular jobs (actors 40k and athletes 14k) carry the most influence.  When is the last time you saw a shop clerk with a Nike contract?

Whether an individual or a brand, what is it you should aspire to online, Popularity or Influence?  To help us with this discussion is Chuck Hemann.  Chuck is a social media director at WeissComm Partners and has been in the space for many years.    He is going to lead the conversation for the 75^th #socialmedia event this Tuesday.  The topic and questions are as follows:

Topic: Measuring Social Media Influence Versus Popularity

Q1:  How do you define influence and popularity?

Q2:  What metrics can help define influence or popularity?

Q3:  Which (popularity or influence) is more important?

Join us for this event Tuesday 8/31 at noon eastern by following #sm75 from your favorite Twitter client.

The social media industry spends a lot of time talking about the brand.  Whether it’s your corporate brand or your personal brand everyone has an opinion of how to market yourself.  That’s what it is afterall is marketing.  The branding police come in and say the product will conjure images of…..”being a kid again” or “going to the county fair” or (you get the pictures).  What happens after you buy the product and decide the packaging is hard to open or that it really doesn’t perform as advertised?  Well, they make television shows for that (PitchMen).   The same goes for your personal brand.  how many times have you “heard” about the accomplishments of someone then when you actually work with them only images of SnakeOil come to mind.  Once you “out” the product or the person, you will not use them again no matter how good the markting message is for them.

I have a hard time with spending so much time on your “Brand” for that reason.  All of it is glossy brochure-ware unless you can actually do something.  My preference is to push people and/or client’s brands to focus on their reputation.  Autos are a good example of what I mean, you don’t buy a Lamborghini for comfort and you don’t buy a Lexus to go fast.  Both are remarkable cars in their own right however the Lambo’s reputation is built around speed and the lexus around comfort.  That’s what you get when you buy them irrespective of whatever kind of marketing stuff they put in front of you. 

I pulled a couple of thoughts on personal reputation from the website Brand-Yourself (horrible name, I know).  They defined your reputation as this:

It’s the iconic who, what, why and how principle.
It’s developing, celebrating and using that internal and external persona, that is already there and a part of our DNA!

Who are you?
What do you stand for?
Why should you serve?
How can you better the community that supports you and the world you live in?

Who you are is the combination of your external appearance or image and your internal essence.
Whenever you are out professionally, make sure you are dressed appropriately and groomed. People do notice the fine points and that can say a lot about you. Ask any professional etiquette coach about how important style, flair and appropriateness is in making a first impression!

What you stand for is about your values, attitudes, demeanor and how you express your unique qualities.
Show people that and they will make a connection with you because we all look for those commonalities in our relationships with others. Kindness, sense of humor, integrity, generosity, creativity, caring all speak volumes about you to others.

Why you serve is how you want to be remembered.
Whatever causes or social leadership you are passionate about will not only drive and motivate you naturally but draw people to you. Step up, volunteer, join a cause, initiate an action, support one that needs some help.

So what does all this mean?  It means that it doesn’t matter if you have 3,ooo followers or 300,000 if you can’t articulate your strategy for a client.  It means, if you can’t legitimately help a client then refer them to someone who can.  It’s substance over talk, results over industry stats.  Our moderator this week knows alot about reputation as she has one of the best in the public relations industry.  Kami Watson Husye is the president and COO of Zoetica Media.  Kami is well respected for her work and her missions and will lead our discussion around managing your reputation.  The topic and questions this week are:

Topic: Building Your Reputation Using Social Media

Q1:  Is reputation more important than a “personal brand” in #socialmedia?

Q2:  Be it a personal or professional crisis, what is your plan for handling a negative backlash in #socialmedia?

Q3:  How do you scale online success for an organization or individual as your reputation grows?

This chat will take place on Tuesday August 24, 2010 at 12 noon eastern.  Follow #sm74 from any Twitter client or simply go to our LIVE page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.  The event will start at noon with the first question and Kami will move to the next question every 20 minutes for an hour. 

Sound familiar?  Not-for-profits have always been understaffed and significantly budget constrained almost by definition.  As marketing goes, social media has an opportunity to be the equalizer, the force multiplier and the inexpensive alternative for non profits.  The trend with companies is to market under a cause.  They are attempting to tie their brands to non profits, charities and other causes that have a real or perceived value to their end users.

What’s interesting is that overall, non profits have yet to capitalize on this movement.  With social media being as effective as you make it and possibly the lowest cost form of marketing and advertising that a non profit will use, they are still using it as a way to push interactive newsletters and help automate content distribution channels.  In fact, according to a survey earlier this year from CharityVillage more than 80% of non profits use social media to promote awareness as a primary function and second place use for social media was Personal (60%+)!  Excerpt of results below:

When asked what purpose they are using social media for, they told us:

• Promote our organization – 83.3%
• For personal use – 61.1%
• Attract new members – 55.6%
• Increase event registration – 44.4%
• Receive donations – 33.3%
• Attract youth support – 27.8%

Other uses:

Research, Networking, Prospecting, Volunteer and staff communications, Public awareness/education, Promote a cause, Provide knowledge and research to other not-for-profits, Build fundraisers vs. donors (support network +)

What’s more interesting is that the next question they asked about was how much of the non profit’s budget was going to social media.  An overwhelming 75% claimed less than 1% of their budget was going towards social media.

Companies in the private sector are moving billions of dollars to social media resulting in large percentages of their overall marketing budgets and the one’s who could benefit the most, non-profits, are not yet fully realizing the potential that social media can represent.  What is the disconnect?  I might argue that non-profits in general are poor marketers so why would this be any different.  On the flip-side, I would argue that non-profits ARE stronger operationally.  However there are many ways in which non-profits could become much stronger operationally using social media too.  With that, I may simply be a lack or education, creativity and know how.  If that’s the case, we may have the answer.  For our moderator this week, we have invited Beth Kanter to lead this discussion.  As the CEO of Zoetica, Beth is one of the foremost authorities on social media for non profits in the world.  For our discusison, we will cover the following topic and questions:

Topic:  Social Media for Non Profits

 Q1:  How can social media work for non profits? (Backstory: we know they have time and need money / sometimes volunteers. Can social help this & how?)

Q2:  What is the easiest way for an NPO to figure out how to do social?

Q3:  What are some of the best case studies of NPO’s using Social and what was the impact?

Join us Tuesday 8/17 at noon eastern for our weekly discussion.  Beth will start the first question at 12 noon and introduce the follow-up questions every 20 minutes from there.  Feel fre to participate or follow along using #sm73 from your favorite Twitter client or simply go to our live page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.

So by now, we have all figured out the magic beans for developing and sustaining brand or service based social communities.  Right?  Product research communities?  Unfortunately, those magic beans have yet to sprout.  Even within the same industries, companies struggle to replicate the success of their competitors.  Yet we know some of the ingredients that are needed.

• solid platform
• community manager
• brand fans to join
• some cute marketing to drive traffic
• then, like fishing, we sit back and wait while listening all the while.

We rely on the community manager to create new, clever ideas every day for content and conversations to keep the candle lit and if that fails, we can always bribe them to stay (chatchkies!).   Seems a bit rudamentary even after 2-3 years of experience, yet we have a hard time trying to come up with that one killer idea that will revive our community and keep it engaged for another few months.  That may be one of the problems.  There’s not one idea but rather the execution of many smaller ideas together that keep the community going.  But it’s certainly hard to create the ideas when you are so vested in the middle of the community. 

Another issue may be the old hammer and nail analogy.  Most community managers and social media directors come out of the public relations or communications fields so it makes sense that content would be at the top of the list when it comes to brainstorming.  I have a bit of a problem with that though.  Almost by definition, it’s not sustainable and certainly it’s expensive.  So knowing that, let’s come up with new ways to increase the relevance of your community (for both participant and company), make it sustainable and most importantly add value.  We have to look beyond content as the strategy and consider what else is out there.  Here are some ideas:

• Collect names in CRM not just the community.  Track users inside and out of your community (yes they have other interests).  See where else they go and incorporate those topics into your community.
• Research how your users live, not just demographic and geo info, but the cultures they represent.
• Incorporate Open Graph (facebook, Google, LinkedIn) tie-ins and recruit new participants from your existing user’s social graph
• Use analytics to identify gaps in your community experience.

To build on the idea of sustaining you social community, we wanted to tap a professional resource and there is no one better than Connie Bensen.  Connie is a community strategist with Alterian (better know by their social monitoring solution Techrigy) and known throughout the industry as a go-to resource.  Connie will lead us in discovering advanced ways to create value from your communities and make them more sustainable.  Join us this Tuesday 8/10 at noon EDT for this topic and questions:

Topic: The Lifespan of a Social Community

1.  How do you plan resources for the lifespan of a social media engagement?

2.  Do the communities you create need a community manager or can they be self-sustaining?

3.  What do you do with a community when the budget is exhausted or resources are no longer available?

4.  Can a community continue indefinitely and how?

Follow along on Twitter or your favorite Twitter client by following #sm72 or simply visit our LIVE page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.

I enjoy hearing about companies having success with social media and I am certainly intrigued in understanding how they got there.  After researching dozens of case studies (as many as I have been able to get my hands on) one theme rings through.  Most of these companies have had success with little more than a tool, a concept and someone willing to figure it out through trial and error.  Noble for sure, not usually very sustainable or repeatable though. 

Then you hear about all the companies developing their social media strategies.  This becomes the plan behind a tool, a concept and someone willing to figure it out through trial and error.  Noble for sure, yet not very successful usually.  Why is this?  For one, the conversation usually starts with “We need a blog!”.  The boss needs to be able to cover their trail, so they require a strategy to go along with it.  The team creates a strategy full of love and happiness, the boss has no clue what it means and three (3) days later…violla!  The blog is in place.

The point of this (yes there is a point after all), is that no where in here did anyone tie a social strategy into a business objective.  You don’t hear much around “we created x number of new sales or x reduction in costs because of our social media strategy”.

Having a social policy or code of conduct for how employees should represent the company (both internally and externally) is needed.  Having some thought around governance and a crisis plan is certainly good measure.  However developing a social strategy that does not tie back to meeting some corporate objective is simply a waste of time.  Instead, create a business strategy that includes social media to help solve a problem faster, better, cheaper (assuming that it will). 

In the end, it really doesn’t matter what you want to call your efforts.  Call it a social media strategy, call it a business strategy or call it a Bazinga!  Whatever you call it, it has to tie back to some real value to the business.  To ensure that we do tie it back to the business, our host this week is B.L. Ochman.  B.L. is a 2nd time moderator for us (#sm45) and is recognized for her contributions to this industry.  For the chat she will cover the following topic and questions: 

Topic: Creating a Social Media Strategy? Stop Wasting Your Time!

Q1:  Should you create separate social media strategies or business strategies?

Q2:  How do you budget for social?

Q3:  Do you train staff for social or hire for it?

The chat will take place Tuesday 8/3/2010 at 12 noon eastern.  Follow along by monitoring #sm71 from your favorite Twitter client or simply goto our LIVE page (www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live).  The chat will begin at noon as B.L. tweets the first question and the conversation will start.  Then at 12:20, the next question is asked and 12:40 the final question.  The conversation is fast-paced and full of helpful insights from the people who are blazing the trails in this industry.

Listen to a few “experts” and they make it sound that easy.  Some agencies focus on creating Facebook pages, widgets and applications and sell it to everyone who will buy it.  Just change the colors and voila!

The fact is that social media is not the savior for everyone.  Social media is not the silver bullet, the people behind it are.  Some companies will be poised to take advantage of new forms of engagement and new ways of interacting with customers, suppliers and employees.  Then again, some won’t.  

Just having a tool will not make you successful, the purpose, strategy and planning you do first might.  The way you integrate it into the entire campaign or initiative might.  Having a clean user experience may make poor tools perform better.  Even as simple as configuring the tools to support the initiative and not using the tool to define it.  Understanding the science of networks, the phsychology of why people participate and making that work for you and not against you is another way to make your social initiative stand out.  Once again, it’s not the tools, it’s the heft of the planning and purpose behind them.

Some companies have figured out how to make television work and some are still trying to figure it out after 60+ years.  For some companies, radio works great and is less expensive than alternatives.  Your business cannot be forced to go social, it has to be ready for it. 

So how do you know if your company is ready to go social and what do you use first?  This week’s host of the 70th edition of #socialmedia chat will help us explore just that.  Jay Baer has been weeding out the social media overgrowth for a long time and has ben helping companies figure out their right marketing mix for more than a decade.  This week’s topic is:

Topic:  Buiding our own Frankenstein: Is engaging with customers via social media required, or optional?

 Q1:  What are the circumstances when a company should NOT engage with customers via social media?

 Q2:  What are the organizational drawbacks to engaging with customers in this way?

 Q3:  How should companies modify their interactions, based on individual customers’ influence (if at all)?

Join in the discussion Tuesday 7/27 at noon eastern by following #sm70 from any twitter client or simply goto our live page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.

“Social media is changing the game, providing new touchpoints, technologies and techniques for businesses to build, maintain and encourage relationships with customers.  But social media tactics and tools alone will be limited in their business impact.  When combining social media with other interactive marketing practices, the results can magnify both.  In other words, social media integrated with other forms of marketing is greater than the sum of the parts.”

So what are the parts and how does the sum equal more than the parts themselves? 

Social media should not stand alone and “being social” does not change your objectives.  Being social merely changes your approach to achieve those goals whether internal or external focused.  When used as part of your digital ecosystem, the results can be significantly more valuable.  Consider the following areas:

• CRM + Social – although we discuss it quite a bit, the market is still not at a point general adoption.  Social CRM provides an opportunity to know more about your customer’s frame of mind at the time and better understand life events that may affect purchase decisions.
• Search Engine Optimization – most companies have paid and organic search strategies.  If your site does not optimize for what customers are asking for then your your competitors will enjoy more organic result while you will end up paying dearly for your web search traffic.  As social typically creates a wealth of fresh content (of which gets spidered by the engines quickly), you can focus the topics of your content to better effect organic results that your prospects are using at the time.
• Content Management – Ask this wealth of content is developed, you are creating a corporate asset.  If you are a global company or run across an enterprise, there is a lot of value to making those assets reusable across campaigns, countries, departments, etc.
• Mobile - find companies where they are, when they are there and in the way they want to be found.
• e-Commerce – Imagine going to Best Buy site, searching for TVs and your friends from Facebook populate the TV screens.  You would be more apt to take notice and spend time.
• Website-optimization – Imagine once again that the first set of comments on that TV are that of your friends who have purchased that same TV.

This does not even mention customer service, marketing, advertising and running campaigns.  To cover this topic in more depth is Adam Cohen.  Adam is a partner at digital agency Rosetta.  He will tackle one of the bigger issues that we have had on this chat and is more than capable of doing so.  The topic and questions this week will be:

Topic: Weaving Social Throughout Your Digital Marketing

Q1) How should marketers approach weaving social media tactics into their marketing arsenal?
Q2) Why does blending social media improve the effectiveness of other tactics?
Q3) Which tactics have the most impact when combined with social media? (Think both digital and traditional)

Be sure to follow the conversation this Tuesday 7/20 at noon EST by tracking the #SM69 tag on Twitter or visit our live page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com.

Our host this week reigns from the digital agency Red Urban.  Tom Edwards has been around both the social media and mobile media blocks a few times and brings a true blended expertise that is tough to match.  Tom will help us understand what to look for and why to get the most out of mobile and social media. 

Topic: Mobilizing Your Social Strategy
Q1) How are you integrating mobile to extend your social initiatives?
Q2) How are you maximizing the mobile web?
Q3) What tactics are you considering (Proximity, Augmented Reality, QR Codes) to extend digital/social
into retail?

Join us for this week’s chat Tuesday 7/13 at noon eastern.  To participate follow #sm68 from your favorite Twitter client or simply follow along from our LIVE page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.

As a marketer Facebook is one of those places you have to be in order to interact and engage with your customers and also as a way to be seen as relevant and impactful.  A marketer without a meaningful presence on Facebook for their company will not last long in that position.  Therein lies one of this era’s greatest challenges, making your Facebook presence work for you and not against you.  Anyone with 20 minutes can throw up a corporate page on Facebook and call it a presence.  Like anything else though, it pays to spend the time and resources to make your presence work for you. 

One of the key things to remember when considering your Facebook presence is how it will fit into your overall digital marketing strategy and what it will accomplish as part of it.  What are some other key take-aways you ask?  We decided to bring in the queen of Facebook marketing to help us answer that question.  Mari Smith will be hosting this week’s chat on the topic.  The coauthor of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, Mari brings a wealth of practical experience to us.  The topic and questions will be:

Topic: How to Get Measureable Results From Your Facebook Presence

Q1:   How do you gain momentum with a Facebook fan page?

Q2:   What should you be measuring on Facebook?

Q3:   How do you scale Facebook engagement?

Join us for this week’s chat Tuesday 7/6 at noon eastern.  To participate follow #sm67 from your favorite Twitter client or simply follow along from our LIVE page at www.hashtagsocialmedia.com/live.