Category Archives: Social Media

This post argues that Quora’s Q&A format is interesting, but community knowledge aggregation will continue to happen in places like Wikipedia.

In the past few days, I’ve had several great conversations in different forums that happened to share a common thread. “Is it possible or useful to analyze unstructured social data?” I argue that it is possible, but it might not be useful. Let’s start with Analysis. Analysis should be: Abstract – detached intellectual process basedContinue reading “Analyzing is more than just Counting”

There is broad consensus (at least among industry observers, vendors, consultants, analysts…) that companies need to become more “social” to remain competitive in the next years. “Social”,  in this case, mean many different things but generally is the business response to both generational behavioral changes and adoption of social technologies, including social media, with itsContinue reading “Can Old Dogs Learn Social Business Tricks?”

Not Love at First Sight I met Twitter for the first time a year ago today.  I was not particularly impressed after our first interaction. I don’t think Twitter was either. It did not talk back to me. I could not have predicted then that a year later it would take such an important roleContinue reading “Twitter and I. Our first Anniversary”

I have recently written about how moving to a social business model requires us to shift our thinking on metrics and accountability. My argument has been that metrics need to reflect the real business impact (the example was Customer Service being credited for new business because it was result of referrals by happy customers). But partialContinue reading “Focus on Mission, Deliver Customer Experience”

The adoption of Social Business models has to start from the inside-out. As we get to the last days of 2010, we need to recognize that this was the year we reached peak of  inflated expectations for Social-Everything. Small and mid-sized companies were told they needed to use Social Media and many went on toContinue reading “Social SMB – Be more Open in 2011”

Asking for Customer Feedback is different from Listening Last night, I was in the Customer Service Twitter chat that happens every Tuesday at 10PM PST. I truly recommend this lively, fun, and insightful conversation to anyone interested in Customer Service. Yesterday’s discussion was: “Do surveys after a Customer Service incident improve the customer relationship?“. HereContinue reading “Social Media: The Impact on Customer Surveys”

When we read about the impact of Social Media in Marketing, we see mostly one of two extremes: Social Media is just another media (nothing changes) or; Social Media changes Marketing (everything changes) We live in the real world. So, what is the impact of Social Media in Lead Generation programs for SMB? It isContinue reading “Social LeadGen for Real-World SMB Marketers”

In CRM, we have solitary experience, engaging with a database. In SCRM, we collaborate and engage with real people.