A weblog by Christopher Carfi, since 2004.
Are there ways that existing customers of your product can use it that perhaps they hadn’t thought of? Think about…
What new ways can your product be used?
I’ve written an article entitled "Social Networking for Business: Measuring the Results" for the October edition of Communication World Bulletin, the monthly publication of the International Association of Business Communicators.
An excerpt:
"The online world is abuzz with talk about social networking. With
companies such as Facebook seemingly constantly in the news, 2007 has
been the year that social networking took its first adolescent steps
beyond being the sole purview of, well, adolescents, and started to
become a tool that is getting noticed in the business world. But with
all the hype out there about online social networking, how can
organizations begin to better understand the tangible business impact
of their forays into this area?"
"The Department of Technology Services (DTS) has notified us that the Federal Government inadvertently deleted the CA.GOV domain." Story here.
I hate it when that happens.
"Consumers are statistics. Customers are people." – Stanley Marcus (via Forrester’s Bruce Temkin)
I love these images, which were found at SelvasCano. (Read the post here.)
Where we are:
Where we’re going:
Spot on! That subtle shift…providing the community capabilities that enable customers to connect with each other (and not just viewing customers as captive assets) is the secret sauce.
Deb Schultz just posted about a dozen great links to thoughts on how enterprise social networking, marketing, and CRM/VRM are all weaving together. So, I don’t have to. Go read Deb’s post.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WEB, regarding all this "Social Graph" buzzword bingo:
My connections are not yet another resource to be strip-mined; my
relationships are not intended to be the impetus for your next Bre-X
adventure. Facebook and now, allegedly, Google are finding more and
more ways to give unfettered access to the "connections" I’ve
acknowledged publicly.
On a pragmatic note, I’m far from the least-connected person out
there. I’ve had the good fortune to connect with many people at a
more-than-superficial level over the past couple of decades in the Real
World. As such, I am happy to accept the LinkedIn and Facebook bacn
as it comes across the wire from those with whom I’ve had
interactions. I see accepting these requests as a form of social
grooming. It’s as much reciprocal validation as anything.
But it needs to be an individual decision to share this information. (Ross is trying to find a way to get IP protection on his information, for example.)
The thing that’s missing from the majority of the social networking
conversations I’ve seen and been involved in over the past few years is
that the importance of context
is almost never mentioned. My connections all have a context to them
(and the others to whom I’m connected my have a different context from
their perspectives).
My attributes also have a context; you may not
care about what I had for dinner last night, but a cardiologist (or
officemate!) might place a great deal of importance on that information.
So we need to be thinking about the context in all of these conversations.
Developers, designers, futurists, users…I pose you a question. When you look out ten years, do you want to be in Minority Report or the Global Village?
Make your decision.
Then make it happen.
CHRISTOPHER CARFI
Half Moon Bay, California
September 21, 2007
My friend Susan Mernit just dropped me an email letting me know about the upcoming "She’s Geeky" event, being held in Moutain View, CA on October 22 and 23.
"She’s Geeky (
http://www.shesgeeky.org)
More on the event here and here.
Bonus question: Which band/song inspired the title of this post?
That’s right, maties, September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day! That means ye need to swab off yer barnacles and come aboard! Here be the tools ya need:
Eye Patches: Print out yer own! Three styles to choose from:
classic black, "skull-n-crossbones," and "the parrot!"
Arrrrr! There’s even do-it-yerself patches to color yer own, savvy.
Pirate Hats: Here ye be! Step-by-step instructions of how to make yer own pyrat hat!
Click on the ships to come aboard! Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Throughout the latter part of the summer, the Cerado team has been partnering with our friends at BPTPartners to build out a new online service for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) professionals.
The service is called myCRMcareer.com, and it launched today.
This has been an great adventure, as we’re pulling together a whole host of different capabilities in one place for individuals who are tuning their careers to serve the needs of customers (e.g. sales, marketing, and service professionals) as well as ensuring that organizations which are trying to connect with those individuals are having their needs met as well.
The service is pulling together a number of different capabilities in one place:
As is true in launching any online community effort, the "getting to here" of envisioning a direction and creating and implementing technology has been a great reward.
Now the real part starts, growing and nurturing the community. The great thing is, that’s where the fun is. It’s the part where humanity meets business.
Do come visit, will you?
