Category: Uncategorized

Jon has some good thoughts regarding identity.  Key line: "The premise that you should be able to express and share online without fear is definitely a freeing concept."

An interesting post regarding TripAdvisor, a wildly popular travel reviews site.  The source is here. Key quote: "One thing is certain – consumers would trust other consumers over hotel / company marketing departments any day."

I think the premise of the article is flawed…just because one could create an Eliza-esque (much better, actually, but you get the point) "automatic" review generator, there is still the tie-in to reputation and identity that is required to make those reviews more relevant and worthwhile.

The reason I pulled this out was that the two data points on the left of the graph are quite interesting:

• 82% of the respondents preferred customer reviews over the hotel’s description
• 70% of the respondents preferred customer reviews over those of "professional reviewers"

N.B. I strongly dislike the "Will A.I. replace the TripAdvisor model" headline on the original article.  Gah.

Graph Source: Compete Inc. “Consumer Generated Content in Travel” 2007, via the referenced article.

Some thoughts on CRM in 2009:

"In terms of CRM product functionality, look for last year’s trend
toward "social CRM" — marked by collaboration tools like wikis and
blogs within the CRM experience — to morph into "cloud CRM," wherein
CRM applications connect to external social-networking sites like
Facebook or LinkedIn, as well as other Web sources, according to 451
Group analyst China Martens."

From here.  (Image from here.)

I’ll be talking to Chris Dorobek on @fednewsradio 1500 AM at 3:05p ET / 12:05 PT today about the change.gov iPhone application. More here: http://tinyurl.com/928z74

UPDATE:  An MP3 of the conversation is now available here.
 

From Wired.  (Click on the image to expand.)

Actually, this is a pretty good flow, with the "Restoration" step in particular harkening back to the "Sifry Method" pointed out a while back for dealing with customer issues.

A number of folks are saying that 2009 will be the year that VRM breaks into the mainstream.  What say you?

Dave Winer on why smart customers rock.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the critical battle going on between various providers of online identity, the most notable being Facebook, Google and OpenID.  I asked the question:

"If you could use one login for all websites, which would you use?"

Although not statistically significant by any stretch of the imagination, the poll showed some interesting results.  Here they are:

The things that raised my eyebrows:

• 28.8% – nearly a third of the respondents! – really, really liked having different credentials for every website
• 30.8% said "OpenID" – although I have no way to back this up, I was stunned by how high this number was, as my gut is that OpenID is still much more of a techy thing than a general-populace thing
• Facebook was about 11%, and Google almost twice that at about 19%, but both were still substantially below the "keep them all different" and OpenID responses
• Once you get out of California, Facebook drops REALLY low (see the map above)

Again, more "anecdote" than "data," but interesting nonetheless.  Your take on the results?

Great post by Jennifer Leggio (aka Mediaphyter) on the pros and cons of customers and brands interacting by way of sponsored blog posts.

The money grafs (pun intended) from Jennifer:

"The questions:

• Is sponsored blogging authentic?
• Is it transparent?
• Is it sustainable?

Authenticity: Why not? A person can do a sponsored
blog post without selling his or her soul just as a product reviewer
can be unbiased when he or she gets a free gadget to try out for a
while (or keep, depending on the reviewer, and that’s a whole other
debate). This is not an issue of integrity. People need to stop making
it one. Nowhere in any of the PayPerPost marketing info do I read “if
you sponsor a blogger you guarantee that blogger will sing your
praises.”

Transparency: Again, I say, why not? In the case of
blogger transparency, using Brogan as an example, he’s one of the most
transparent guys on the Internet even before he did this post. That did
not change with his sponsored post. You still saw the true author. In
the case of brand transparency, Kmart took a risk sponsoring Brogan to
do this post. I’m sure, behind the scenes, management had tough
conversations over what piece of their business might be exposed by
giving someone more intimate access. It’s the same thought process that
an enterprise tech company goes through before determining whether or
not it should send one of its products out for review.

Sustainability: Wait for it… YES. This is absolutely sustainable, and I think this is the most important question to answer."

Go read it.

If you (a) like music or (b) live in/near Chicago, you may wish to check this out.