Reminder: 2007 Social Media & CRM 2.0 Certification Seminar Tour Starts Next Week

Reminder: Only one week until the beginning of the 2007 Social Media & CRM 2.0 Professional Certification Seminar tour. We start here in the Bay Area next week, and then will be heading East in April and May. Looking forward to meeting folks on the road!

What: 2007 Social Media & CRM 2.0 Professional Certification Seminar
Where: San Francisco, CA
When: March 27-28, 2007
Learn more: http://www.bptpartners.com/socialmedia_agenda.aspx

On March 27th and March 28th, I’ll be co-hosting a two-day professional seminar, “Social Media & CRM 2.0” along with Paul Greenberg (Author, “CRM at the Speed of Light” and principal at BPT Partners). This event will be held at the offices of our friends Fleishman-Hillard here in San Francisco. (Thanks, Fleishman!)

The 2007 Social Media & CRM 2.0 Professional Certification Seminar is endorsed by Rutgers University Center for CRM Research, CRMGuru.com, the National CRM Association, Greater China CRM and CRMA Japan.


Topics include:

Why the new social media: Communications and the era of the social customer — Traditional means of doing this through messaging marketing campaigns are no longer adequate. The new social media, blogging, user communities, podcasting and social networking are increasingly become tools of choice for businesses. Learn the why’s, where’s, and what’s in the segment on the strategic framework.

The Business Blog Field Guide — Every publication from Business Week, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal to online white papers warn businesses the blogging is not an optional endeavour. Those that don’t will not survive, so we are going to give you what you need to not just survive the on rush but prosper. This module will explain how to produce a blog, what the benefits are, and what conditions you need to make it a success.

Components of Blogging — You have the framework with the first 2 modules, now we’re going to get down. You’ve created the environment, time for you to get what you need to know to actually write the business blog in a consistent and timely way.

Customer Communities and Social Network Analysis — In this session, you will learn about the value of social networks, customer communities and the tools and practices to facilitate their creation and maintenance. If you do it right, your customers will be the advocates you desire and the business lifeblood you need for sustaining the kind of growth you’ve dreamed about – in collaboration with those customers you know to be important to your present and future.

The Theory and Practice of Podcasting — This module will not only explain what a podcast is, why it’s important to you as a business person, but how to actually produce a podcast. It will also bust some of the myths of podcasting that have already grown up around its young, explosive life. There is no form of social media that promises to meet the needs of the new generations of customers as well as this one – especially for those on the move. Imagine, having a good time creating something that can benefit your business – anytime, anywhere, any way you like? This module will give you the tools to do that.

Defining Your High Value Opportunities Using Social Media — Now, we get down and well, sorta dirty. How does this directly apply to your business? What industry you’re in, who your target markets are, will make a genuine difference in the approaches and applications of the social media tools. If you’re a B2B business v. a B2C business, there will be differences in approach. If you want to use the tools for co-creation of value with your customers or for feedback retrieval and customer conversations it will make a difference. Customer conversations can be a great way to build a relationship with your customers, meaning they might be more likely to come back to your company if they receive positive customer service. Because of this, many businesses are starting to look into different ways in how to dm on instagram and other social media to create and keep business relations. The final module will examine what those specific applications can be for specific business situations and models.

Learn more: http://www.bptpartners.com/socialmedia_agenda.aspx

Connect/Reflect

Tara gets asked: “How do you guys get any work done with all of the things you are involved in?”

Stowe writes: “In a world of flow, information will find us. And we will find ourselves more connected, in a richer world, with a different form of attention.”

I totally agree with both of them. And I also think that we need to nudge the thinking along just a step further. “Flow” is needed, and for individuals in an organization to be part of what’s going on, they need to be in it. Agreed.

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Back in the early and mid 90’s, I did a lot of whitewater rafting, primarily on the Gauley River in West Virginia. Once you were in the flow, you were in the flow. No turning back. However (and this is a big however), if you were in the wrong part of the flow, things got very dicey, very quickly…sometimes with significant consequences.

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Before jumping into the flow, you need to know the direction you’re going. Just as importantly, after you come out of a particularly turbulent part of the flow, you need to look back, and think about what worked, what didn’t, and what you’re going to do next time.

At SXSW this weekend, was thinking about this a lot, and realized there are really two parts of it:

  • Part of the time you’re in the midst of the flow, and connecting with people and ideas
  • Part of the time you’re taking a breather, and reflecting on what just happened and what’s going to happen next…

Connectreflect

(Gauley photo credits: The fine folks at Ace Whitewater, from whom I learned as much as I ever did in any classroom. Jack & Tug…thanks again!)

The Assumptive Open

Although Sean O’Driscoll calls this the assumptive close, it’s really not “closing.” If anything, it’s the opening of new kinds relationships with customers. Sean:

“It essentially goes like this: “You are going to do it anyway. Why do you want to be last?” Users are going to talk about your products, policies, licensing, people, everything! You really don’t get to decide this. The only decision you get to make is whether or not to participate in that conversation. You must also accept the fact that you CANNOT control the conversation. In fact, the harder you try the more impossible it is. So, what I’m saying is that you (your company) are eventually going to get involved in community (it’s not some fad). Stop selling the company on whether or not to engage and tell them that it is a foregone conclusion that they will. You are here to discuss not the “if,” but the when and the how.”

(via Lee)

Clue Unit #6 Show Notes: March 7, 2007

(click here to listen – MP3)

(click here to subscribe to this feed)

Episode 6, about 30 minutes.

Today’s Topics

  • SXSW heads-up
  • Community 2.0 conference thoughts
  • Brainstorming on how create interesting conference panel conversations via role-playing (eg. what are the issues brought up by CEO, product manager, etc.)
  • Thoughts on creating metrics for measuring success with business communities

With Jake McKee, Lee LeFever and Christopher Carfi.

(crossposted from http://www.clueunit.com)

Currently: Recognizing A New Word

Just realized the word “twitterati” (twitterati : n. – “those who use twitter.”) is in March 2007 where the word “podcast” was in October 2004. I have a feeling there’ll be more, soon.

(My handle on Twitter is ccarfi, btw.)