Comments by Mark Tamis Subscribe

On Syndication Reaches the New Social Customer

Good post, I'd add that before you get syndicated, you should add value to the conversation in a public and visible channel around the subject in which you provide your insights. The issue of visibility so that people will find your posts still remains if you decide to start blogging on your own, non-syndicated blog.

You can do this for example on Twitter by following hashtags (think #scrm), drawing attention to your posts and other related articles of others through the link-sharing dynamic.

You can also share your insights by commenting on posts written by others, branching off those conversations with your own post if you think it merits to be dealt with in more detail and your point of view adds new insights.

You should also not limit yourself to just blogging, but also do things like share your presentations, videos (think CRM Playaz!) and so on.

my 2c :)

On So Not Social

Spot on Esteban,

The only thing I'd add is that is good to extract actionable insights, but you also need to organise your company, employees, partners and suppliers to act upon these (in an experience continuum whilst were at it)

Social is the current buzzword, but if it helps to align thinking behind organizing around actionable insights, I'd be happy!

Cheers,

Mark

On Enterprise 2.0 and Social CRM Converge towards the Collaborative Enterprise

Thanks for your comments, guys!

I have been saying for a while now that I see Social CRM as a change agent, I I think we're starting to get there (though not exactly the way I thought...).

The Social Business Suite that Esteban describes is a great toolkit, but without rethinking the organisation to become what could be termed the Collaborative Enterprise, you risk ending up with an 'expensive old organisation' without the benefits that you seek.

I do however think that this particular toolkit will help you get there more effectively - it will provide the grease for the cogs cooperation and coordination of a resilient organisation (can you tell that I like Gulati's writings? lol). The Collaborative Enterprise as such exists, but I think the concept can benefit greatly by integrating the Social CRM customer engagement strategies and the Enterprise 2.0 collaboration approach.

2 more cents to the pile :)

 

On What Comes After Social Business?

Hi Esteban,

I did a piece about Social Learning and Customer Engagement back in December that you might want to look at again - basically arguing that Social Learning can lead to better qualified innovation and customer advocacy by levelling the playing field.

To add my two cents, I think the word 'customers' is too imprecise; customers want this, customers want that...I'd see that some customers would be interested in collaborating with a company to co-create innovative offerings, some customers would want to participate in a community, some want to rant on Twitter, some want to write blogs about you. Most will just want to have a frictionless interaction experience and just enjoy the 'value-in-use' that you can provide them, and most will just look at how you deal with those that do want to collaborate with you to shape their opinion.

Basically, you need to deal with some to influence how you are perceived by most and your Social business model should take this into account.

Cheers,

Mark

On 'Worst Practices' in Customer Service: Updated!

Hi Margot,

Indeed, a tale of caution. Your behaviour in this case was to check out Access America through social media channels after the unfortunate event - the next time you will check out the insurance company beforehand. In this lies the power to push for change - customers getting advice from their peers beforehand and basing their decisions on that rather on what the business advices them to do.

You trusted Hotwire to provide you with sound advice but they failed. You trusted Access America because they were recommended by Hotwire. How does this reflect on Hotwire - will you be as keen to do business with them in the future? Even though Hotwire is not responsible for the business practices of the Insurer, it now does have an 'obligation' to be transparent, and could even help the customer make a decision on the insurance company.

Mark

On The Complex Simplicity of the Social Business

How about "Social Business is when customers, the company, its suppliers and partners work to optimize what they get out of doing business together"?

On The Complex Simplicity of the Social Business

How about something more simple and flexible:

"Social Business is the optimisation of the Collaborative Value Chain for customer-centric business."

This takes the tools issue out, and takes into account the idea that we are running a business that seeks to extract and optimise value for all parties involved.

Business could always exceed expectations by continuously going beyond and throwing more customers experience improving ideas and money at it, but at some point checks and balances need to be done to make sure that the company stays in business. And this is the point that does need to be made with the CxO crowd : become customer-centric to run your business more efficiently, leveraging the customer experience to increase your customer base and ensuring that everyone involved is able to optimize the value they extract so they will continue to want to collaborate. And yes, the process of buying is an act of collaboration.

My 2c, what do you think?