It's been a busy but fun 30 hours. I had an opportunity to speak at two Summits - The Sage Summit right here in Atlanta, and the Lithium Virtual Social CRM Summit. Big thanks goes to both Sage and Lithium for inviting me to participate in these great events. When links are available to the event recordings I'll post them here, because you won't want to miss hearing from the likes of Paul Greenberg, Mike Fauscette, Jeremiah Owyang, Ray Wang and Bill Johnson. Virtual or not, it was truly an honor to be in company with them. And I especially enjoyed presenting with Kevin Ryan of Barnes and Noble on Amplifying Your Marketing with Social Channels. As VP of Social Media for B&N, Kevin shares how they are using social tools to build and engage their community.
It was an even bigger honor to have so many people get up early and attend my Social CRM session at Sage Summit - in person as well as over the web. I couldn't have asked for a better reception from the folks who came out. And I need to send out another BIG thanks to Kim Josephs, Jenna Hannahs, Ryan Zuck and the rest of the Sage team for taking care of everything, as my session was the only one streamed live and it went off without a hitch.
The third of the back-to-back-to-back events I participated in was just as exciting as the other two. Right after finishing up The Summits, I hopped on a plane and headed to NYC for the Business Development Institute's Social Consumer Case Study event. This was really interesting as it was non-stop, 20-minute presentations from the likes of McDonald's, JetBlue, KickApps and others discussing the role social media is playing (and will play) when it comes to serving their customers and prospects. I was there with Social Media Today CEO Robin Carey, and SAP's Jim Goldfinger - Sr. Director of the Customer Value Network. Jim and I had a short conversation about Social CRM, where I got a chance to pick Jim's brain in front of a couple hundred of folks - I felt like James Lipton on Inside the Actor's Studio... But before doing that, Robin announced the the latest addition to the SMT family of sites - TheSocialCustomer.com.
If you've ever visited SocialMediaToday.com, TheCustomerCollective.com, MyVenturePad.com or any of the other communities under the SMT umbrella, you'll understand why I'm excited about TheSocialCustomer.com. Each of these communities are great resources for information and conversation with industry experts, thought leaders and knowledgeable practitioners from across the globe. And I know there is great passion, knowledge and expertise waiting to be showcased, centralized and "communitized" with respect to social media, customer service and today's empowered customer.
All you have to do is check the hashtags conversations out on Twitter (#scrm, #crm, #customerservice, etc.) to see how much interest there is in this area. And with SMT's track record formalizing and facilitating great content and conversation, I was honored they invited me to come on board as the first blogger-in-residence for TheSocialCustomer.com. I'm excited to help get things moving, and my conversation with Jim at the BDI event was great way to jump in. I've already begun reaching out to folks like Paul Greenberg, Marshall Lager and other experts in the space to lend their voice to the community to help get the conversation started. SAP deserves a round of applause for signing on to be the title sponsor of TheSocialCustomer.com and making this community possible.
The idea of the social customer has been around for years. I first heard the term from Cerado CEO Chris Carfi, who helped to popularize it with his outstanding blog SocialCustomer.com. While the SocialCustomer.com and TheSocialCustomer.com are separate properties, they'll both be great resources for years to come for those interested in this fascinating area. One already is, one will be with your participation.
Technorati : customer service, lithium, sage, social crm, social customer, social media
Del.icio.us : customer service, lithium, sage, social crm, social customer, social media
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