Social Media Marketing

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c h a p t e r

5:

SOCIAL T

ECHNOLOGY AND B

USINESS D

ECISIONS

■

Social CRM sits at the core of this cycle—see for example the work of Esteban

Kolsky. It is repeated innovation—not one-off hits—that drives success. The Apple

iPod is a great example. The first models launched in the early 2000s bear only passing

resemblance to the wide range of devices comprising the iPod family and to the ultra-

sleek, button-free iPod Video models available in the market now. The iPod’s market-

share stands at around 75 percent: What other proof of the value of innovation does

one need?

ABSTRACT

OFFER

LEARN DO

Ideation

Customer Support

Active Listening

Collaboration

Design Development

Implementation

Measurement

START

HERE!

Figure 5.1 Innovation and Social Engagement

The connection between innovation and social engagement is directly applicable

to social business and its attendant processes, including Social CRM. This relationship

spans the stages of learning, applying the ideas gained to design, and then iterating to

steadily improve (sometimes in radical steps) what is offered to customers or cause-

related constituents in the marketplace. This is what makes Social CRM different from

traditional sales-cycle-oriented CRM: It’s the addition of customer-powered collabora-

tive participation that powers Social CRM and the realization of a social business.

Without collaborative processes, Social CRM quickly devolves to a more standard

company-driven marketing and business development effort.

It is important to understand the requirement for collaboration in creating a

social business: Otherwise, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “this (Social CRM) is the

same as what we’ve been doing...only now our customers are a formal part of it.”

The problem with this kind of thinking is not that there aren’t analogies to existing

processes—there are, just as there would be in any business process evolution. Rather,

it’s because the “same as...” is exactly the excuse used to avoid substantive change

inside your firm or organization, an excuse that inertial forces within will desperately

seek. Does this sound like an overstatement? It’s not. As with any other aspect of busi-

ness transformation, moving toward a social business mindset involves fundamental