Social Media Marketing

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collaborative social program, pay specific attention to the design of the reputation

management system. Developer communities such as Intel’s Black Belt program are

well worth study. Look too at support communities such as Dell’s or Best Buy’s—both

built on the Lithium Technologies platform, known for its specific capabilities sup-

porting reputation management and expert identification. All of these are great “best

practice” applications to study and compare as you go about creating the design speci-

fications for your own community or other social application.

Figure 2.1 Intel’s Black Belt Program

Customer Relationships: CRM Gets Social

In the traditional sales cycle, CRM (customer relationship management) forms a data-

driven understructure that powers an overall customer life cycle. Based on historical

transactions, the insights into what a customer may need next, or when a particular

customer may be ready for an upsell, offers are generated based on past transactional

data and the larger purchase or use patterns that exist across the entire customer base.

On the Social Web, where the customer is now becoming an integral part of the

sales process, CRM is being adapted to support this new role of the customer. Think

here specifically about the Social Feedback Cycle and the role of a brand ambassador,

or an advocacy program that plays out in social media. In each of these, there is a spe-

cific development process—from tire kicker to car owner to loyal customer to brand

advocate—that can be understood in terms of available behavioral data. Posts on social