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• Social networks are “unstructured conversations” than can yield valuable data to generate sales and reduce costs.

• Unstructured conversations are gaining currency for leading CRM companies.

• Social CRM or CRM 2.0 rests on the interplay of customer interaction and company rules.

In flush times, social networks are a hard sell. In hard times when companies have little money to spare, selling social networks is even more difficult. That’s why I want to return to the subject of a previous posting about social data mining.

Social networks can yield rich customer data that companies can use to reduce customer support costs and increase sales.

It’s a compelling argument but I gather it’s still new. Few of the social networking companies I spoke with this past fall at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York highlighted social data mining, and even fewer were building applications to support it.

But times they may be a changing. CRM giants like Oracle and SAP are now building tools to help companies take advantage of social networks’ “unstructured conversations.”

Oracle (blog) has built a suite of tools that “leverage the collective knowledge of the broader sales community” to help a company complete sales rather than merely tracking the sales pipeline. The net result Oracle claims is higher productivity, better leads, a shortened sales cycle and increased sales.

Mark Woollen, Oracle’s VP of CRM Strategy explained to me about how social CRM is “giving context to unstructured conversations.” Especially in this economy where growth is hard to come by, Woollen believes that social CRM can help drive business and improve margins.

SAP is using CRM to map relationships with their customers. They gave me an online demonstration of how they are leveraging the social network Twitter to improve customer support. Their software tracks key words in tweets for content and sentiment to help service reps resolve issues before they become problems.

Both Oracle and SAP acknowledge a transfer of power is taking place. Unstructured conversations between customers are redefining relationships between customers and companies and challenging companies to look at data in different ways. In creating new applications, they are grappling with issues of standardization and monetization.

Michael Thomas, director of CRM and social media strategy at Neighborhood America and national president of the CRM Association believes “larger corporations are getting interested but are still getting their arms around the ROI. They can’t do effective CRM without collaboration. It’s a bi-directional flow. You have to be in position to react.”

This game change in managing customer relationships is central to what CRM expert Paul Greenberg addresses in his presentation -”What the Hell is CRM 2.0?” According to Paul, the difference between CRM 1.0 and CRM 2.0 s the difference between:

• Businesses producing products and services for the customer, and businesses aggregating experiences, products, services, tools and knowledge of customers.

• Focusing on customers and focusing on all iterations of the relationships (company, partners, customers), specifically on identifying, engaging and enabling the influential nodes.

• Technology focused around operational aspects of sales, marketing, support and technology focused on both the operational and social/collaborative which integrates the customer into the entire enterprise value chain.

It’s one thing to identify the elements of CRM 2.0; it’s quite another to implement it. As Greenberg recognizes, CRM not cheap, and it’s hard. “Not a lot of companies are doing well in tying the pieces together.”

And what about concerns about privacy? All this data mining raises the question of privacy and how your data is being used. It’s what Derek Grant, vice president of sales at the web marketing automation firm Pardot (blog) calls the “creepiness” factor.

Greenberg makes a distinction between trust and privacy. Companies can act responsibly even if they mine data. While I don’t support the sale or transfer of personal information to a third party, I generally subscribe to Greenberg’s contentions about user participation in a social network.

• They have no inherent right to be a member.

• There are risks associated. There is no complete, guaranteed privacy.

• While they retain ownership of their profile, by signing up, they are providing a limited license to the social network to use that profile as an asset.

• That profile well may be used commercially with their permission.

Beyond addressing issues of privacy and trust, CRM 2.0’s success rests on an understanding of the interplay of social customer interaction and company rules as Paul Greenberg points in his discussion of HelpStream (blog).

Their approach involves distilling key points of an online conversation, applying recognized company business rules and workflows to address them, and then notifying appropriate personnel to solve them. It’s the follow up that often gets lost. What’s the point of mining data, if the data is not put in the right hands to address the issues that are raised.

I know that I have only touched the surface of CRM 2.0. And I recognize CRM is far a field from corporate communications. But I feel that highlighting CRM’s role can help legitimize the tools that PR professionals are trying to implement. It also is a recognition that PR professionals need to appreciate the value of data in measuring success.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: CRM; CRM 2.0; Paul Greenberg; Social Networks; Data Mining; Oracle Social CRM; SAP; Helpstream; Michael Thomas; Neighborhood America; CRM Association; Derek Grant; Pardot;

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• Social Media can be measured by its short term and long term value.

• Conversations are the cornerstone of social media.

• Success is defined by the piece of the conversation you own.

• Successful campaigns must be placed in the context of long term conversations.

In a highly competitive market where brands are seeking to capture mindshare, the key is to determine what part of the conversation you currently own, what part of the conversation you want to own and what part of the conversation you are able to own given the competition and the attributes of your brand. To that end, you must look at your product or brand and ask:

What is it?
Who is it for?
Why do they care?
How is it different?

Answering these questions will also help determine how broad or narrow you may want to play in the online conversation. Owning a small portion of the conversation may yield the highest level of extended engagement and generate the most buzz.

Conversations are well and good, but what about clients seeking short term, immediate results. I can’t deny my bias. Launching social media campaigns around user generated content, viral videos, casual games, promotions may generate spikes in website visits and online sales, but I am not convinced they have lasting value or build engaged customers without conversations. Once the campaign is over, how do you continue to engage the users you reached?

In using social media campaigns as part of a marketing or PR strategy, I offer up the follow considerations in helping evaluate a potential campaign:

• Long-Term vs. Short-Term – How does it relate to the conversation?
• Continuity — What steps are in place to maintain connections and continuity after the campaign?
• Scalability — Is it scalable?
• Amplification — How does the campaign extend to other marketing efforts and other channels (both new and traditional)?
• Payoff — What is the pay off for the user?
• Employee Engagement — Can employees be engaged?
• The Community — Does the community match the marketing strategy?
• Technology — Does the technology match the user target?
• Celebrity Endorsement — If you are using a celebrity, is there a direct connection between a celebrity endorsement and the user, channel and particular application being used?
• Refreshment — Does the campaign or interactive website have rich, refreshed content?

These questions are helpful in setting expectations and putting campaigns in a larger context. No doubt, ordinary campaigns can yield extraordinary results, but extraordinary campaigns are really extensions of conversations that you should be having.

As for effective social media campaigns, I will save my rules of engagement for another posting. But I do recommend checking out the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Award Winners for some excellent case studies.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Conversations; Campaigns; Forrester Groundswell Award Winners; Social Media;

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I understand the fear of being fired for failing at something experimental. I recognize that ROI is elusive. But when others are circling the wagons, is it possibly the time to pull the trigger and help position your company for times when conditions are better?

Of course there are other factors to consider when implementing a social media, including expertise, resources, company culture, and what the competition is doing. I am only suggesting that the current recession may be a rare opportunity to take a risk.

Let me get back to you.

Entrepreneurialism is alive and well in Atlanta. Along with Startup Lounge, Startup Riot, Start Atlanta, add Atlanta Startup Weekend (ASW), which I attended the past weekend. Like Startup Weekends held in other cities, ASW, now in its second year, was an intense 54 hour event that brought together tech minds (developers, designers, marketers, etc) to create companies from concept to launch.

I was only able to stop by on Sunday night but I was interested in checking out Atlanta’s commitment to building a high-tech community. More than 70 people were on hand for the final presentations — 50 more than last year. All in all, 130 people registered, 102 showed up the first day, 41 initial ideas were proposed, 7 companies were formed – all over one weekend.

Asked how Atlanta’s Startup Weekend differs from those in other cities, George Junginger, a Start Up Weekend facilitator, was “amazed by the amount of tech talent in attendance.” In other cities, he said there tended to be many more marketing professionals.

As a social media advocate, I am pleased to discover that all the companies that launched were essentially social networking applications. Perhaps it’s the nature of the event, but they all took advantage of Web 2.0 technology.

Some of the companies that launched include:

Twitpay.me, which let’s you send payments via Twitter.

Closebuy.me, a location-based inventory search engine. Want a specific camera? CloseBuy.me will tell you who has it in stock and how close they are to you.

GivingTi.me, which enables entrepreneurs to help each other one hour at a time.

Jumbis.com, which generates single product sales websites that turn buyers into evangelists. Automatically.

Reepli.com, which is a targeted social marketing effort focused on twitter and blog integration to allow companies to engage conversations.

The level of participation reflects “incredible progress from last year,” according to Lance Weatherby, a technology entrepreneur and currently a Venture Catalyst at Georgia Tech. He helped facilitate this year’s Atlanta Startup Weekend.

“The members of the media that covered the event and the number of attendees that stayed through the final hours of this Weekend demonstrate that the Atlanta high tech community is getting stronger…And it is not because of the current economy…Most attendees have day jobs,” said Weatherby.

That’s also the belief held by Stephen Fleming, chief commercialization officer at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute. “Forget complaints about the lack of money or support. The high-tech community is a lot healthier than people give us credit for.”

Over the months to come, it will be interesting to see which companies get to the next level in their development. Skribit, which was the only company that launched last year, was on hand. It continues to evolve and attract outside interest.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Atlanta Startup Weeke; Twitpay.me; Atlanta; Closebuy.me; GivingTi.me; Jumbis.com; Reepli.com; New South Media Buzz; Bernaise Source Buzz;

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Believe it or not, social media is changing the face of gaming.

In keeping with the Halloween theme from this past Friday…Heeee’s back, or rather I’m back.

After a two-week break, I have cleared my head and hopefully have sharpened my blogging strategy. But before I turn to other planned postings, I wanted to wrap up my thoughts from my previous posting about last month’s Southern Interactive Entertainment & Gaming Expo (SIEGE) conference held here in Atlanta.

• Aided by social media, marketers are using non-traditional games to engage new audiences.

• A game to be a game requires modeling, simulation and role-playing in a prescribed context.

• Games must be compelling first, brand extensions and promotions second.

Based on feedback from gamers at SIEGE, it is clear that gaming is evolving and increasingly integrated into marketing strategies. But what is the social media angle?

From a user standpoint, they are highly interactive. Results are immediate, and they lend themselves to extended periods of engagement. They also build community. From a marketer’s perspective, they can build brand. While ROI remains elusive, games are sticky. Marketers can track traffic and measure their usage. If compelling, they can be viral. Users will devote time competing with themselves as well as with others, collecting points, downloading badges, rating and inviting friends to participate.

In short, gaming is an ideal platform in a new media strategy. Once more, gaming is dynamic; its user base is expanding, and its functionality is evolving especially with greater emphasis on downloadable, browser based games.

At SIEGE, I spoke with Danny Miller (blog) a GA Tech student and president k2xl.com. He believes there is a paradigm shift taking place. The gaming market is attracting more non-traditional gamers who are increasingly engaged in games tied to political campaigns, marketing efforts, and education initiatives.

Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Celia Pearce spoke with me about gaming’s widening social demographics. The core group of 18-24 year olds is saturated. In the U.S market, there has been less focus on older and younger users, but that might be changing. Habbo Hotel, aimed at teenagers, is now the biggest virtual world attracting 90 million users. On the other end of spectrum gaming continues to attract Baby Boomers. I was surprised to learn that the percentage of Baby Boomers in the gaming population is greater than the percentage of Boomers that make up the overall US population.

So what actually is a game?

Ian Bogost (blog) is an assistant professor at Georgia Tech and a founding partner at Persuasive Games. He believes that games require modeling, simulation and role-playing in a prescribed context. As opposed to toys, Kevin O’Gorman on the Game Art and Design faculty at the Art Institute of Atlanta believes that games must have prescribed rules, in a prescribed space with prescribed goals.

These definitions are useful as games evolve and take on new roles. These new types of gaming include:

Casual Games –Video game targeted at a mass audience and are typically distinguished by their simple rules. They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer. Casual games typically are played on a personal computer online in web browsers, although they now are starting to become popular on game consoles, too.

Serious Games – A serious game is a term used to refer to a software or hardware application developed with game technology and game design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. Serious games include games used for educational, persuasive, political, or health purposes.

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) — An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time. An ARG evolves according to participants’ responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game’s designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game.

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG or simply MMO) – is a video game, which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and feature at least one persistent world. MMOGs can enable players to cooperate and compete with each other on a large scale.

Gaming and Marketing

Whether a game is a game or merely game-like, it can be your “most successful or your most risky marketing strategy,” says Lukas Bradley, president of Th.ru.st Interactive who sat on a SEIGE adverigaming panel. Th.ru.st specializes in multiplayer games, virtual worlds, and Rich Internet Applications.

Companies are using games as promotions to attract customers, as content to engage visitors, as viral campaigns to generate buzz and as tools to train employees.

But over and over again the gamers I talked to stressed that games must be compelling first, brand extensions and promotions second. And just because the game is compelling, doesn’t mean it serves to extend the brand. In considering a gaming strategy, you need to ask yourself whether the tone and content of the game fulfill the brand promise or is it a game for a game’s sake.

In the end, the link between gaming and brand building has grown stronger for two reasons. One is technological. Web 2.0 is making it easier and less costly to create and distribute games. The other is cultural. In our entertainment focused society, it is only natural that marketers look to “playing” games to engage customers and extend the brand.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: SIEGE; Southeastern Interactive Entertainment Game Expo; Celia Pearce; Gaming; New South Media Buzz; Bernaise Source Buzz;

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