Most businesses are familiar with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems and will be using them in one form or another to give them insights on their customers, their purchasing and contact preferences and helping them maintain the relationship. As social media and social networking activity steams ahead with no sign of slowing, Social CRM has been getting an increasing amount of airtime.

Jermiah Owyang has compiled a good list of Social CRM (sCrm) vendors and I would expect to see this list grow over the next 12 months. As social media monitoring has matured and the ability to pull insights from the myriad of online conversations and UGC is now established, the next step is to overlay that data onto existing CRM systems. People are disclosing more and more information in their public social profiles and business can use this to provide more personal customer service and build deeper relationships with them.

CRM & Social Media Monitoring Convergence

It should be a natural step for the incumbent CRM vendors to look at integrating a robust listening tool to their current offerings. We are already seeing it in action, Radian6 integrates with Salesforce for example and I wonder how much longer before an Oracle or SAP buy up one of the monitoring vendors. We have seen community platforms like Lithium acquire Scoutlabs to form a social CRM offering, email marketing firm ExactTarget scooped up Filtrbox and Attensity bought Biz360. Jacob Morgan has a good take on it here and has a great diagram showing the SCRM process, check it out.

I think we will see social media monitoring augment existing CRM platforms and in that respect, all CRM systems will or can become social CRM. So, if I was in the CRM business I would definitely be looking to integrate and/or acquire a monitoring vendor to add a layer of ‘social’ to my software. I would then look to build, borrow or steal an engagement platform on top of that to produce an all encompassing social media management system. Again, we are already seeing this develop with the likes of Spredfast, Attensity, Involver and Radian6’s engagement console (which I haven’t yet seen in action).

Culture over Technology

But…is the software really the point? For a business to get the benefit out of a sCRM or even a current CRM system, they need to care about the customer and not just about mining their data for push marketing initiatives. If a business understands that the customer has become increasingly empowered and now demands to be in control over how they interact with an organization and vice versa then they are already using socialCRM! If they don’t understand this and don’t move to ‘operationalise’ their business accordingly to act upon the insights gained through social media…then no amount of cool technology will change that. It’s a cultural thing that most businesses aren’t yet ready for.

As a business, make sure you understand the ‘why’ behind all of this. There is some sweet software on the way and if you are set up internally to exploit it to the full then there are huge advantages to be gained. But it needs to start from within a business’ culture…they need to begin by being in the ‘give a shit about my customers’ business!

www.spearfishlabs.com

I took up boxing about six years ago. I used to play rugby until dragging my arse down to training on a Tuesday and Thursday night in the torrential rain became too much for me, so I thought what will provide a comparable amount of physical pain on a regular basis? Boxing it was. I decided I wanted to have a crack at the amateur circuit rather than just do it for the fitness so spent a significant amount of my spare time in boxing gyms. If you’ve never been in a ‘proper’ boxing gym then I can highly recommend it. The people are cool, the coaches always willing to help, they’re cheap compared to the mainstream gyms that have infiltrated most high streets and you will be left in no doubt that you have done some exercise. More people should box!

The one thing I have always loved is the inspirational quotes which are invariably scrawled on the walls and l think some of them can be applied to a social business.  See what you think of these three I’ve picked out:

Learn to Listen

This one is from my first club in Lambeth (South London). They have some of the best amateur coaches in the country and if you listen to them…you will stand a far better chance of staying upright! In social media, listening ( aka monitoring, research) should be the corner stone of any preparation before beginning your activity, and then form part of your tool kit for ongoing brand management and program evaluation.

Protect Yourself At All Times

As one of my favourite boxers, Ricky Hatton, likes to remind us – Boxing isn’t a tickling contest. The first lesson all new boxers get taught is to keep your hands up and your chin down (which is easier said than done after a few rounds, I assure you!). If you do that and nothing else for the whole fight, you may lose but its unlikely you will get badly hurt. In social media, we have seen plenty of examples of brands getting burnt because they have had no strategy in place for a social media crisis. They don’t have their staff trained to deal with negative posts, they are too slow to respond to a crisis or they go missing completely. One of the first things a business should do before launching themselves in social media is protect themselves against getting badly hurt. Too many of them wander in with their hands down and their chins’ in the air!

It Aint The Size Of The Dog In The Fight…

From my second gym in Eltham (South East London). We all know the second half of the quote …’It’s the size of the fight in the dog’. While boxing bouts are organized by weight, as you move up the weight classes it is possible to get some major disparities. When David Haye fought, and beat, Nicolai Valuev for the heavyweight title last year , he was giving away about a foot in height and seven or eight stones (about 100 pounds) in weight! For businesses, social media can be a great leveler and provide SME’s with the same opportunities as the big guys to become major players in their sector and spread their content to the widest possible audience. You don’t have to spend millions on traditional advertising or marketing to be successful (although it helps!). By putting the hours in and being passionate, dedicated and having a great product, service or team, you can compete with the big guys and punch above your weight!

Those are just three that I picked out but I am sure there are more from other sports that could apply. If you have any favourites, then drop them in the comments.

www.spearfishlabs.com

Bit of bad news…Social Media doesn’t scale. If you are successful company then you will have more customers than staff. Social media in its purest form should facilitate people to people communications and that means talking to your customers on a regular basis, so you don’t need a degree in mathematics to work out the disparity!

Jeremiah Owyang writes an excellent post on the process to create a customer advocacy program which can extend the available resources for companies active in social media. Coca Cola’s Facebook Fan Page is still run by two fans, BMW have just taken control of a Fan page set up by a fan (now with over 1m fans) and will now use it for customer engagement, so there is evidence of customers taking on the role of brand ambassador and organizing like minded individuals around consumer brands.

This applies to all organizations but I think is particularly apt for sports and entertainment brands, as for them the volume of interest and interaction is magnified. For example, Man Utd have about 600m fans worldwide…even smaller sports brands will have hundreds of thousands fans who are all potential customers and active participants on the official social channels.

What is their biggest asset can also be their undoing in social media. They have armies of people gagging to talk to them and wanting their content. This is great news but creates a massive issue if you are going to engage with them on a regular basis. The answer is…use them. Empower them. Consumer brands would pay a King’s ransom to have such loyal customers and sports brands can create advocacy programs much easier than their counterparts. Here are some simple steps to go about it

Find the influential voices in the community

They will already be active on the forums, unofficial networks and supporters’ club groups. Spend some time in these communities and see who looks like a good ‘signing’!

Bring them into the organization

Empower them. You won’t need to remunerate them…they love your brand and the value they will get is not a financial one. The ‘badge value’ they will attribute will, in most cases, be all the reward they need.

Let go of control

To make social communications scale, brands have to comfortable with customers doing their job for them. Make sure you have vetted them and they have signed up to the clubs’ social media policy (create one if you haven’t already) but the more freedom you give them, and others in the community to take the brand message and spread it in their own way…the better.

Run competitions

Once the brand advocacy program has got some legs, you can increase the activity and look for the next club Facebook admin, team tweeter, message board admin. By making this a competition you will be increasing engagement with the community.

Let the community self support

Apple’s support community is almost entirely self-supported. No one gets paid for moderating Wikipedia. People on the web like to contribute to projects which mean something to them. Sports fans will be up for this, so with regular content from the official sources coupled with an army of brand ambassadors…all of sudden you can have a social media ‘team’. Sure, they will need to be managed, but it is going to be a far more efficient use of your available resources.

What examples do you have of brand advocacy programs being successful. What do you think some barriers to this working might be? Would love to hear from you….

www.spearfishlabs.com

There are different disciplines of social media. Broadly they can be broken down into - Listening, Talking, Supporting and  Innovating. I think all organizations can (and should) do the  listening piece,  if for nothing else than as a planning tool for future activity or simply seeing what is being said about them, their competitors and their industry –basic research.

However, maybe the time actually isn’t right for your organization to start ENGAGING. The social media echo chamber is noisy at the moment and some companies have done their brand more harm than good by getting into it when they shouldn’t have. So, even though it may seem that every man and his dog is now ‘doing’ social media, if any of the following sound familiar then maybe your business isn’t quite ready to jump on the engagement bandwagon.

1. You don’t have the resources

Plain and simple, if you don’t have the money, the time or the man power to dedicate to social communications then you won’t be able to execute it properly. In spite of what you may have heard, social media isn’t free. It takes the same level of resource as any other marketing or communications initiative and so you need to find budget from other areas of the business that maybe aren’t performing, you need to include social in staff’s job role’s or hire the skills you need and you need to put in the ‘hard yards’ in terms of time. There are real, financial benefits from implementing social programs into your organization, but it won’t happen by magic and doing anything ‘half arsed’ is going to fail in the long run.

2. Your customers aren’t using social media

I know its hard to imagine that anyone in the known World isn’t on social media but, while the numbers seem impressive, the fact is not everyone is! You need to do the research before any program to determine if your customers are using social technologies and if so, which ones. You can throw up a Facebook fan page, create a Twitter account, jump on Foursquare and upload videos to your YouTube channel until the cows come home, but if your customers aren’t there then it’s a waste of time. Fish where the fish are, otherwise you are just creating noise.

3. You have no idea why you are doing it!

As with any marketing and communications program, you need a clear strategy and execution plan. Going through the planning stage will help determine whether social is going to be effective for your business, will make sure your business objectives are aligned with the activity and help determine what measurement metrics need to be applied. If you luck out and manage to create a thriving, engaged community by simply creating an account and ‘joining the conversation’ (I am hating that phrase a lot as well!) then …High 5, but you are in the minority! Some sports brands, celebs, fashion labels etc might, might be able to pull it off but I would advise spending the time doing the planning.

4. Your staff aren’t trained how to use social communications

Unless you are planning on outsourcing all the engagement (which I highly advise against and could actually be another point all of its own) then your staff are going to be on the front line, talking with your current and future customers…so they better be ready! There are countless social media shockers to draw upon where the underlying reason for the ‘fail’ is lack of training and understanding of how to use the technology or the rules of engagement in a given community. You wouldn’t let an untrained intern lead your marketing programs, so don’t let them do so with social. There is a world of difference between using Facebook, LinkedIn or a blog for personal use and running a successful social program for a business.

5. You’re not seeing this as a long term initiative

If you are from a marketing or advertising background, then you will be comfortable with campaigns. Campaigns are planned, executed, measured and then they end. Social is a continuum. It’s an ongoing process of interaction with your customers (or at least it should be). If you manage to create a community around your brand, product or industry then you need to keep fuelling it to get to the real gold nuggets of business intelligence and advocacy, the last thing you want to do is lose contact with the people who can help sustain and innovate your business with you.

What have I missed? What other reasons are there for a business to not start engaging with their customers through social media? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Last week I sat on a panel at the Social Media & Sport Summit in London. With my fellow panelists, we (hopefully) covered off some of the  strategy and planning questions that sports organizations should have a look at before choosing which social platforms to use. The keynotes were all delivered extremely well and there were some valuable case studies from the likes of Liverpool FC, Lotus Formula 1 team and Adam Vincenzini finished the day off with an indepth look at how the NBA have established themselves at the top of the tree in terms of fan engagement through social media. You can check out some of the presentations here .

Looking specifically at the case studies from the teams, Liverpool FC and Lotus F1, it was evident that some basic business rules had been applied that other organizations could certainly learn from when starting out in social media.

Objective #1 should be to engage with the fans (or customers)

There are loads of opportunities for sports teams in social media and the specific KPI’s over time may well be focused on selling more merchandise or offering deals and promotions but the underlying motivation for being active on social platforms should be to bring the club, team or organization closer to the customers – the fans. Without them, there won’t be a team. Liverpool know the value of their fans and Lotus know what its like to start from scratch with no fans! Both of them have realized that the fans are their biggest asset.

Think like a fan

Both Matt Owen from Liverpool and Tom Webb at Lotus are fans of their team…and that makes it a hell of a lot easier to come up with programs which other fans will buy into. Obviously not everyone in an organization is a fan of the brand or team, but putting yourself in your customers shoes at the strategy phase and asking “what do our fans or customers want” and “how can we improve our service to them” will set you on the right track.

Don’t marry a tool

Well, that’s just good advice, full stop! Seriously though, it’s a common mistake that many organistaions make with social media, when they decide all their communications will go through just Twitter, or just Facebook. That is focusing on the technology not the communications, and in most (major) sports teams’ cases they need to engage in more than one place. Their fans are diverse individuals brought together around a context (the team) but they will hang out in the myriad of social platforms available…so fish where the fish are.

Engage

Don’t just pay lip service to engagement…actually do it! Talk to the fans, answer their questions, raise them up on your platform so their voice is heard and amplifies the official team’s communications. There is no quick win here unfortunately and it will take man hours to pull it off but the authentic chat from both Liverpool and Lotus that undoubtedly makes the fans feel like they are part of the inner workings of the team is worth its weight in gold from a brand advocacy perspective.

If you can’t get your fans to engage with you on social media…you’ve got real problems!

That was a (rough) quote from Matt Owen at Liverpool FC and its a gem! I have to agree, sports teams are at a huge advantage over consumer brands when it comes to social media, they really want to hear from the team, be involved, be heard, get exclusive content and share the content. With such a willing pool of potential brand ambassadors, the onus is really on the teams to start putting the leg work in to get the most reward out of their social programs…and the rewards are certainly within reach.

Please share any other lessons you have learned about building successful social programs, for sports teams or any other brands, in the comments.

The World Cup in South Africa has dominated the airwaves (social and traditional) for the past month and much of the recent conversation has been around the ‘ambush marketing’ tactics we have seen from non official sponsors like Nike and Pepsi and how they stole a march on their official sponsor competitors, Adidas and Coca-Cola. While the balance seems to have now been addressed it was interesting to see how the media landscape has shifted in the last four years (since the last tournament) to such an extent that sponsorship of a major event is no longer enough, on its own, to command the lions’ share of audience attention and WOM.

This is the first World Cup that we have had established, organized social media channels  and they have moved the goalposts in terms of what is needed to be covered in corporate marketing mixes to own the airwaves and conversations between fans. Sponsorship used to be all you needed to do to ‘own’ the conversation and dominate WOM. You now need a fully integrated program that covers all the channels and that includes social media along with TV, offline and exposure in the stadiums.

Nike showed, with their ‘write the future’ video, that you don’t need to be a sponsor to create viral content around a context and get the same or increased return…plus they bought well placed 30 sec ad slots in the key games encouraging viewers to head online to see the full version. In contrast, Adidas focused far more on social media at the expense of heavy TV ads…and this may be why Nike were able to steal the jump on them so early in the tournament.

Commercial partners of sporting events, or any other event for that matter need to cover all the bases. Use the exclusive relationship they have with the event to generate exclusive content that they can give to their online audience as well as realizing the traditional channels should not be ignored but rather weaved into the overall communication strategy. Being a major sponsor for an event is a huge advantage and one that can provide significant value over the competition…but it isn’t enough on its own anymore.

Last week I spoke at the social media and sports summit in Nottingham organized by the UK Sports Network. The name of the half day conference was ‘Breaking down the barriers’ as many in the UK sports industry are still tentatively feeling their way into social media. Keeping with the same theme, here are five of the barriers I have encountered when talking with sports clubs, but they apply to any organizations that are new to social media.

1. Too much hype

It is getting very hard to ignore the social media bandwagon. Each day brands and organizations are being bombarded with stats showing that Facebook now has more users than there are stars in the sky, businesses are making millions of pounds through Twitter and more people are watching YouTube than TV. The result has been many organizations jumping on the bandwagon without doing the necessary planning to work out how social media can help the overall business . It is easy to see the opportunities with social media and sales and marketing teams are always going to jump on these, but taking a step back, developing a clear strategy for social to: help sell more stuff, create better dialogue with the customers or improve the service will be far more valuable in the long run.

2. Social media is mislabeled

The boss still thinks social media is something his teenage daughter wastes her time on when she should be studying! Sound familiar? I think social media is currently mislabeled and (hopefully) will eventually become another channel that businesses use to connect with their customers. Businesses need agencies and consultants to come to them with business or communication strategies and programs that use social technologies to deliver better customer experiences, not social media campaigns. While it is seen as an independent program, it will be treated with skepticism by those who haven’t grown up with the new social tools.

3. Shiny object syndrome

This ties in the with hype problem. All we hear from the ‘mainstream media’ is the tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and the phenomenal growth they are enjoying. This leads to organisations and brands focusing on developing strategies based around the technology, when they might not be the most effective channel to the customer. Organisations need to do their research on their customers and find out which networks their customers use, how they use them, what content they like producing and sharing and who is influential. Once they have this knowledge and have done some internal planning on what resources they have, then they can choose the technology platform(s) which best suit their needs. Also, be wary about marrying your communications to one channel. As we have seen with MySpace, Bebo and Friendster, the network of the moment can quickly shed users or change focus.

4. Culture

The biggest barrier to adoption at the moment is for businesses to become more social.  For centuries, business has been used to communications being a one way street and companies have constructed their internal processes accordingly. Successful social media adoption means a cultural shift away from controlling messages and staff communications and letting go of some of the notions that shaped the media landscape – brand identity, press releases, corporate policies. Yes, it sounds scary and yes, new processes and technology need to be used to help it scale but organizations need to buy in to the reality that customers are going to dictate how and what they want to buy and the type of service that is necessary for them to become a brand advocate and spread positive WOM. Once that sinks in, then social needs to be integrated from the top down or bottom up (depending where the spark happens!).

5. Confusion over measurement

There are no universal metrics for measuring social media yet, and there might never be. Measurement of social programs has to be in context to the individual business, it is not as simple as impressions and clicks. What equals success for one company might not for the next and that makes universal metrics very hard to establish. However, if you have done your planning and know what your business objectives (sales, foster dialogue, increase customer engagement, gain market intelligence) are, then you can track these metrics and work out what equals success for your business.

There also seems to be confusion over ROI. This could be a post in itself, but if you are confused about ROI of social media then check out this presentation by Olivier Blanchard. He explains it better than I ever could!

What have I missed? What other barriers have you experienced to social media adoption? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

Each day, more and more sports teams, organizations and athletes are launching social media programs, joining social networks and starting to jump on the social media bandwagon. The reasons are obvious – Their fans have shifted their media habits towards social platforms over official websites and want greater interaction with their team. The social tools allow a greater level of interaction and richer user experience and there is measurable commercial value to be realized by being active.

However, just setting up a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account without an understanding of the rules of social engagement can result in missed opportunities or worse, the alienation and general pissing off of the people you want to engage with. So with that in mind, here are five, broad, best practices to kick things off.

1. Don’t be scared!

The main barrier seems to be a fear that getting into social media will open up a wave of regular and uncalled for criticism by the fans. In the same way that the fans vent, with furious anger, each time the team loses down the pub, on the forums and phone ins, this will now happen tenfold on Facebook or Twitter. Truth is, it probably will…for a while! Your fans love your team, so when they lose they aren’t rational but most of them are doing it because they care, with all their body parts they care and this should be embraced. Sure, there are the ones who will be unnecessarily negative, but with the correct engagement plan, they can be minimised and your social channel can become a valuable area to engage. Alongside the abuse will be valid points on how to improve the service at the game, the outlets in the ground and the customer service.

A clever dude (Aristotle) once said – “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” If you aren’t involved in these conversations, it doesn’t mean they won’t be happening. You can’t control the community anymore but you can manage, learn and use the insights from it. Plus, it won’t all be negative!

2. Dedicate the resources.

Social isn’t as expensive as other media in terms of creation…but the cost is in the time your staff have to dedicate to do it properly. There really isn’t any hiding from this. You will get out what you put in and the more of your staff (and that includes the players) that you can get interacting with the customers in a way that is valuable to them…then the returns can be exponential. Hire a £20,000 per year intern and you will get what you pay for. In the same way that most of your staff have email and a telephone, social can become another communication tool for them to provide a better service to the fans.

3. Do your research

You know your customers (or you should do!) and what they want based on historical research. You need to do the same in social. This means spending time in the communities that already exist and listening to what works, what doesn’t, who’s influential, what media they like to consume. There is also software (free and paid) which can help with this and will give you a full picture of the type of tactics and the tools you need to be successful when you start to engage.

4. Integrate social with your other channels

Social isn’t a silver bullet. It needs to work in conjunction with your other media channels, online and offline. Your website is your official online home and will still be the place to convert sales and to make official statements but the conversations, UGC  and interaction will happen off site (for now). Make sure your social presences are designed properly, the content is engaging and integrates with the official site and that there are clear calls to action on your other marketing materials and programs.

5. View the engagement as your marketing and customer service

Your fans (or customers) are already active on the social web on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs or the multitude of forums and unofficial fan sites. By engaging with them on these platforms and your own official channels in the correct way, you can turbo charge your marketing, customer service and research programs. The fans are talking and exchanging opinions and ideas about your brand on a regular basis whether you are there or not. You can use these channels as a cost effective way to listen, learn and engage with them.

The UFC ‘do’ social media as well as any sporting organization in the world. There was a good post from Greg Ferenstein at Techcrunch a couple of weeks ago explaining that, when the mainstream media were shunning the sport as being too violent or not something they wished to associate with, UFC president, Dana White turned to grass roots, word of mouth and social media to harness a following for his organization and made MMA the fastest growing sport in the World.

You can read more about UFC’s strategies for building their brand on social media here and here . Sure, they partnered up with Digital Royalty who have a good track record when it comes to building fan engagement programs, but the secret (if you can call it that) seems to be two-fold…

1. The CEO is championing social media. This is a huge one as most brands are still looking for the concrete evidence that social media will improve their bottom line before assigning the appropriate resources to make it effective, whereas Dana White is telling the fighters to “Tweet their asses off”

2. The athletes are given the freedom to express themselves and engage with the fans. Again, huge if you want to be successful in social media and the very thing that is scaring the shit out of most mainstream sports. They are terrified of an athlete or employee breaking ranks and going ‘off message’ that may impact their perceived brand. What Dana White has cottoned on to here, is that every one of his fighters that promotes themselves, their fights, MMA, the UFC brand or any sponsors is adding to his marketing clout.

It would be great to see more teams, athletes and CEO’s being as frank with the media and fans as Dana White is in the below video. It is probably an unfair comparison as he is clearly an outgoing, fan centric guy who loves his job and the sport, and they are rare…but it is a good example of what can be done by letting go of control and allowing authentic, un-spun communications with your fans or customers.

Any up and coming, developing sports or organizations should take note!

Interesting post on Monday from econsultancy highlighting that at TechCrunch Disrupt the feeling seemed to be that media owners need to concentrate on providing access to content rather than ‘owning it’. The notion of content or brand ownership and control is looking increasingly more desperate and if we are honest…is sometimes  unnecessary in terms of achieving what is important – Interaction with the user, regardless of the environmnet.

Here’s an analogy a friend from Chicago gave me.

A guy walks into a bar and spots an attractive girl. He walks up to her and asks if he can buy her a drink. She says “sure, that would be lovely”. Here’s what happens next…

The guy puts the girl in a headlock and marches her out of the bar and into a taxi outside. With the headlock still firmly applied, the taxi makes the journey back to the guy’s apartment. When it arrives, the guy drags the girl out of the car and up to his apartment…when they get inside, he releases his strangle hold and gives her the drink!

Brands do this all the time with their customers. Many are still in the mindset that any interaction needs to take place on their website or their ‘virtual home’ and sometimes only after the customer has filled in a registration form. The same results could be achieved by doing their work within ‘outposts’ such as social media and the consumer will feel far less violated if they can have a good experience on neutral territory or in an environment they are comfortable in. If brands are patient enough then there will be plenty of opportunities to take the relationship to the ‘next level’ and get them back to their apartment where, maybe…they can close the deal. But don’t ruin it by applying the virtual headlock too early.

Just a thought!