Page 155 - Social Media Marketing

people creating and posting the content (for example, customers uploading pictures) 133
have immediate control of the content and hence control over their side of the conver-
sation. It’s “immediate” because it applies to this particular interaction: they get to ■ SOCIAL CRM AND DECISION SUPPORT
define what is being said right now and to influence others who are listening right now.

By comparison, brand teams, product managers, organization fundraisers, and
similar have control only as far as the design of the experiences that led to the conversa-
tions. In this sense, understanding the specifics that surround a conversation—who said
it, what was said, and who (else) this conversation is likely to influence—provides the
“proof points” for the business decisions and processes that gave rise to the conversa-
tions observed. These conversations close the loop—beyond the immediate sale—with
regard to efficacy of business programs intended to drive long-term sales and profits.

The net impact is that the position the product manager is in, for example, is
more a leadership role (as in “leadership of the conversation”) than a control role. This
is worth noting, as again this transition from “control” to participant that is part of
social media and hence social business, is evident. By shifting from control to leader-
ship, the now-proper orientation toward the role of marketing and business design is
clear. The end objective is, of course, to create the experiences that lead to the conver-
sations you want and in turn drive the sales (or other conversions) that matter to you.

Filberto Selvas

Filberto Selvas, Product Director at Crowd Factory, a provider of SaaS-based social networking
tools, provides practical insights into Social CRM through his blog and related posts. You can follow
Filberto on Twitter (@filbertosilvas) and read his blog here:

http://www.socialcrm.net/

Collaborative Processes

With the audience connected to the business, and employees and customers connected
to each other, knowledge begins to flow along pathways that prior to the widespread
adoption of social technologies were not always seen as primary to the operation of a
business. The high degree of connectivity and the ease with which consumers, busi-
ness partners, and other stakeholders can talk about brands, products, and services is
(overall) a beneficial thing—long term, it leads to better products and services. But it
also raises a challenge: What does the head of a marketing group—or for that matter a
lone operations manager—do with the sometimes massive amounts of information and
ideas that customers willingly offer?

Connecting the new flows of consumer-generated information with the units
inside the business that might benefit from it is, to put it simply, hard to do, for a num-
ber of reasons beginning with the required changes to the internal modes (regimented