By Marshall Lager, contributor, CRM magazine

[EDITORS' NOTE: This is part of a series of posts that began here, dissecting a two-page chart that appeared in CRM magazine's June 2009 issue on social media. The digital edition of that issue can be found here, and a standalone image of the chart itself can be seen here. (Click on the “View Full Size” button at the top right of that page.) To view all posts in the series, please add this RSS feed to your RSS reader.]

JUNE 11, 2009 — There are already a lot of good critiques and discussions about CRM’s Social Media Maturity Model, and I’m gratified that my input is being considered alongside that of people I think are leading the way. I have an advantage over most of them, however, in that I was actually present when the chart came together.

Don’t ever let anybody describe it as “a simple chart” or anything like that; ain’t nothin’ simple here.

It took weeks just to decide on the physical shape of it—there were squares, circles, triptychs, and self-reflexive models that would have given M.C. Escher [at right] a migraine—or even whether it should just be posted directly to the Web instead of condensed into a two-page magazine spread.

There was talk of it covering more than three pages, as a foldout — or even as a “fold-in” in the style of Mad magazine’s inside back cover.

As you might guess, a lot of discussion revolved around finding the right balance of simple and comprehensive. The weakness of any chart like this one is that it’s static and two-dimensional. Really explaining what the model is getting at requires more than any graphic designer can provide: It requires conversation, which is why we’re all here.

One of the strengths of the model is its grounding in what CRM magazine proposed five years ago — the simplified graphic of which is now the “CRM 101″ center of the new model. [See detail, below.]

That’s the way CRM works within most organizations today, and how it will continue to work for some time. Having that at the core of the model helps the reader relate to the changes that are already happening.

No matter how attractive the concept seems (to customers), there may never come a time when the customer completely dictates the message, operations, and products of the business — at least not without unlimited resources and access to replicator technology a la Star Trek.

So the customer is still looking in from the outside — but less so than before. Smart businesses are realizing that, in terms of the ability to affect brand image, every customer is potentially as important as the organization itself.

Taking the external conversations and internalizing them in a way that leads to repeatable actions and processes is the new goal, and the maturity model shows the possible direction its pursuit will take.

[Editors' Note: See detail, below right, for the time progression of the chart's internal/external/hybrid model of service and feedback. The lists of channels and media in each time frame are clearly incomplete, and need both expansion and refinement.]

Real internalization means more than just cherry-picking certain comments, finding ways to segue a conversation into a sales pitch, or a “Did we serve you adequately?” survey. It’s a fundamental change in the way things get done.

Salespeople will remain salespeople, though their success will increasingly depend on their ability to remain present in customers’ minds in some small way after the deal closes, rather than suddenly becoming a presence in customers’ lives when the quarter is closing and they’re short on their quotas. In other words, relationships are important again.

Marketers will once again have to identify markets and craft messages to get customers’ attention, rather than being handed a product and thrashing about in the hope of dragging a new market toward it.

A group with no clear demographic but a large number of members is a gold mine, not a quagmire. Such customers are not owned; they are courted, and if sufficiently delighted, they will buy what you’re selling. And they’ll buy it more than once. And they’ll want to know what else you’re selling [see detail of chart, left].

One thing that can’t be ignored, though, is that nobody has yet got it completely right, in this blog or in the world at large. That will still be true at the end of these 30 days, at the end of this year, and quite possibly for all time. Despite the Maturity Model proposed here, despite the fact there are a number of very smart people out there who live and breathe social CRM, we’re all still kinda new at this, and there is likely no grand unifying formula.

Miko Matsumura of Software AG recently commented (on Twitter, though I saw it on Facebook) that he “would like a twitter filter that blocks anyone whose profile says ‘Social Media Expert.’ ” I think I agree, at least for now.

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. Then twitter about it.

Marshall Lager (marshall.lager@gmail.com) is a contributor to CRM magazine and managing principal of Third Idea Consulting. He can be found on Twitter as @Lager.