By Mitch Lieberman, vice president, strategic solutions, SugarCRM
Monday, February 15, 2010
People are the fuel that makes “the social engine” run
“The social engine” is my own metaphor for what drives social business. My objective is not to cram the word “social” into the first paragraph as many times as possible — it just looks that way. The reality is that social is top-of-mind, and many people are simply trying to put it all together. So how about this: I have my networks and my media, I talk about CRM, and I do business with people (left that overused word out). Whether you’re talking about Collaboration, Relationships, Knowledge Flows, Engagement, Expectations…. It all comes down to people. At the core, social simply means sharing with other people. In the digital sense, that sharing is done in the open.
“People are the platform”
I wish I could take credit for that statement. Proper attribution goes to Michael Fauscette (@mfauscette on Twitter) from IDC. We both attended the #SCRMsummit last week in Washington. The statement is not some esoteric, bigger than life hyperbole. It is quite simple really. You cannot have any of these things without people. A social business employs people, just as a social customer is reliant upon people. A social business is one that recognizes the amplification effect – the amplification of value by continuously meeting (or exceeding) the dynamic expectations of the social customer. If you do a good job, other people will hear it. As we are all well aware the converse is certainly true as well.
[Editors' Note: Mike Fauscette's #SCRMsummit blogpost can be found here.]
Co-creation takes people
Co-creation is another one of those terms which seems overly complex, people throw it around, seem to be scared by it. Paul Greenberg reminded everyone that is does not have to be complicated. Wim Rampen writes about it often. I’ll be honest: It’s a term that scares me a bit. I will give a simplistic example, surely to be corrected (but write and learn right?): Say you’re at the local pizza joint and you select a few cool toppings from the “make-your-own” section. But you also want a topping not on the list — say, pineapple. The restaurant doesn’t have pineapple, but makes note of your request. As it turns out, when talking to other patrons, pineapple is an ingredient that’s more popular than the owners had realized. Within a week, the restaurant not only adds the ingredient to the “make-your-own” selections, but adds a pineapple-topped pizza to the standard menu at a special rate.
[Continues after the jump.]
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Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, community, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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Monday, February 15, 2010
The #SCRM Group. That hashtag — which we use to communicate on Twitter — embodies the very essence of what social media is about: genuine, authentic, direct, and real conversations. Being a participant and a practitioner, I thought I would share my observations and thoughts… not just from this event, but what I’ve seen in the actions and behaviors of this group over the past year or more… And these foreshadow a world that is being created right now as you read this… [Editors' Note: You can follow the #SCRM Accidental Community's tweetstream here: http://twitter.com/CRM/scrm-accidental-community — a Twitter List maintained and curated by CRM magazine.]
#SCRMsummit and #SCRM. This past week in D.C., Paul Greenberg brought together some of the most amazing minds in social business — to learn, to share, and to grow the body of knowledge. One of the interesting things is that the snowstorm that blanketed the Northeast helped foster an extended discussion — literally. Planes were grounded, flights were canceled, and not even taxi cabs would take us downtown for a meal. So the 80 or so of us just parked ourselves in the lobby/bar area. Some of us were already longtime acquaintances, having known each other for over 10 years, and many others have become friends over the last several years. Some of us, though, were brand new to each other. We drank, we ate, and we all got to know each other even better.
Oftentimes what happens at a conference is that you barely have time to talk to anyone, much less have real conversations. But we did. We talked about the philosophy of social business, where it’s going, what’s changing in our worlds as a result, and what we see for the future.
There’s Networking — and Then There’s Relationship-Building. Of course, we’re all in business and we all have something to “sell” — yet the conversations weren’t about that. They were about how we as a group can evolve the thought leadership about social CRM and social business; how we can help educate other business professionals who haven’t had the privilege to be part of this group; how social CRM is literally changing the way business is done and will be done in the future; and how we’re going to collectively create the future — for ourselves, for our businesses, and for the world. (I’m not saying that we didn’t close business or work on projects — we did — but the difference was the tone, the vibe, the collective collaborative spirit…)
[More after the jump.]
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Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Prem Kumar Aparanji, principal consultant, CRM, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Monday, February 15, 2010
I was in the U.S. last week. The journey from Bangalore to Washington, D.C., in itself was quite interesting: A three-hop journey (BLR-DBX-ATL-IAD) that took away ~32 hours of my life, but since I traveled west (& I gained time) I really lost only about 21 hours.
(Yeah, I know, convoluted. This is similar to that guy Louis Wu in the Ringworld series who kept traveling west to extend his 200th-birthday celebrations!)
The reason I was in the U.S. was to “evangelize” social CRM. But before I got to tell parables of The Customer Gospels to the flock, I went for my baptism by the Pope of Social CRM — Paul Greenberg. :)
OK, enough with clichés and cryptic ranting.
I came to the U.S. to attend what became known as the #SCRMSummit and follow it up with meetings with my peers, clients & partners to discuss & get things done around social CRM.
I got more than I bargained for. Caught in Washington, D.C.’s worst blizzard in more than a century, I spent the days cooped up with other thought leaders, analysts, consultants, systems integrators, vendors & practitioners of social CRM. There were 68 of us and, if you hated social CRM, this was the place to obliterate it. (Sorry, you missed the chance — though we’ve been talking about it for weeks now.)
The story of what ended up happening continues after the jump.
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Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, Cognizant, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Kathy Herrmann, partner, Pathlight Solutions
Friday, February 12, 2010
The #SCRM community recently practiced what it’s been preaching when Paul Greenberg pulled together the top thought leaders in SCRM to a summit in Washington. Many thanks to Paul for being the magnet that pulled us all together — and my personal thanks for including me in the event.
Where to start? First, much to my surprise, we had almost-full attendance despite the snow and travel challenges. I was a local and almost got scared from braving the roads, but knew I needed to be there given the number of stellar attendees. And I’m pretty darned sure that’s what motivated the other attendees to brave the travel tribulations too.
What I loved about the group was the open discussion, and sometimes debate, within the conference room and in the evenings’ various social gatherings. We don’t always agree with each other, but everyone handles the debates with professional courtesy and a willingness to evolve their thoughts. That’s how we all grow.
After the jump are the 7 takeaways that struck the loudest chord for me.
Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Brent Leary, cofounder and partner, CRM Essentials
Friday, February 12, 2010
I’m writing this while on a plane, flying back to Atlanta from Baltimore. I’m coming back home from BPT Partners’ Social CRM training event that was headed up by Paul Greenberg (aka The Frientor of CRM). The event was held in Herndon, Va., a stone’s throw from Dulles Airport, which is where I flew to attend the event. But I had to fly out of BWI in Baltimore after having two flights cancelled from Dulles because of the blizzard that hit the Northeast.
I’m writing this after suffering through a 2½-hour delay, which had me sitting a total of eight hours at the airport. I’m tired…and cranky…and hungry, because the five pretzel bits the airline gives you on the flight ain’t cutting it. But, more importantly, I’m happy that I traveled in blizzard conditions and got stranded for a couple of days, because coming to what was eventually dubbed the Social CRM Summit was worth every cancellation of flight, minute of delay, and inch of snow…and that’s truly saying something.
It goes beyond the training, which was stellar. Jeff Pedowitz did a great job going over the practicalities of tying “social” to demand generation efforts. Ryan Strynatka from Radian6 gave a nice demo of his company’s social media monitoring tools, sparking quite a discussion — not just on the tool, but on the subject overall. We performed a couple of interesting case studies that really got our minds (and our creative juices) going. And, of course, PG did his thing. (I can honestly say that he was in the rarest of form. But I knew he would be.)
This is where I stop talking about the training. If you want a blow-by-blow of developments, check out the PDF of all the #SCRMsummit tweets put together by the one and only Esteban Kolsky…who seemed to actually be there with us, even though the weather (and airlines) conspired against him making a physical appearance.
And I’m sure there are already blogs posted about the event that have covered it in ways that make it unnecessary for me to do so here (Brian Vellmure’s write-up is an example). So I’ll talk about it from another perspective. [Editors' Note: That perspective begins after the jump...] Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Michael Fauscette, group vice president, software business solutions, IDC
Monday, February 15, 2010
Last week, I joined a group of social CRM thought leaders — and representatives from 14 software vendors — for a two-day social CRM summit. The event, led by noted CRM author, blogger, and consultant Paul Greenberg and BPT Partners, was held in Herndon, Va. (See the pic below, taken from the Westin Dulles during the snowstorm that kept most of us there an extra day or so.)
 Westin Dulles, Snowpocalypse '10 — #SCRMsummit on February 8, 2010 The event generated some great discussions and networking opportunities. One of the biggest takeaways for me is that SCRM is still in the bleeding-edge-new zone and some really smart people are defining and refining it on an almost-daily basis. I also believe that it’s on the edge of trendy — in other words, it’s starting to attract some people around the edges who are trying to jump on the bandwagon and yet are not “experts” in CRM at all.
I won’t go through my whole social business speech again, but I do want to re-emphasize that “social business” and “SCRM” are not equivalent to “social media” or “social networking.” They are not defined by consumer tools such as Twitter and Facebook either. Social Biz and SCRM are about changing corporate culture and about relationships, IMHO. I also am joining Paul in the decision to stop trying to define and debate the definition of SCRM…it’s time to do.
OK, enough of that — on with today’s point. There are some excellent write-ups already published (CRM Strategies Blog and Brent’s Social CRM Blog) on the summit so I won’t try to recount the whole event, but instead I think I’ll just hit on a few points that I think are worth repeating. [See those points after the jump.] Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, co-creation, cocreation, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Brian Vellmure, FreeCRMstrategies, @CRMstrategies on Twitter
February 12, 2010
One of the worst snowstorms in the history of our Nation’s capital, the most flight cancellations since 9/11 (almost 6,000), and the closure and inaccessibility of a pre-booked venue were the circumstances surrounding BPT Partners’ Social CRM Certification Training, better known to the Twittersphere as #SCRMsummit.
Despite the obstacles, a little publicized event at a brand new Westin Hotel in Herndon, VA brought together a mix of customers, vendors, and a large majority of the world’s thought leaders on the subject of Social CRM. In all, participants not only descended on the blustery white winterland from all regions of the United States, but also from Canada, Mexico, Columbia, France, The Netherlands, and India. It truly was a global event.
The #scrm Accidental Community was almost completely represented with one largely apparent omission, Esteban Kolsky, who was grounded before he could leave his hometown due to flight cancellations. Esteban made his presence felt during the event and after by assembling the tweets which you can download here to get a sense of the flow of the event. Here are the links from Day 1 and Day 2, and I have more on my take after the jump.
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Tags: #scrmsummit, @bruceculbert, @dmyron, @ed_sullivan, @ekolsky, @jayhawkscot, @jberkowitz, @kathyherrmann, @kitson, @marktamis, @mfauscette, @mikeboysen, @mjayliebs, @mkrigsman, @phsoffer, @wimrampen, accidental community, adam metz, Berkowitz, Boysen, bpt, bpt partners, Brent Leary, brentleary, brian vellmure, Bruce Culbert, business, co-creation, cocreation, Collaboration, communication, community, conference, CRM, CRM magazine, crmstrategies, Culbert, customer experience, customer strategy, David Myron, Ed Sullivan, Esteban Kolsky, event, Facebook, Fauscette, greenberg, Heiligman, Herrmann, hoyos, Jesus Hoyos, Jim Berkowitz, jive software, josh weinberger, Kathy Herrmann, kolsky, Krigsman, leary, Lieberman, LinkedIn, Margot Heiligman, Mark Tamis, metz, Michael Krigsman, Mike Boysen, Mike Fauscette, Mitch Lieberman, myron, Natalie Petouhoff, networking, open source, Oracle Corporation, Pathlight Solutions, Paul Greenberg, petouhoff, Philip Soffer, Prem Kumar Aparanji, prem_k, Rampen, RightNow Technologies, salesforce.com, SAP AG, Scott Rogers, scrm, scrm accidental community, skype, snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, snowstorm, social, social biz, social business, social crm, Social media, social networking, socialbiz, socialmedia, Soffer, Sullivan, summit, Tamis, thought leaders, Twitter, vellmure, weinberger, Wils Wurtz, Wim Rampen, Wurtz
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By Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal, Beagle Research Group
Summit must be the secular name our species came up with when we decided that certain business meetings had to have the same weight as religious conversions.
I’m not trying to be contentious by using this vaguely religious metaphor, so please consider me a radical centrist. But after a few months of vendor meetings for the analyst community in which each took us to the mountaintop to survey — via PowerPoint — a future vision for the valley below, I am almost all summitted out.
The religious reference struck me this week at the SAP Summit, the vendor’s very good analyst gathering in Boston, because, like some religious conversions, there seems to be a necessary pain component intended to make the conversion stick. (In most analyst meetings, the pain comes from sitting still for many hours of the aforementioned PowerPoint presentations.)
So, what did I learn? Well, lots — though I’m a CRM guy and much of what was proffered involved visions of a broader valley. The biggest impression I came away with was intramural since, having been to this year’s Oracle OpenWorld and Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce, I’m in a mood to compare, contrast, synthesize, and perhaps even prescribe.
 "Will It Blend?" What do you get when you puree a season's worth of vendor events? Put everything I saw at these and other conclaves into a food processor, run it on high until something resembling peanut butter forms, and the result, to me, looks like this:
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) computing has won the battle, maybe even the war, but the victory is not enough to secure a homogeneous peace.
Translation: SaaS is important and remains the future of software, but there are multiple reasons why it will not reign supreme — not for a while at least.
[More, after the jump...]
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Tags: #df09, #sapsummit, analyst community, analyst relations, analysts, azure, b-24, beagle, beagle research, beagle research group, benioff, Boston, briefing, cannes, ceo, cloud, cloud computing, conference, copenhagen, customers, data migration, Denis Pombriant, dreamforce, enterprise cloud computing, founder, freebie, giveaway, graham smith, jobs, john chambers, mainframe computers, mainframes, Marc Benioff, microsoft, Microsoft Azure, on-demand, on-premises, OOW, oow09, openworld, Oracle, oracle openworld, pombriant, pr, premises-based, SaaS, sage, salesforce, salesforce.com, San Francisco, SAP, sap summit, satire, sfdc, Siebel, siebel systems, smoke screen, smokescreen, software-as-a-service, spoof, status quo, steve jobs, stunt, SugarCRM, summit, sustainability, tco, third quarter, total cost of ownership, Twitter, user conference, users, vendor meetings, vendor vultures
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December 10th, 2009 by Lauren McKay |
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I don’t know about you, but I am nowhere near completing my holiday shopping. In my defense, I aim to finish up in Kansas City so as to not travel with too many gifts. Not surprisingly, my email inbox this month has been filling up with releases about holiday shopping statistics. I’ve been waiting (procrastinating?) until something really sparked my attention to do some sort of holiday shopping post. Apparently I’m not the only person who waits until the last minute to accomplish tasks. A survey from America’s Research Group (ARG) indicates that one fourth of American consumers are planning to complete their shopping just before Christmas. The reason for procrastination? The hunt for better sales.
According to the ARG survey, 95 percent of those waiting to shop are holding out for greater discounts. Of the shoppers waiting until right before the holiday, 33 percent want to see 70 percent marked off, 32 percent want to see 60 percent off, and 25 percent want to see 50 percent off. Britt Beemer, the founder and chief executive officer of ARG, remarks that the expectations for discounting is higher than in previous years.
Another interesting statistic I found comes from a comScore survey about social media’s influence on holiday shopping. According to the survey, 28 percent of online shoppers say that Twitter or Facebook had some sort of influence on their purchases. Additionally, comScore reports that holiday spending hit $16 billion for the first 36 days of the November-December shopping season. That represents a 3 percent gain from the dismal time last year.
Have you used social networking to aid in your holiday shopping this year? I admit that @sephora had a bit to do with an in-store purchase the other day. The retail handle posted something about “great gifts under $20,” so I checked out their online store, and then decided some in-person browsing was necessary. After heading to the 34th Street location on my lunch break, I ended up purchasing a make-up set for my cousin. And the greatest part? When I returned to my desk after my impromptu Sephora excursion, I had an email from them, thanking me for my purchase and giving me a $15 off coupon for next time. Sephora has a pretty impressive loyalty system. I definitely will be back — and that next purchase will likely be a gift… for me.
What facet of social networks do you find most useful when it comes to online shopping? Are you apt to follow a company or become a fan if the retailer offers discounts or promotions on its Facebook or Twitter page? Or are you mostly in it for the peer reviews?
THIS JUST IN: Sephora must have some crazy intuition because I just got another email from them, reminding me of my $15 off coupon. Well played, Sephora… Well played.
Tags: America's Research Group, ARG, ARG survey, Britt Beemer, comScore, discounts, Facebook, Holiday shopping, last-minute shopping, Sephora, Social media, social networking, Twitter
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November 24th, 2009 by Joshua Weinberger |
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So here’s a new feature: We’re going to start aggregating each month’s posts, for easier reference.
We’ll start this off with a few groupings from the month of October — which, if you’ll permit a moment of horn-blowing, I have to say I’m really proud of. We covered a lot of ground in the month, literally and figuratively, with staffers filing on-the-scene dispatches from nearly a dozen events at various locations nationwide, and guest-blogposts from not only our regular contributors but several newcomers as well.
October also marks the introduction of these monthly archives (which, one hopes, will appear sooner after the end of each month), and compendiums of coverage from all the big events (which, one hopes, will appear sooner after the end of each event). In the Comments below, I hope you’ll let us know if we’re giving you the kind of material you want.
For starters, here’s a blog-only exclusive, one I hope you’ve been watching all along:
Eric Barkin’s “Eric Across America” series of blogposts, a firsthand look at JetBlue’s “All-You-Can-Jet” promotion from the perspective of a participant:
And our posts from this year’s Oracle OpenWorld #oow09:
The rest of the month’s posts — including coverage from The Conference Board’s Social Media Summit, the DMA 2009 show, eMetrics ‘09, the RightNow Summit ‘09, and Forrester Research’s Forrester Consumer Forum — are after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: #cbsm, #dma09, #dsc09, #emetrics09, #emterics, #fcf09, #rn09, #rnow09, #rnowuc, #rnowuc09, beagle, beagle research group, behavior, behavioral data, Best Buy, bpm, business process, business process monitoring, california, CEM, ceo, communities, complaints, consumer behavior, coverage, credit cards, CRM, customer business processes, customer communities, customer experience, customer experience management, customer service, customer service agent, customer service vendors, cx, Denis Pombriant, digital strategies conference, disgruntled, DMA, executive, executive transition, experience, floh, forrester, Forrester Research, guest blog, JetBlue, lager, lists, Marshall Lager, netsuite, on location, oow09, openworld, Oracle, oracle openworld, oracle openworld 2009, parature, partners, partnerships, passenger, Pizza Hut, pombriant, rightnow, RightNow Summit, rightnow summit '09, RNOW, SaaS, salesforce, salesforce.com, sfdc, social, Social media, social media summit, socialmedia, software-as-a-service, third idea, transition, travel, tweetsream, Twitter, twitter lists, twitterfeed, user conferences, vendor, vendor partnerships, virgin america
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