Brent's Social CRM Blog

Chris Brogan, Atlanta, Social Media and Bowling

When you think of hot spots for social media activity Atlanta usually doesn't jump immediately to most people's minds. But there really is a lot going on down here. And while there have some good social media events in the ATL, we still don't have that signature event that really puts Atlanta on the social media map.

That all might be changing with New Media Atlanta, taking place on September 25th at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. NMATL will be an all day event very heavily focused on professional folks looking at social media from a business perspective. And to show how serious they are about making this a signature event, Chris Brogan is coming to town to speak!

In addition to Chris there will be a number of knowledgeable speakers to round out the day, including my buddy Desiree Scales of Bella Web Design. Desiree and Matt Fagioli - one of the event organizers - came down to the studios to record a conversation about the conference. They do a great job of giving me the scoop on what to expect for the day. All I can say is that I'm excited to be one of the speakers at what I think will be the first of many years for this cool event. And I'm not just saying this because the after party is going to be at a bowling alley. Did I mention my bowling prowess from back in the day? Time for me to get the old "soup bone" ready cuz I'm about to throw-down like I did back in the day!

Ok... let me calm down - bowling always gets to me... So check out the short conversation here (or download the mp3):

To learn more about the New Media Atlanta go here:

• Event website - http://newmediaatlanta.com
• On Twitter - follow the #nmatl hashtag

I hope to see you there... with bowling shoes on! Oh and if you need even more reason to go to NMATL, check out Desiree singing about why you should go:

Desiree Scales Sings about New Media Atlanta from Desiree Scales on Vimeo.

Technorati : #nmatl, atlanta, chris brogan, social media
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Sage SVP Larry Ritter Talks ACT! 2010

I recently did a post over on Paul Greenberg's ZDNet blog going over a few thoughts I had on CRM magazine's 2009 Market Leader awards. I participated in the small business suite category. Check out my addendum to CRM mag awards post by clicking here.

One of the vendors in the leader category was Sage for it's ACT! contact management application. ACT! has been around forever, and has close to three million users. But with ACT! 2010 - the latest version released at the beginning of the month - Sage really brought the application into the "Social Age" with the ability to track information from Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites from within the app.

I recently had an opportunity to speak with Larry Ritter, Sage SVP and GM of CRM Solutions, to get some insight into what's new with ACT! 2010 and how it might impact the lives of the huge customer base. Larry touches on the why they changed the interface, the ability to track social network information, and the new email marketing/drip marketing capabilities that ACT! 2010 provides. Larry also discusses how members of the ACT! community site are helping to shape the direction Sage is taking with the product.

You can check out the conversation by clicking on the player below, or by downloading the mp3 file here:

BTW today Sage announced a pilot cloud computing initiative for its SalesLogix product. I haven't had a chance to digest this yet, but you can check out the press release to learn more.

Technorati : act!, crm, sage, smallbiz
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Social Media + Mobility + You = Small Biz Success

I'm back! Just returned yesterday from my first international speaking gig in beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina. Will do a full post on that later, but for now on with the show...

I am very excited to be teaming up with two great partners - small business expert and publisher of Small Business Trends Anita Campbell, and BlackBerry - to organize a 4 part webinar series we're calling Small Business Wednesday Webinars. The whole idea behind the series is to provide small business types like you and me an opportunity to learn some best practices for utilizing social networks, mobile devices and other technologies to better connect with today's socially-empowered customers and prospects. And let's face the facts here - if you want to give your business the best chance to succeed in "The Social Age" you'll have to figure out how to use this stuff to reach people that are in constant motion.

We're lining up a group of really sharp small business professionals and experts to share their knowledge and experiences with using social media, online services, and mobile applications to build strong business relationships in the age of social media. Subjects the experts will be tackling include:

• Using Social Media to Connect with On-The-Go Customers
• Using Online Services and Mobile Apps to Save Time and Money
• 5 Ways to Measure The Impact of Your Social Media Activities
• Must-have Technologies for Competing in Today's Market

Each webinar will be 60 minutes long.

The series kicks off Wednesday September 23, 2009 at 1:00 pm ET (New York time) with a discussion on using social media to connect with today's mobile customer. Featured small business professionals for this webinar include Pamela O'Hara of social CRM vendor BatchBlue, and Network Solutions' Shashi Bellamkonda - also known to many online as the Social Media Swami.

Go here for more information and to register.

We'll be providing more information on the series shortly. If you'd like to keep up with series developments, here are a few ways to easily do so:

• Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/smbmobility
• Participate in webinar series conversations on Twitter using the #smbmobility hashtag
• Join the #smbmobility group on http://Twubs.com/smbmobility

Anita and I hope you'll have an opportunity to join us the next few Wednesdays as we learn how to utilize these important new tools and strategies to better connect with today's socially-empowered, on-the-go customer. Thanks again to the folks at BlackBerry for making this possible!

Technorati : blackberry, mobility, small business, social media, webinar
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Blogger Relationship Mis-management: Saying No to Madame Yes

I tried to let it go, but I just can't...

A few weeks back on a recent episode of The CRM Playaz Paul and I were joined by Marshall Lager and Chris Bucholtz - two of our favorite writers (and talkers) in the industry. As bloggers/analysts/pundits/loud-mouths each of us get contacted regularly by vendors and their pr firms to keep us up to date on what's going on. Many times vendors/pr firms are looking to introduce themselves in order to build a relationship, show us a new product or service, or even to get one of their execs on one of our shows. And one such CEO reached out to Paul to introduce himself and his company, but arrogant manner in which he did so ended up making him great fodder for all four of us. You really have to check it out the show to hear just how badly things went for this guy.

Paul's story immediately made me think my own BRM story of arrogance, starring a person I'll call Madame Yes (using this to protect the names of the ignorant - not innocent). More on her in a minute...

Now I'm glad to have blogger/analyst relations folks like Oracle's Susie Penner, Sage's Ryan Zuk, and many others keep me up to speed with what's going on with their companies, and to set up conversations with executive team members. I also appreciate when CEOs and founders of smaller players reach out to me to introduce me to what they're up to. Mercury Grove's Scott Annan and BatchBlue's Pamela O'Hara are two that come immediately to mind that I keep my eye on because of a friendly email approach. This helps me try to stay on top of what's going on in the CRM industry, and allows me to be interviewed for this month's issue of Entrepreneur magazine on CRM/social media-related topics. participate in things like CRM magazine's 2009 Market Leader awards in the small business suite category. By the way be on the lookout for post I did on Paul's ZDNet blog on CRM where I share a few thoughts on how this year's awards played out.

So I really appreciate the vast majority of companies that contact me looking to share their story with me and to start a dialog. I sometimes get overwhelmed with requests, but I really encourage folks looking to connect to continue sending emails, tweets, Facebook wall writings and other forms of communication, and I'll try my best to touch base. As long as you're not like Madame Yes.

For those not familiar, Madame Yes was a character on an episode of the Flintstones who claimed she was too important to do dirty/dangerous work. Even being a little kid her arrogance made me wanna "holla", even if she was pretty good looking. See for yourself:

Now you know she must have touched a nerve, if I still remember that episode all these years later. But that same irritating, arrogant nature came back to me recently when I received an email from my new Madame Yes - actually this Madame Yes had to have her assistant send this, as she no doubt was too important to contact me on her own:

Good Afternoon,

I am Madame Yes's assistant and she would like to schedule some time to speak with you next week. Can you give me a few options that I can schedule for about 30 mins?

Onward & Upward

Sincerely,

Madame Y's Faithful Virtual Assistant

This is the email I got - the only thing changed is the name... once again to protect the name of the ignorant (not the innocent). This is it... really. So, would you really be surprised to find out that I did not respond to this? Now I was planning on answering this, except for the following little things:

• I didn't know who the heck Madame Yes was, and this email never told me who the heck she was. I guess she assumed I was supposed to have heard of her.
• She wants to schedule time to speak with me and doesn't say why she wants to, and what she wants to speak about
• The "Good Afternoon" greeting has all the warmth and humanity of a robot
• If she really wanted to connect with me she would have had her virtual assistant use a better template, or maybe even wrote the email herself

I mean, come on, madame. Would any of you be rushing to the keyboard to respond to this mess? I was so irritated by this that I actually spent valuable time searching for info on this character - and now I know why she didn't say much about herself.

Now compare Madame Yes to another email I received that same week, from Robin Carey of Social Media Today:

Hi Brent,

I'm a big fan of your blog and your insight into CRM in general. I don't know if you are aware of our company, Social Media Today, but we create web-based communities around btob topics, including TheCustomerCollective.com. We've worked with a number of leading bloggers in CRM, including Paul Greenberg, Denis Pombriant and others, but somehow we've never connected with you.

I've got a webinar coming up for which your input would be IDEAL, but I wondered if we could have a brief conversation about our mutual interests in the next day or two

Now after reading this, it wasn't a question of will I answer this, it was more about how quickly I could answer it. Let us count the reasons why:

• Hi Brent - that sounds like a person... a friendly person at that
• She gave me a nice compliment right off the bat. Now who wouldn't like that. It made me feel like my mother wasn't my only blog fan.
• She didn't assume that I knew who she was or that I knew her company. Being highly respected in the business community I had definitely heard of her, her company and many of their sites, but i appreciated her modest approach.
• She mentioned to people I have the utmost respect for
• She mentioned what she wanted to talk about

This is night and day compared to Madame Yes. I was eager to speak with Robin, and have done so on numerous occasions on our way to building a very cool business relationship.

Madame Yes - I'm talking directly to you now - you're not too important to study Robin's approach to BRM. And while you're at it study how the Horn Group's Melissa Hick introduced herself to me recently, on behalf of her client, RightNow Technologies:

Hi Brent -

Before you set CRM aside for the weekend and get into the #fridaynitemix, I wanted to send an update on RightNow Technologies.

If you had ( but i know you didn't) read my previous post (Why I Learned Everything I Need to Know About Social Media in 1989, Not 2009) than you'll know that every Friday night on Twitter I play DJ and use the #fridaynitemix tag to keep track of the music I tweet out. And I give a disclaimer letting my CRM friends know that I'm going into music mode. And that disclaimer is how Melissa starts her email to me, letting me know that she's paying attention to me on Twitter. Guess what Madame Yes, that's all I needed to see before I made up my mind to follow up with her.

Now you're not too important to follow Robin and Melissa's examples if you knew it would get you a "yes" response, are you madame?

Technorati : brm, crm playaz, madame yes
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Why I Learned All I Needed To Know About Social Media In 1989, Not 2009

It's Friday night, time to put aside the CRM and get into the #fridaynitemix.... That's how I typically start my Friday evenings on Twitter, but more on that later.

I'm sitting in a very nice hotel resort in Orlando after doing a social media session for American Express at this year's Black Enterprise magazine Golf & Tennis Challenge event. And next Tuesday I'm headed to Buenos Aires to do my first international keynote at this year's International Direct Marketing Association conference. And I even somehow found myself labeled as a Rock Star.... of Social CRM - which would be the only way anyone would call me that. So for me this is pretty cool stuff here!

I've learned a tremendous amount over the last 4+ years I've been using social media to share my experiences, opinions and what little expertise I may have on various subjects. I can honestly say it's brought me WAY MORE than I've been able to offer up - great relationships, great information and great opportunities, to say the least.

And as much as I've learned over the past few years about Facebook, Twttier, YouTube and all of the other social media/social networking stuff, I learned the most important social lessons when I was a college DJ back in the mid to late '80s. I know what you're asking right now - my DJ name was Brenton C... it rhymed with "in the place to be". Yeah, I know....

Anyways, being a college DJ meant having to listen to a lot of different music, and loving every minute if it. It meant learning which songs worked together well enough to create a 30-45 minute mix of non-stop music that people would dance to, nod their head to and basically lose their minds to... oh yeah and give that look that let you know that you were really "doing something". And sometimes you'd also get that that other look that let you know that you had really done something...wrong.  And when you inspired that kind of look, Moses couldn't have parted the dance floor faster than a DJ playing a jacked-up mix.

But that instant communication was present even back then. So was the collaboration, like when the crowd shouts out to hear a song that you weren't really ready to play - but you played it because the community, I mean the crowd was dying to hear it! No diggs or tweets were required to understand that communications were a two way street in order for everybody to feel fulfilled. And although the word today can spread worldwide in a blink of an eye, the word spread pretty well in my little world back then as well.

So from a really meaningful standpoint, I owe a great deal of my understanding of social media (whatever that may be) to my years of DJ-ing back in the day. And my love of the music from that in my life led me to start tweeting out those great songs on Friday nights. And these past Fridays tweeting out "the good stuff" made me realize that the spirit of today's social media age had been introduced to me more than 20 years ago. Because that weekly tweeting has turned into another one of the accidental communities I've become involved with - the #FridayNiteMix hashtag community. The other one I'm involved in is the #scrm accidental community. And I know for a fact these communities have collided, as many of my #scrm folks send me requests to play on Friday night!!!

Now here's where today's social tools have amplified and empowered the lessons of 1989. This week I had the opportunity to record a conversation with a gentleman by the name of Glenn Bolton. He's probably better known by his stage name, Daddy-O of the hip-hop group Stetsasonic. Stetsasonic was an enormously popular group when I was in school, and I was thrilled to connect with Daddy-O on Twitter, where he goes by @ProfessorDaddyO. And it's because of Twitter that I was able to meet him, and record a conversation with him about how Stetsasonic got together, who their influences were, and what he's up to today. In fact Daddy-O is very knowledgeable of what's going on in the social media space, having a new media production company, and even working on a white paper on how the social media industry has been influenced by hip-hop culture. And he's getting ready to launch what he's calling the first open source hip-hop record company.

So I'm glad to share with you my first #FridayNiteMix conversation featuring Daddy-O. It truly is a conversion of Old Skool -Nu Skool social media purpose and practice. Let's face it, social media is as old as the hills, it's the tools we have at our disposal today that allows us to reach more hills...quickly.

Click the player below to hear our conversation, or click here to download it. A big thanks goes to Daddy-O for reaching out and sharing a part of his story.  See you guys later tonight on the #FridayNiteMix! 

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