Brent's CRM Blog

Introverted Socialism

For someone as introverted as I am by nature, it's cool to be able to use social tools to really connect with people in ways I know I wouldn't have done using the more conventional methods. I guess that was on my mind when I wrote my regular online columns for Inc.com and BlackEnteprise.com:

• Inc.com - Social Media For Business Sake

• BlackEnterprise.com - Four Social Acts Business People Need to Commit

I've "met" some incredible people over the past few years because of these tools, and my life (personal as well as professional) has been truly enriched for it. Sometimes it's good to take a step back and see just how much of an impact this stuff really does have on us. But then again, this all begins and ends with people - the technology just gives us the ability to really understand each other if we choose to do so.

OK, I just got through watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, which always puts me in a weird mood...

Technorati : blackenterprise.com, inc.com, small business, social media
Del.icio.us : blackenterprise.com, inc.com, small business, social media

Dale Carnegie 2.0 - Winning Friends and Influencing People on the Web

No, this is not a picture of Harry S. Truman, but it definitely had me fooled. Nope, this is Dale Carnegie. I've been on this Dale Carnegie kick for the last month or so. And quite honestly it kind of bugs me, because I really didn't enjoy the course when I was "encouraged" to take it after starting my first job out of grad school. For those of you not familiar with DC, he was maybe the first hugely successful self-help/motivational speaker, who wrote the mega-hit How To Win Friends and Influence People back in 1937. So you can blame him for the rise of the "If-You-Can-See-It-You-Can-Be-It" industry, aka motivational speakers. But I digress...

Even though I really wasn't "feeling" the course (partly because I was all of twenty-four years old when I took it), the book made some good points when it comes to how people want to be treated. And by treating them the with a lot of dap ('80s flashback word meaning respect) you improve your chances of making them like you - really really like you. To the point that they'll trust you enough to buy stuff from you.

Although the book was written over 70 years ago, the principles still stand. And if you apply them using today's social media tools they can really work for you. So that's why every time I've been asked lately by traditional small business types who are trying to make sense of the web, I tell them just think what Dale C. would do with blogs, social networks and other things that people are using to reach more people, in a more meaningful way than ever before.

I came up with a few examples for how some of Carnegie's concepts are being used today for my weekly online column for BlackEnterprise.com.

Technorati : dale carnegie, small business, social crm, web 2.0
Del.icio.us : dale carnegie, small business, social crm, web 2.0

Maybe I'll Be Right About This International Solopreneur Stuff

At the end of last year I wrote about how I thought this year will be the year of the International Solopreneur for my Black Enterprise online column. Then I followed it up with an article on essential tools for the solopreneur for my first monthly post for Inc. magazine's technology site.

I've received a number of emails from people who also believe this the year for them to step out there and use the web to become world renown international solos. And then I found that the folks over at AOL Black Voices re-blogged my BE article for their site, but added a survey question asking people if they were going to "go solo" this year. Here are the results:

That's pretty incredible. Over 700 of the 1031 people said that they plan on starting a business this year. Now I'm not naive enough to think that all of these folks will really start a business this year, but my best wishes go out to all that do.

If that wasn't enough to make me feel good about things, talking with USA Today small business columnist Steven Strauss really reinforced my prediction. Steve, who also wrote The Small Business Bible, was on our radio show talking about small business trends for this year. He also believes it's a great time for the little guys to use the web and compete on a larger scale. Check it out below:

All I can say is Solos of the world, Unite!

Technorati : solopreneurship

50,000 More Reasons Why Intuit Gets The Hopes and Dreams of the Little Guy

My buddies over at Intuit, particularly the JumpUp.com team, are in the midst of helping one lucky entrepreneur realize their dream by providing them $50,000 in products and service to turn that dream into a real business. The reason I'm reiterating that Intuit "gets" small business has less to do about the cash than and more about the great example they're setting for small businesses with their use of social media to drive the contest.

The JumpUp team, with the help of a great set of expert judges - Anita Campbell, Ramon Ray and John Jantsch - chose 5 finalists from over 1,500 submissions to compete for the prize. Each finalist has a page with their essay discussing their entrepreneurial dream, a home made video, a short conversation with me, and a few other tidbits that help the JumpUp community members get to know each of them. And this is important because the community will decide who the eventual winner will be.

In fact the community is encouraged to be a major part of this whole thing. First off the votes are flying in faster than the JumpUp team had imagined. Lively conversations are sparking up all over by the comments being left on the individual finalist's pages. Not only are they commenting, but they are stumping for their favorite "candidate" by enlisting their colleagues to vote for their favorite. Intuit has made it easy for people to add badges to blogs and websites inviting people to vote for "my candidate". So if you have a Blogger or TypePad account, you can help you're candidate get votes with a couple of clicks. And if you have a big Facebook network, you can put it to work for your favorite with the same ease.

Through this contest that will eventually allow one contestant the ability to "just get started" with $50K, the other finalists have gained so much exposure it can't help but raise their profiles and possibly increase their chances to realize their dreams as well. And the community in general wins as they should begin to see the power of how social media can be used to create excitement for ideas that can reach a wide audience, in a very short amount of time. And this all can be done without breaking the bank.

And this is why Intuit really gets it. This contest will help way more than the lucky individual who wins the cash. It helps anyone who is looking to understand how the power of Web 2.0 tools and strategies can help them compete, thrive and survive. Way to go Intuit! This is just the kind of role model needed to help "Jump Start" the small business community into embracing social media.

One last thing. There are a few folks commenting on the choice of business ideas represented by the group of finalists. Some folks don't seem to be thrilled by what they perceive to be the lack of exciting, complex, or innovative ideas. All I can say to that is the lion share of all small businesses operating today are what most would consider to be "boring", "traditional" businesses. These are the same businesses people have used to create the majority of the new jobs our economy is fueled by. They also allow regular people to buy houses, raise families and be positive role models to others looking to have their own business.

So I applaud Intuit and their panel of judges for standing up for "the entrepreneur next door"! Now go check out all the finalists...and VOTE!

Technorati : entrepreneurship, intuit, jumpup.com, just start

Six Apart's David Recordon on Social Netwok Portability...and Touching Base with Mom in a Web 2.0 World

On our radio show, Technology For Business Sake, we recently had a great conversation with David Recordon of Six Apart. David is their tech lead on for open platforms. Six Apart is one of those unique companies working closely with Google on OpenSocial, as well as with Facebook Beacon. And David is their point person. So he has soon interesting things to say about where we are with social networking, and where we may be headed with it.

Now I really was in to the conversation around what's going in the social networking space, and how tools are being created to make it easier for us to get the most out of social networking experiences, but what really fascinated me was the second part of the conversation where my co-host (Michael Thomas) and I started asking David about how he uses the Web 2.0 tools. We asked him because in addition to being one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject, we wanted to get the perspective of someone who has literally grown up using this stuff... because David is all of 21 years old!

Now I'm not jealous....OK maybe a little bit, because I remember (barely) what I was doing when I was 21. And it wasn't speaking all over the world as a highly respected expert. I was trying to pass intermediate accounting and deciding if I should have a grilled cheese sandwich or fish sticks for dinner. But I digress..... Anyway we really enjoyed listening to David talk about how he uses social media to communicate not only with his peers, but also with his mother. It really gave me a different perspective on how Gen Y operates, and taught me quite a bit about what to expect in the not too distant future.

So below is the whole show for you folks to check out. It's broken into segments, and the last segment features the part of the conversation where we focus on David's use of social media with respect to communicating with his mother. And the opening segment features a short conversation about solopreneurship, and a rant I did about Stanley Burrell (aka MC Hammer) becoming self-proclaimed technology entrepreneur. Yes this rant was inspired by my earlier blog entry on the subject. If you'd rather download the show just click here. Enjoy!

Technorati : david recordon, facebook, openid, opensocial, six apart

Salesforce-to-Salesforce: Community Comes to CRM, But Not To The Small Business Customer

Back in October when I was interviewed by Marshall Lager for the CRM magazine story on what's coming in 2008, I said:

"Social networking will continue to be big. It is absolutely critical for CRM vendors to reach out and roll their own social network and trackbacks, or to work with Facebook, LinkedIn, and the rest."

I can't believe I just lifted a my own quote. But hey, why not - after all I did say it. Anyways it really didn't take Negrodamus, to figure that one out. (SIDEBAR: that was the last time you will ever hear me refer to myself as the Negrodamus of CRM).

Well this week Salesforce.com announced Salesforce-to-Salesforce, a service that allows Salesforce.com customers to share information like leads and other data in social network. Once again Salesforce remains a few steps ahead of the CRM pack, issuing in the Social CRM era. Needless to say I think this is a good move. I would have said it to be a great move, except for one thing - the $1,200 annual price tag it comes with. Not to mention that you have to be at the Enterprise, Unlimited or Platinum edition to even be able to fork your $1,200 over. Which I think will effectively limit the adoption of this to mid-size and enterprise level companies. I echo ZD Net's Phil Wainewright when he asks "has everyone at Salesforce.com forgotten about network effects? Or is it just the mechanics of viral adoption that they don't get?"

Hey Salesforce, what about the little guys? We need social crm just as much as the big guys do...actually we need it more. So it's a real shame that we won't be getting it from you, at least not right now. But hey this is an easy fix if you just make it more accessible to the masses. At least it's not a big social misstep like Facebook Beacon.

Technorati : crm, facebook, salesforce.com, social crm, social networking

Will OpenSocial Do Better Than GoogleTalk?

I'm a member of the Social Network Portability Google group for about a month now and there has been a pretty steady flow of exchanges that whole time. But the focus over the last two days has been nothing but OpenSocial, Google's new set of APIs that will let developers create applications that will work with social network sites like MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, Ning and a host of others. Also joining the cause is Salesforce.com, Oracle, Six Apart...and a host of others.

The promise behind this move, besides slowing the Facebook freight train that Microsoft just jumped on board, is to allow members of different networks to communicate and collaborate without having to join a new network. Allowing developers to create apps that can work with multiple networks could really make it easier to "come together", and Google has reached out to some powerful partners to increase the chances of success. It all sounds good at the moment, but....

I just remember there was a good amount of buzz when Google announced Google Talk, the instant messenger they built on open standards. The hope was that Google would force the major players to cooperate and make their instant message apps talk to each other so that you wouldn't have to have an account for each service so that you can talk to all your buddies. There has been some movement here but not the radical change I was hoping for...at least not yet.

I think OpenSocial has a chance to change things a lot quicker than Google Talk has. For one Google has reached out and got a number of major players on board right from the beginning. And these guys are different than the monsters of the instant messaging game - AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft. At the time Google Talk came out these guys were trying to be THE winner and force people to choose one...in other words no playing together, they each wanted to be THE CHOSEN.

But in this new age of Web 2.0 and collaboration, maybe there's hope that Google and its many partners will pull this off. Maybe Facebook (and their new buds at Microsoft) will open it up a bit as well. I hope so because I really don't need to join another social network just because a few folks I know are on it, or because it has a nice function but no one I know is on it. I'd just like to reach the people I want to reach regardless of the networks we belong to. Could you imagine if a Verizon customer couldn't call a Sprint customer? How about a Microsoft Outlook user not being able to email someone with Lotus Notes? Let's just hope we're on the right path here.

Technorati : facebook, google, google talk, opensocial