Brent's CRM Blog

Tales in Social CRM: Rapping SEO???

Who saw this coming? My latest column for Inc.com's technology site was on The Three A's of Social CRM - Automation, Analysis and Audacity. The following video is an example of the latter. Meet Chuck (not that Chuck), aka The SEO Rapper. Yup, you read correctly... SEO Rapper. And dude does look like Biggie, and a touch like Sir Mix-a-Little....but I digress...

Do I even have to explain why this is audatious? All you need to know is this video has been viewed over 300K times since March, has well over 500 comments and a 4.5 rating on over 1400 votes. Combining rapping with SEO isn't the traditional way of marketing your skills, but we're not in traditional times. Competition for hearts and minds, and attention, is fierce. So find new ways of engaging those you wish to, well, engage... In the immortal words (or sounds) of Grover Washington Jr., it's time to let it flow....

Technorati : biggie, rap, seo, social crm, youtube
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Four Good Minutes with David Meerman Scott

I'm working on a new site called FourGoodMinutes.com. I'm basically going through all the cool conversations I've had over the past 19 months on my show and taking four (or five) minute slices I think may be of interest to small business folks out there. Until I get that site set up I'll be throwing some of these "good minutes" up here.

I recently had a really interesting conversation with David Meerman Scott, author of the best selling New Rules of Marketing and PR. If you haven't read it you should at least check out the free e-book he put out. I've been asked a number of times lately about the effectiveness of creating e-books as a marketing tool. If you're curious about this, listen to how David's free e-book led to him getting signed with a literary agent in 20 minutes, a book deal with Wiley Publishing and a very successful speaking business. You'll definitely want to find out how why he had one million reasons to give away the New Rules of PR e-book:

David drops a whole lot more knowledge in the full conversation. You can check it out over at the show site by clicking here.

Technorati : david meerman scott, marketing, pr, web 2.0
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Wanna Give Paul Greenberg Some Help With CRM at the Speed of Light 4e?

My buddy Paul Greenberg is gearing up to write the fourth edition of his best selling CRM at the Speed of Light. Even Paul didn't think he'd be doing four editions of this book when he wrote the 1st edition almost eight years ago. So anyone who knows anything about CRM and the industry, knows this will be must read when it's available.

I am honored to be one of the people Paul has invited to contribute a couple pages for CRM-SOL (now I know why Paul never used this acronym for the book). Two other people who will contribute pages are CRM guru Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research, and Paul's brother Bob Greenberg, who heads up one of the leading homeland security consulting firms. I will be working on the chapter focusing on the SMB crowd, and looking forward to it!

Although Paul is limiting the number of contributing authors to a few, he is very much open to your help in shaping the direction of the book. In fact he has started a wiki that is geared to having as many people contribute ideas and suggestions as possible. If you are interested in being apart of what no doubt will be an important book in the industry, check out the CRM at the Speed of Light 4th Edition Wiki. Paul promises that any contribution or suggestion he receives from the wiki will be recognized in the book in some fashion.

In Paul's own words:

"I'm also willing to quote key folks in the book too - either you or people you know IF IT MAKES SENSE. This is wide open. CRM at the Speed of Light has been the best selling CRM book ever. This edition is going to break new ground because its devoted to CRM 2.0 and what it means in the new world of the social customer. So not only comprehensive but entirely cool. Style will matter as well as what always has - substance. Help me create it."

So get your contributions in before July 20th if you want to have a chance to be included in the book.

Technorati : crm, paul greenberg, social media, web 2.0
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If it's Thursday It Must Be Charlotte

I'm still alive and kicking. I've just been on the road the last couple of weeks. And this week was the first time I've flown on three consecutive days. And each flight was actually ahead of schedule! I can't make this stuff up.

Anyways I left Sage Insights early (missing out on hearing Lou Holtz and Frank Caliendo) to make it down to Black Enterprise's Entrepreneurs Conference in Charlotte, NC.

I have been light on the posts lately but that will be changing once I get back... LOTS of stuff to get to! In the meantime please feel free to check out a few articles I wrote for other sites:

SmallBizTrends.com - Social CRM: Not Your Father's Customer Relationship Management

Inc.com - Assembling the Perfect Content-Creating PC

Technorati : small business, social crm
Del.icio.us : small business, social crm

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
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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
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John Jantsch Gives Small Business a 3 on a Scale of 1 -10 for Online Marketing Efforts

We had a great conversation with small business marketing guru John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing for our next Technology For Business Sake show. He talks about why small business folks should be blogging, the importance of understanding RSS and why he only gives small business a 3 out of 10 when it comes to online marketing. Although this won't air officially until Sunday, you can check it out here.

Thanks!

Technorati : duct tape marketing, john jantsch, small business, social media

Should You Really Avoid Blogging, RSS, SEO, CRM and Everything Else I Write About?

We recently had small business guru Gene Marks on our radio program. Many of you may be familiar with his Penny Pincher's Almanac column that appears regularly in American City Business Journals (www.bizjournals.com). He also writes pieces for BusinessWeek.com and Forbes.com. And his recent BusinessWeek.com article is why we were interested in having him join us, since the subject was on the technology solutions small business should avoid. Just to name a few of the things Gene says to avoid, they include:

• Blogging
• CRM
• Web 2.0
• RSS
• SEO

So basically all the stuff I talk about, speak on, read and write about. Needless to say we REALLY were interested in having a conversation with Gene. We actually ended up having a great time speaking with him as he was a lot of fun. But dude did use the term "dope" in the article, something I had to rag on him about even more than his choices of avoidable technologies. Anyway here it is below during the last segment, along with a great conversation with ZDNet's Phil Wainewright on why he feels SaaS will take of this year. Oh yeah also check out the first segment if you want to hear me rant about a jacked up email I received from some clown I met three years ago on a plane ride back from Miami.

Technorati : blogging, crm, saas, small business, web 2.0

Marketing Tips from the Experts...and Me

Small Business guru and good friend Anita Campbell has put together an impressive list of all-star marketers who each share one of their marketing "secrets" with the SmallBizTrends.com readers on her latest post - Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets. It's a tribute to Anita that she was able to pull together this "who's who" of awesome folks to contribute to this. People like Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tim Berry and John Jantsch share some of their secrets, just to name a few of the heavy hitters. Warning - shameless radio show plug right about now....

In fact, Guy and Tim have been guests on our radio show, Technology For Business Sake, as well as Anita. And John will be on with us shortly. And with any luck maybe we can have Seth join us as well. OK - shameless plug ends right about now...

In addition to the big name folks, there's lots of sage advice from other great experts in their chosen fields, including friends David Powers of GotVMail and HubSpot's Darmesh Shah. And Anita also "gives up" a secret of her own to top things off. The only thing that could blemish such an august panel is having me add my two cents.

So do yourself a favor and check this one out. And add your secret to the list in the comments section.

Technorati : anita campbell, marketing tips, small biz trends
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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