Brent's CRM Blog

Podcast Series Conversation with Webex's Diane Davidson - Part One

It's been a long time in between posts.....not good.....I know. But I wasn't just being lazier than usual. I just got back from a great trip to Silicon Valley and plan to do a series of blogs on what I did, who I visited and what I think some of the things I found out will mean to small businesses in the near and short term.

One of the main reasons for heading west was to join Diane Davidson, who leads the customer community development efforts for Webex, in a three part series on how small business folks can build "web cred" and have potential customers find them when they're looking for products and services they provide. I had an absolutely great time with Diane and her team member Holly Valdez, discussing a whole bunch of stuff around Web 2.0 and how small businesses can jump in and put it to use. I also pulled in Anil Dash of Six Apart to join us on the last podcast.

Webex is a great example of how businesses of any size can embrace Web 2.0 to create an atmosphere for collaborating and communicating with people you may want to do business with, and not just throwing Marketing 1.0 messaging at us in a fancy new way. If you get a chance and are interested in a great example of how to put together a virtual community, check out http://community.webex.com when you get a chance. There's a lot of great information, most of which is not marketing specific, but really good information about how to use SaaS to reach more people, and reach them in a more comfortable, collaborative way.

Below is the first in the series. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Google Test, slideshare.net, small business, web 2.0, webex

Technorati :

Why Small Businesses Aren't Feeling Web 2.0 - Part Two

My second blog post over at Small Business Trends was published today and I was pleasantly surprised by the discussion it kicked up. It was based on a recent study by Bredin Business Information on how small and mid-size businesses have not adopted Web 2.0 in large numbers as of yet. I admit to being surprised to a certain extent by their results, as a good number of my business associates are into this stuff in a big way. But I can see many small business people, over the age of 40 with businesses outside of high tech and marketing, have been slow to adopt the Web 2.0 philosophy....and tools.

But as my buddy Paul Greenberg pointed out in his comment to that entry, the small business folks who have bought in to Web 2.0 are true mentors, demonstrating to the big guys as well as other small businesses how these tools along with the right mindset can be extremely successful. They are also benefiting tremendously. And although the survey says that only 14% of SMBs think blogging will be really important over the next 5 years, I'd be very surprised if that's the case. I don't know the ages of the people surveyed but I'd bet the average would have to be over 40. With the average age of first time entrepreneurs coming down, colleges teaching entrepreneurship and social media as part of their curriculum, and a whole new generation being raised with all this stuff, I think traditional small businesses will adapt, and adopt quicker. And once the big companies begin using these tools for what they were intended for, that should speed things along as well.

As a small treat for the readers of this blog, below is a clip of a conversation I had with the editorial director of Bredin Business Information, Stuart Feil. It's the first part of a two part conversation that will air this week on my radio show. It's about 9 minutes, but it's a quick 9 minutes....I think. Enjoy!

Technorati : blogging, small business, trends, web 2.0

From Blog Follower to Guest Blogger

If you're looking to get more people to check out your blog, one of the best ways to do it is to do some guest blogging on popular blogs in your industry. I know it's easier said than done but it can definitely be worth the effort it will take to do so. Anita Campbell over at Small Business Trends graciously invited me the opportunity to write a few articles for the wildly popular site, with over 90k feed subscribers...that's right 90k.

One question should come to your mind at this point, and it's not why I decided to blog elsewhere instead of hording all my musings to my own blog. That should have been self explanatory as soon as you read that line about having over 90k subscribers....that's right 90k. No the question that should jump to the front of your mind should be why would Anita invite me to do so. Although Anita is a very nice person with a kind heart, that wouldn't be enough I don't think. The invitation came about because I truly enjoyed reading the great information on her site and decided to email her to let her know. And she read the email and replied! I also wrote some comments on a few of the entries on the site. I took the time to try to contribute something of value to the conversation with each comment I offered up. And then a funny thing happened, Anita started reading my blog and adding great comments as well. She even invited me to be a guest on her internet radio program. And I recently had her on my radio show - and she was great...and at the time she only had 57k subscribers. Man these number really climb quickly.

To make a long story short I believe the reason Anita invited me to contribute to Small Business Trends was because she trusted me with her audience, which is a big compliment that I take seriously. And after reading my blog she thought some of those 90k feed subscribers may want to as well if they read a few of my posts on her site. And I can honestly say I've seen an uptick in subscriptions and hits thanks to Anita's generosity.

So if you're looking to build up your blog readership, find your Anita Campbell and take time to really join in the conversation on that site. It may not lead to an invitation to blog, but it might just get you in front of 90k feed subscribers.....that's right 90k.

Technorati : blogging, small business trends

OK You Can Call It a Comeback

Back in the day (circa 1990) James Todd Smith, aka Ladies Love Cool James..aka LL Cool J, felt like people had wrote him off after being coming out with a few jacked up songs and albums. Yup, I said albums. So he came out with his classic ALBUM Mama Said Knock You Out. The title song started out with those famous words, Don't Call It A Comeback...I've Been Here For Years...." Well I've been blogging off and on for 2 years. More off than on over the last few months, so I'll go ahead and call it a just that - a comeback.

I hadn't planned to be away for what seems to be years. And I offer no excuses for it, as there really is no good excuse for not blogging. EXCEPT I really underestimated the time commitment that was necessary to host, produce, edit and maintain the Technology For Business Sake radio show, website and podcast. I mean I really underestimated it. But now that things are running smoothly with it I plan on doing at least a couple posts a week here.

I haven't totally slacked off. I'm doing some blogging at a very cool site for great small business seo/sem information called SmallBusinessHub.com. I'm also writing a weekly online column for BlackEnterprise.com called Reality Tech which is featured every Tuesday afternoon on the BE.com's home page. And there's also the blog on the show site at BusinessTechnologyRadio.com. So I'll be posting links to articles I'm writing all over the web.

There's more to blog about than ever before now that I've had the fortune to talk with so many interesting people on the radio show. And I'm gonna let it all out. So I'm back folks......sorry.

Technorati : black enterprise, small business hub, technology for business sake

Wanted: Help in Defining The CRM 2.0 World

What is CRM? If you clicked on the link you would see roughly 231,000 links returned by Google. And all 231.000 links had precisely the same definition for what CRM is......and if you believe that there's a bridge in Brooklyn you may be interested in purchasing. But seriously, many of these definitions date back to the pre-Web 2.0 world, where customers didn't have the power they do now, and had to go along being "managed". And now that we are smack dab in the middle of the Web 2.0 era, it's time to update the definition of what CRM truly is. Better yet, what it should be. And Paul Greenberg is inviting you to help create the new definition on his new CRM 2.0 wiki, It's a great opportunity to work alongside many industry gurus in creating a working, living, breathing definition for how companies should engage customers wielding (and wanting) more and more control of the relationship. You should check it out and participate! I plan on doing so.

Technorati : CRM, customer relationship management, web 2.0, wikis
Del.icio.us : CRM, customer relationship management, web 2.0, wikis

December 2006 On Demand CRM Alexa Rankings

Hello and welcome to the holiday edition of the rankings! I know it's been a while in between posts for me here. I'm not a total slacker. I've been working hard on getting our radio show ("Technology For Business $ake" for those not in the know) website up and running. I've also been posting on the show blog so you may also want to check out the stuff there. I'm in the process of trying to figure my blogging strategy for next year and how to divvy up the stuff I write because I plan on blogging in both places. And I definitely will continue to the "the Rankings" here as it is by far the most read series of entries for the blog. The single most popular entry remains my book review on the Postsecret book by Frank Warren.

This is the last ranking of the year, and next year I will be beefing up the rankings with new indicators and expanding the list of services providers as their some small vendors making some noise that deserve to be included. But let's get to the latest check....But first let's roll the disclaimer:

"Not that this is any official way of ranking the on-demand CRM providers but I was sort of curious to see the Alexa rankings of some of the players."

Here's a list of a few of the big name on-demand providers, and some you may not be aware of, and their Alexa ratings for today and what they were three months ago (click image to see graph):

Some thoughts........

Salesforce.com keeps moving right along with a small drop in their traffic rankings. Nothing alarming here at all, in fact they just keep distancing themselves from the pack. All I can say is more companies need to look at how their strategy of adding customers through community building and using Web 2.0 techniques and technologies. I've already applauded them for their blogging strategies, but they are also ahead of the game in terms of integrating social sites into their strategies. All you need to do is check out www.slideshare.net (the YouTube or Flickr of presentation sharing). You will be able to find most if not all of the presentations from Dreamforce loaded on this site...and people are viewing the presentations like crazy. So do you think that may drive a few folks to www.salesforce.com? Just another way Salesforce is lapping the field. You have to wonder when the field will get tired of being left behind and Inherit The Web...2.0.

RightNow and Salesboom have been trading places over the last few months and this month is no different, with RightNow jumping back in front of Salesboom. What's different this time around is the huge drop Salesboom had this month in their ranking. I was looking to see if there was anything that would point to reasons for this dramatic drop but didn't find anything. If someone does come across anything please let me know.

One big bright spot this month is SageCRM.com with almost an 8% increase in their rankings, moving them ahead of Oracle. That increase also made their three month rank change next to nothing, which is really incredible when you think of the ground they lost the prior two months. Was there a "blue light special" or something? Maybe more people are understanding where SageCRM fits into the product offerings? I tend to believe it was the posting of my ACT!/BlackBerry demo on the Sage site that did it (go down to August 24th posting! OK probably not...Congrats goes to them. We'll see if they can build on that momentum next month.

And then there's Oracle. What can you say about them. Another huge monthly loss in their ranking, landing them in last place. Three month loss in rankings of more than 56%. You have to think that churn may be a prime reason for some of this. Also I don't know if they are getting their message out to the SMB community, who are really jumping into CRM. They really need to re-think their approach to this market, as their are a number of vendors with interesting product mixes and lower price points that will make it hard to compete. Not to mention the "no software" guys sitting in the catbird seat.

So there you have it. Since I've been doing this for six months I will be posting a six month look at this, and boy you will see some real eye openers in the traffic patterns.

Technorati : ACT!, CRM, Salesforce.com, crm, customer relationship management, on demand, saas, salesforce.com
Del.icio.us : ACT!, CRM, Salesforce.com, crm, customer relationship management, on demand, saas, salesforce.com

CRM Association webcast: Integrating Web 2.0 Technologies Into Your CRM Strategy

At Noon ET on Monday October 30th I'll be moderating a CRM Association webcast, "Upgrading Your CRM Strategy with Web 2.0 Technologies: Using Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, RSS to Build Stronger Customer Relationships." The panel is made up of three heavyweights on the subject:

• Charlene Li, Principal Analyst at Forrester
• Chris Carfi, CEO, Cerado Inc.
• Lisa Stone, President, BlogHer LLC
  

Anyone interested in checking this one out click here to register and attend. Check the details below

Topic: Upgrading Your CRM Strategy with Web 2.0
Date: Monday, October 30, 2006
Time: 12:00 pm, Eastern Standard Time / 9:00 am Pacific Standard Time
Event Number: 711280327
Event Entrance for Attendees: https://crm-essentials.webex.com/crm-essentials/onstage/g.php?d=711280327&t=a

Call in tollfree phone number: 866-469-3239
Alternate Call in phone number: 650-429-3300

Description:

Join the CRMA as an all-star panel discusses how marketers are incorporating blogs, podcasts, rss and other new technologies into their CRM initiatives to improve interaction with customers and prospects. Here from experts on how your company can use these tools and strategies to positively impact your relationships with customers.

Technorati : blogging, business web, crm, podcasting, rss, social computing, web 2.0, wikis
Del.icio.us : blogging, business web, crm, podcasting, rss, social computing, web 2.0, wikis

FeedBurner buys BlogBeat, expanding blog analysis

FeedBurner.com, which syndicates Web postings for 200,000 publishers, said it has acquired blog analytics company BlogBeat.net. I love the FeedBurner service and it looks like they are serious about maintaining their lead role in RSS management.

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