Twitter is hot!. Oprah got 100,ooo followers in the first day. But why do “real” businesspeople use it? To find out I interviewed a few. Here are the key reasons:

• Reputation monitoring and proactive reputation building
• Building visibility and credibility in a new market space
• Learning from a diverse brain trust of executives
• Keeping up with what is happening at conference and event I can’ attend
• Enhance my own real-world network by publicizing events I host

The full story is in an article just published on www.customerthink.com

Have a look and add your insights, examples and comments.

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I recently stumbled on a video of Joseph Pine’s talk at the 2004 TED conference. It is a great primer on the concept of the customer experience and the importance of authenticity in business. Definitely worth watching.

Although Pine doesn’t mention social media (social media was yet to explore on to the scene), he sets the stage perfectly. People want what they perceive to be authentic. The value it more and will pay more for it. Before they buy they want to know whether what a company purports to offer is real or hype. Read is valued, hype devalues or commoditizes the offering.

One facet of social media is the open discussion people (customers) have with each other about the experiences they have had or wish to have. These open conversations provide a way for people to vet or evaluate the authenticity of an offering before buying. They can learn from people like themselves about the experience of using or consuming a product and whether it measured up to what the company said it was.  They can judge a product and a company as real or fake.

What’s the message to companies? Be who you are and help people understand what that is. If what you are isn’t good enough, well… Social media and online communities can help get the message out and spread it.

Click here to see the Pine video.

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I am pleased to be part of the CustomerThink.com Editorial Board. This is the group that will set the direction of this important web portal for the coming year. Have a look at the talent and perspectives that will be brought to bear, then bookmark www.customerthink.com.

CustomerThink.com, Editorial Board, 2009

Bob Thompson, CustomerThink Corp. (chair)
Bob Thompson is CEO of CustomerThink Corp., an independent research and publishing firm focused on customer-centric business strategy, and founder of CustomerThink.com. Thompson is a popular keynote speaker at conferences worldwide and has written numerous articles and reports, including Customer Experience Management: A Winning Business Strategy for a Flat World.

William Band, Forrester Research (United States)
Bill Band is a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. He is a leading expert on CRM topics, having helped organizations define customer-driven strategies to achieve distinction in the marketplace for his entire career.

Jim Barnes, Barnes Marketing Associates (Canada)
Jim Barnes is a consultant, speaker and author on customer relationship strategy and metrics, and on the creation of value for the customer. Barnes operates Barnes Marketing Associates, Inc. from his base in Canada. His latest book is Build Your Customer Strategy (John Wiley & Sons).

Alison Bond, The Halo Works (United Kingdom)
Alison Bond, director of The Halo Works Ltd., is the author, with Merlin Stone, of Direct Hit (Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 1995), The Definitive Guide to Direct and Interactive Marketing (Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, 2003) and Consumer Insight (Kogan Page Ltd., 2004). She is also visiting fellow at CSEM, a partner of Brunel University.

Francis Buttle, Francis Buttle & Associates (Australia)
Francis Buttle is managing director of Francis Buttle & Associates P/L and adjunct professor of management (Marketing and CRM) at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney. He is author of the book Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies, now in its second edition.

Naras Eechambadi, Quaero Corp. (United States)
Naras Eechambadi is the CEO of Quaero. Quaero delivers multi-channel marketing solutions that help companies build long-lasting customer relationships and realize measurable return on investment. Eechambadi is the author of High Performance Marketing: Bringing Method to the Madness of Marketing (Kaplan Professional Press, 2005).

Donna Fluss, DMG Consulting (United States) Donna Fluss is founder and president of DMG Consulting LLC, a firm specializing in customer-focused business strategy, operations and technology services. Fluss is a recognized thought leader and innovator in CRM, contact center and real-time analytics. She is the author of The Real-Time Contact Center and many leading industry reports.

Graham Hill, Customers & More (Germany)
Graham Hill is the founder of customer management consultancy Customers & More. He has more than 20 years of experience in customer-driven change programs with companies of all shapes and sizes. He can be contacted at graham(dot)hill(at)web(dot)de. [Blog: Customer Insider]

Dick Lee, High-Yield Methods (United States)
Consultant, author and educator Dick Lee, a pioneer in the CRM/CEM movement, is founder and principal of St. Paul, Minnesota-based High-Yield Methods, which helps clients align strategies with customers, process with strategies and technology with process.

Sampson Lee, G-CEM (China)
Sampson Lee, the founder of G-CEM, created the Branded CEM Method, the Customer Experience Research Method and the Purchase Experience Assessment and Optimization Method (U.S. patent-pending). Lee and his international partner team conduct their Global CEM Certification Program in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and San Francisco.

Denis Pombriant, Beagle Research (United States)
Denis Pombriant is a well-known thought leader in CRM and the founder and managing principal of the Beagle Research Group, LLC, a CRM market research firm and consultancy.

Bill Price, Driva Solutions (United States)
Bill Price, president and CEO and founder of Driva Solutions, LLC, is a CRM consultant, practitioner and instructor. He was Amazon.com’s first global vice president of customer service. His new book, with co-author David Jaffe, is The Best Service Is No Service (Wiley & Sons, March 2008).

David Rance, Round (United Kingdom)
David Rance, CEO of Round, is a former customer care director for a national telco. Round is a leader in capability management models and software tools that enable organizations to align at their chosen level of customer centricity. He is an advisor for Greater China CRM.

Andrew Rudin, Outside Technologies (United States)
Andrew Rudin is the managing principal of Outside Technologies, Inc., specializing in sales strategy for technology companies. He holds a master of science in management information technology from the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia.

Colin Shaw, Beyond Philosophy (United Kingdom)
Colin Shaw founder of Beyond Philosophy, the leading experts in the customer experience, is an international author of three best-selling books on customer experience. Beyond Philosophy provides consultancy, training and customer insight research from its offices in London, England, and Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. Visit Shaw’s blog at ExperienceClinic.com.

John Todor, The Whetstone Group (United States)
John I. Todor, Ph.D., is the managing partner of The Whetstone Edge, LLC, a customer-centric consulting firm that helps clients build customer equity by engaging customers online via social media and delivering compelling offline customer experiences. He is the editor of The Importance of the Customer Experience in a Down Economy.

Barry Trailer, CSO Insights (United States)
Barry Trailer has consulted with companies with complex B2B sales for more than 20 years. Together with partner Jim Dickie, Trailer conducts primary research on sales effectiveness at CSO Insights.

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Recently, CRM consultant, Dick Lee, posted a review of my new book, Get with it! The Hands-on Guide to Using Web 2.0 in Your Business.

It is always nice to learn what readers are thinking. Here is what he had to say:

The best thinkers and writers are those who can drill down to essentials — and communicate them simply and plainly. This book is the perfect antidote for the bookloads of inter-babble and tank-fulls of ether used to promote Web 2.0. It’s a non-stop list of practical suggestions for maximizing return on Web 2.0 marketing, including numerous reference links that help illustrate concepts. Although written for readers in the SME space, even Fortune company web managers will appreciate what for them will be a long checklist of “Are you doing…? questions. This is great stuff.

If you haven’t read the book here is your chance. The first 5 people who email me at orders@thewhetstoneedge.com will get a free ebook version. Be sure to include your name and email address.

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Caroline McCarthy’s post on Cnet caught my attention. The title: “Marketing: Social Media’s Hidden Bubble.”

The gist is that so called “social media expertise” served up what many businesses thought they wanted, a place on Facebook or visibility on YouTube. The underlying assumption being that this is a new form of advertising, getting visibility where customers eyeballing are. The expertise she talks about was knowledge of the media, not business acumen that could use the power and momentum of social media. Just because the “campaign” approach doesn’t work very well doesn’t mean that the approximately 300 million citizens who converse on social media will stop. The will continue and continue to vet products, companies and people online.

What is needed is a new type of expertise that marries business goals with the culture and potential of social media. Fortunately, there are people and initiatives that take this mission seriously. Want to learn more about social media business strategies. Check out the new Social Media Academy.

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Notel declared bankrupcy today and alumus, Mark Binns says great products where overwhelmed by a lousy customer experience in the support department.

This is becoming a common story as the recession persists and too many companies take self-preservation more seriously than customers. What they don’t seem to understand is that the two are tightly linked.

A few months ago, Experience Renewal Solutions asked business leaders how they would deal with the recession. The most common answer was “hunker down,” cut back and ride out the storm. When they surveyed customers, most said they would initially cut back spending and then seek out vendors who would help them work through their challenges. They were asking the businesses they patronize to first understand their plight and to help forge solutions. What a disconnect.

Certainly businesses need to curtail spending, the question is, how do you do so without severely damaging the customer experience? To find the answer, I highly recommend the multi-author publication, The Importance of the Customer Experience in a Down Economy

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I am pleased to announce that I have joined the Social Media Academy Advisory Board and will be teaching course on the strategic business use of Social Media.

Xeequa Corp (www.xeequa.com) recently launched the Social Media Academy to educate businesses and businesses consultants on how they can become part of the online conversation that has attracted 300 million consumers. Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeequa and founder of the Academy says “It is imperative that businesses get involved in social media but this requires new strategies, new forms of connecting with customers and ways to mobilize organizations to seize the opportunities. The Academy was developed to provide leading edge education on the business potential of social media.”

Shultze’s vision for the Academy is to assemble the best faculty possible and expose students to their collective insights, expertise and real-world experience. “It is for this reason,” Schultze says, “that we are please to welcome John I. Todor, Ph.D. of The Whetstone Edge, LLC (www.thewhetstoneedge.com) to the Academy Advisory Board. In addition to helping guide the direction of the Academy, Todor will teach sessions on social media business strategies.

To learn more about the Academy go to: www.socialmedia-academy.com

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Jan Hofmeyr, Ph.D., is perhaps best known for articulating strategies for getting customers’ committed. When asked what companies can do to sustain and even gain customer commitment in a recession, he gave the following advice.

The recession is likely to be long, not short. That means that most people and almost all businesses will come under pressure. Cuts in business spending are therefore inevitable. The key is to know how to save so as to create or maintain competitive advantage. I offer four practical tips:

• When times are tough, the focus on a rigorous analysis of potential losses that may follow cuts is key.
• Do not break a promise. Before you cut make sure you understand the extent to which people may feel you’re reneging on a promise.
• Symbolic rewards count for more. This is an obvious principal that applies in both good times and bad.
• We’re all in this together’ i.e., attitude is all important. Focus on the pressure your customers are under. Innovation and appreciation will follow.

Read Jan’s complete paper and 17 related paper by downloading the publication being made available free by Ogilvy’s Customer Futures Group.

The Importance of the Customer Experience in a Down Economy.

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Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group in London has some sage advice for businesses intent on thriving in troubled times.

Brian Fetherstonhaugh of Ogilvy New York argues that in a digital age the traditional 4 Ps of marketing need to give way to the 4 Es (Experience, Exchange, Everywhere, Evangelism). Two of these seem to have immense relevance to a recession: (1) the idea that “how” may mean more to consumers than “how-much”. The bizarre fact that people may be more loyal to a channel than to a product, and: (2) the idea that you can engage in ever more profitable interactions with customer without necessarily requiring them to give you any more money — yield management being a prime example of this…

Rory’s complete paper and 17 related papers are being made available free by Ogilvy’s Customer Futures Group. To download the publication go to:

The Importance of the Customer Experience in a Down Economy.

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James R. Lucas, Ph.D., is an internationally known leadership expert. When asked about the advice he would give executives about dealing with the current economic crisis, he responded with a paper titled Using the Power of Passion to Exploit Tough Times and Win New Customers.

Here is a summary:

There is one large business truth in traumatic times: either you’re exploiting change, or change is exploiting you. The understandable norm is to hunker down. This can work only as long as customers are willing to cooperate and competitors follow suit. But it misses the opportunity presented by the crisis. This paper outlines 7 manageable business paradoxes organizations can practice to win. Organizations that do, can recapture the power of passion with their teams, use that passion to capitalize on the tough times and win new customers, and dramatically differentiate themselves from their competitors.

To read the complete paper by Jim Lucas and 17 other papers on thriving in a down economy, down Ogilvy’s Customer Futures free publication:

The Importance of the Customer Experience in a Down Economy

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