Okay, stay with me as I know that some of my readers are already shaking their heads. Take a second though and absorb the following:
- Ed Thompson of Gartner had the following to say about Social CRM in an interview with Esteban Kolsky about a month ago: “I’ll look out 10 years. Social CRM will move from 0.1% of CRM application spending to 10% of all spending by then. Still not anywhere near as big as traditional SFA, Campaign Mgmt, Customer Service but vastly bigger spending than today. I don’t think it will be revolution but it will be a big change from today. Personally I think 2020-2030 will see the bigger transformation of CRM applications and processes.”
- From the IDC data I noted yesterday:
- 54% of all US CIOs prohibit social networking sites at work
- What is even more disturbing is that this represents a 20% jump in the first half of 2009. CIOs are erecting walls around the business, not opening up.
- 54% of all US CIOs prohibit social networking sites at work
- HelpStream, one of the leading “Social CRM” (SSC) providers for Small and Medium Businesses currently has a little more than 200 customers and charges roughly the rate that Salesforce charges for its full CRM solution. It is a nice-to-have application that bundles pre-existing capabilities like wikis, discussion groups, forums, into a nice bow. Do you need it if you are an SMB user? Probably not yet… If you do use it you will find value in terms of reduced operational costs as customers support other customers.
- Lithium, another “Social CRM” (SSC) provider sells to Enterprise customers at what I can only assume is a much steeper price tag. While I have not received real pricing I have been promised a chat in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned.
- In my recent talk with Bill Odell, VP of Marketing at HelpStream, ROI is proven for Social Support Communities but it is too early to have demonstrable ROI for marketing or Sales.
Please keep baring with me, I am almost there… Social Support Communities do deliver value to companies. While I am still unclear about the break-even point (what size your company should be before you deploy) they will deliver. Okay, what will happen as companies deploy social media and SSCs for support?
- Companies will start off passively listening.
- Those that begin responding and deploying SSCs will initially look for operational efficiencies such as fewer support personnel to support a larger number of customers. The power users will come through and deliver this value as promised.
- As companies look to convert users into leads and sales there will be a natural desire to segment user’s, limit information, building silos with users having access to different levels of information.
- The effect of the above changes will lead to information silos, seeking to pull users from the broader social networks into their own social networks. Some will argue this is not the goal, and it may not be today. However, users have limited time and if you are successful with your SSC the power users will be there, not on Twitter, Facebook, etc..
- Oh yeah, information within these SSCs will ultimately be limited to some user’s, resulting in many of these conversations taking place behind closed doors.
Wait…. If I am right than this attempt to go social will actually lead to more social communities with less information floating about in the broader social networks. Someone on Twitter stated:
“SCRM promotes collaborative approach among buyers and sellers – customer in driver’s seat, SCRM helps build “trust” sale easier”
Once transparency and open communication is traded in for leads generation and sales the social networks may slowly become less social, less open…
Where is my logic flawed?
John
February 15, 2010 at 10:20 pm
[...] A recognition that social media efforts are not the last step in the evolution of business, social media efforts, if not carefully implemented, could ultimately lead to less transparency than exists today. [...]
November 6, 2009 at 3:02 am
[...] With this in mind, remember that social media may never scale beyond support for most businesses. [...]
October 19, 2009 at 11:55 am
What a closing comment…”Once transparency and open communication is traded in for leads generation and sales the social networks may slowly become less social, less open…”
Where is your logic flawed? John?
I’d say it isn’t flawed. And that being said I would hope that genuine users of Social Media channels in the best ways will remain appreciated.
And people are best to be discerning from the get go as far as how much information they reveal about themselves, say I.
I try and remember that behind every post and transaction there is a human being AND that the new technology did not come with an operating manual did it?
Rules of engagement are being experimented with and in some cases pushed to the limit, as teenagers also are known to do (smile). Those same teens grow into leaders sometimes too.
And we will all eventually mostly agree on best practices, yes? Hopefully!
I do appreciate your writing voice and posts for their candor.
October 19, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Deborah,
I think it’s critical that you remain candid, open, transparent, genuine….. You will not be successful using social media otherwise.
Thanks for stopping by, looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts, opinions.
John
October 17, 2009 at 5:57 pm
[...] have already explained why Social Support Communities will likely only ever be for support. There are clearly up sell opportunities in your customer bases so some value to marketing and [...]
October 16, 2009 at 10:57 pm
John,
As ever, thanks for feeding the discussion. This is one time when I’m going to have to disagree with you though…unless we’re talking semantics.
There’s great potential for social media to be adopted for business collaboration.
And maybe this is where the labeling issue is rearing its head and I’ll have to back off a bit on my stand about that.
However, if you consider collaborative communities — that employ wikis, discussions, and file-sharing — as a subgroup of social media, then this is a market segment that will only grow.
Additionally, I think there’s still relatively untapped potential for microblogging solutions to help foster real-time collaboration. For this, though, I don’t see Twitter as a player but rather secured microblogging solutions like Yammer and such.
October 16, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Kathy, I agree with you completely that collaborative technologies will only grow in importance and the tools that support them will tool. However, this is not “Social CRM”, it is simply collaboration raised to a new level.
Great feedback and comments as always, I learn daily and I appreciate your help in doing so.
John
October 16, 2009 at 1:47 pm
John – Your logic is pretty sound. While I can’t predict the future (and I think the technology landscape and business models are changing too rapidly to try) the one point where I can connect the dots is around the subsegmentation of communities. I think communities, including those enabling product support, etc will continue to divide into smaller and smaller groups. It just seems logical that the average joe won’t be able to maintain or manage engagement with more and more, larger and larger communities.
If its true that communities will continue to become more and more specialized and focused, that poses an additional dilemma for companies trying to manage these communities. As a community is only as good as its active participation, this may begin to spread company support resources further and further in order to maintain participation in not one group about their products but several 100.
Hope thats additive
Barry
October 16, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Thanks Barry. Very additive comments…. Things do move fast and it is difficult to predict where this will go next. Thanks for weighing in, great conversation.
John
October 16, 2009 at 11:25 am
John,
I do not believe your logic is flawed, I believe you are taking a pessimistic view and connecting the dots in an obtuse way. 15 years ago in Telecom, no one bought a billing system from a vendor, they built it themselves. 10 years ago, no one bought CMS, they built it themselves. We have built our own forums and wikis for years – it is time that someone is able to package it up and do it for us.
I am sure others can come up many other examples. I am not sure how the title fits, maybe a mis-type. “Social Media” will not scale, not sure I understand.
Finally, you end with something that may or may not be true – in other words if transparency gets lost for lead generation, yes, people may hide. But a huge value for this entire effort is in building a relationship (trust, assistance, co-creation…) with YOUR customers. So much of what we do in personal lives and Business is subscription model based – we have to earn the business every month, every year. Switching does have a cost, but I think you lost the relationship part somewhere in this post.
October 16, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Mitch,
Generally people tell me I am too optimistic so it’s actually kind of nice to occasionally hear that I am taking a pessimistic view. I do trust your opinions, in all seriousness, and it is always difficult to know if you (or me in this case) are being an optimist, a realist, or a pessimist.
You are right that I did not focus on the value of building relationships, this is critical for businesses but it is only important in as much as it adds to the overall profitability of a company. I believe that it is worthwhile for companies to invest here and while they may not see quick short-term savings they will see it. SSCs are of real value, as I agree.
In terms of connecting the dots, however, it will take a new generation of thinkers at the executive tables to make a different path possible. I have seen, sadly more than once, companies have a thriving community (forum-based) that does well. However, in one case I remember too well, a group of maybe 2 – 3 % of users began to complain in the forums about needed changes. The CEO, convinced they were wrong, ignored the voices. Skipping several steps ahead the forum was essentially shut down and a one-way blog was setup where the company could share the real message, fears of losing company valuation, turning off potential customers, led to the desire to keep the negativity further away.
Mitch, I am hoping my concerns are a pessimistic view of the world. Even if they are, however, people need to come up with valid responses for the thining and engage in discussions, build bridges to understanding. Trust me that the opinions and questions I have begun asking will be asked by others, and responses other than those currently being given are needed.
John
October 16, 2009 at 12:52 am
[...] Social media may never scale beyond support for most businesses « Random Thoughts of a Boston-based… johnfmoore.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/social-media-may-never-scale-beyond-support-for-most-businesses – view page – cached Posted on October 16, 2009. Filed under: CRM, Random thoughts, Social Business Strategies | Tags: CRM, Social, Social Business Design, Social Business Strategy, SSC | — From the page [...]