Marketing Provocations from We Are Social, Singapore

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

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The WeAreSocial team in Singapore consistently produce thought provoking research and showcase the powerhouse that is Asia. Their regular reports (available on Slideshare) aggregate data from across the web and make connections between the trends and the reality on the ground. And for those wanting to understand the shifts in marketing in Asia, they provide a great series of primers. (Of course, the best thing to do is to GO.)

The latest presentation by Simon Kemp, shifts this up a level, offering eight provocations on the future of marketing. No matter whether you are  client-side or work for an agency, these provocations offer a powerful challenge to the status quo of the way that we carry on the BUSINESS of MARKETING.

1. Social equity drives brand value. Think participation rather than broadcast.
2. Communities have more value than platforms. Think outside-in rather than inside-out.
3. All marketing must add value – Think why rather than how.
4. On the go is the way to go – Think mobile only rather than mobile first
5. From big idea to leitmotivs – Think traction rather than blast
6. From selective hearing to active listening – Think signal rather than noise
7. Experiences are the new products – Think benefits rather than features
8. CSR evolves into civic engagement – Think doing good as the price of doing well

Now, if these indeed are provocations, they are aimed precisely at the way that we marketers do our work, conceptualise it and execute on it. It becomes personal very quickly. So the question we must ask ourselves is – “which of these most impact me, my work and my customers – and what will I do about it”. I would love to know your thoughts!

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My Tips For Effective Product Briefings

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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I spend a lot of time in product briefings. Unfortunately, many of them are not nearly as effective as they could be. Below are my top 10 tips for how to prepare for and conduct a product briefing that does not waste everyone's time.


1. Do your homework. Before the meeting I am going to visit your company's website, read your about page, watch your product videos, see who your leadership team is and maybe do a little research into your funding on CrunchBase. I will probably send connect requests to all the meeting attendees on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter. Please have the courtesy to do the same for me. Visit my blog, my LinkedIn profile, my analyst BIO, and perhaps my SlideShare and Twitter accounts. Know who I am, my career history and what I write about.

2. Don't waste time telling me about the benefits of the industry. I assume you're briefing me because you believe I understand and influence the collaboration or social business market. So please don't waste time trying to convince me of the benefits of social netowork vs. email, or how sharing information helps employees be more productive. I know that already or I wouldn't be here.

3. Clearly define the problem your company/product is trying to solve. State up front why you're in business. Explain the challenge that your product is designed to help solve, and how it does so. Don't just say "We started because we know everything is moving to mobile" or "today businesses need to be social to reach new customers", provide details or I'll quickly loose interest.

4. Know your target audience and how you plan on reaching them. Once you've clearly defined what you're doing and why (#3), tell me what market your are going after and how you plan on reaching them. Are you hoping to sell to SMBs? Large enterprises? A specific industry like financial or medical? How about government or education? Once you've defined your target audience, tell me how you plan on marketing and selling to them.

5. Tell me a story. One of the most common mistakes companies make is they demo their product by showing a dozen features. Remember, you know your product really well but I probably don't, nor do your prospects. It's easy for us to get confused when you're randomly clicking around the screen and raving about how great your product is. Instead, you need to hook your audience in by telling a story we can relate to, and creating a product demo that walks through a scenario we can understand and remember. (which supports points 3 & 4 above)

Note: I offer workshops on this, helping both startups as well as the world's largest software companies get this right. It's not easy, so don't be worried about asking for help. Please contact me if you'd like to set up advisory sessions on crafting your marketing messages, your presentation decks, your product demos/videos, or your conference keynote speeches.

6. Accept that you're not a unique as you think. I don't mean to be negative, but trust me whatever you're buildingâ?¦ a dozen other vendors are pitching me on something similar. The key to success is to know who your who your direct and indirect competitors are, and what areas you are better than them in. Your differentiators don't have to product features, they can include pricing, delivery model, experience, services, company funding, and more. Knowing your competition should tie back to points 3 and 4, and it helps me position you properly when in customer meetings, lectures, reports, speaking to reporters, etc.

7. Don't believe your hype. Nothing turns me off more than hearing phrases like "we're the first", "only", "or leading ______". Unless you can prove it without a shadow of a doubt, skip the BS. Even if you can prove it, it's probably not that important to me. I want to learn about what problem you're solving and how, and then I'll make up my own mind about you.

8. Success breeds success. I've heard other people say "Don't show me the obligatory customer logo slide" and I disagree. I do want to know who is using your product and in what ways. What you need to avoid is trying to prove yourself to me by rambling on and on about dozens of customers. Instead, choose 2 or 3 really strong customer stories and explain to me how they are using your product and what benefits they are getting from it.

9. Be prepared. (ties into #1) Ideally, send me your presentation before the meeting so I can review it and have an idea of what you're planning on covering. This will save time as I won't ask questions about things that I know you will be covering later. Having the deck saves me from having to take screenshots while you're talking, allowing me to pay more attention. Also, this provides a good backup in case we have web-conferening problems, which sadly still occur far too frequently.

10.What's next? One of the most important things about a briefing is ending it with a clear understanding of what the next steps are. Are there specific things you'd like to work with Constellation on, like an upcoming product launch, press releases or advisory session? Will you be hosting or attending a conference where we can meet in person? Do you have a roadshow or webinar coming up that you'd like us to know about? Defining the next steps allows us to end the briefing with an action plan instead of simply saying "Thank you for meeting, it was great to learn about what you're doing."


I hope these tips help, and I look forward to hearing a lot of great product pitches!


 

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New Report: Purposeful Collaboration

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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Earlier this month I published my latest Constellation Research report, Enterprise Collaboration Software: From Simple Sharing to Purposeful Collaboration.

Download the report snapshot

This report covers the evolution of collaboration platforms, showing how they have grown from stand-alone tools used primarily for sharing news and status updates, to platforms supporting the integration of external data for business use, to enterprise business applications that now have social features built right in and are designed to support specific use-cases.

Some report highlights include:

• An in-depth look at the definition of Enterprise Collaboration Software: "Enterprise Collaboration Software enables people to create, discover and interact with the content, colleagues and communities that can help them get their jobs done."

The three generations of collaboration platforms:

1. Enterprise 2.0: The rise of social networks for business 
2. Getting Work Done: Social adds integrated enterprise applications 
3. Purposeful Collaboration: Native social functionality within core business applications 

How Software Vendors Can Deliver Purposeful Collaboration

1. Enhancing Their Own Portfolio of Business Applications
2. Delivering Templates for Specific Business Use Cases
3. Providing a Platform for Developers and Business Partners to Build Applications

Actionable recommendations organizations can take when planning the business transformation required to be a social business

Key Elements Organizations Need To Consider When Evaluating Vendors

Purposeful Collaboration Will Drive the Greatest Business Value: Constellation expects these purposeful collaboration platforms to make impact in: Sales, Marketing, Human Capital Management, Customer Engagement, Development/Engineering, Resource or Supply Chain Management and Business Operations.

The report also includes, The Road Ahead: Reducing Information Overload, which discusses one of the major hurdles people face when using social software.

Please contact me for more information on Purposeful Collaboration, including questions about Constellation's services and workshops on the topic.

 

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Constellation Demystifies Social Business with the Second of Eight Actionable Reports

Constellation Research, Inc. the research and advisory firm focused on helping organizations apply emerging technologies to disrupt business models today announced the publication of "Demystifying Social Business: Optimizing the Issue to Resolution Process (Support and Service)” by Constellation Principal Analyst and CEO, R “Ray” Wang. This research report provides pragmatic advice on how organizations should get started on their social business initiatives for service and support teams.

This report reveals:

• How social business adoption has moved from experimentation to evangelization
• Why use cases provide the entry point for successful social business adoption
• What are the seven key use cases for support and service in the issue to resolution business processes
• Which personas of disruptive technology adoption matches your organization’s culture?
• How can leaders start with a social business suite or platform to succeed in support and service initiatives.

Constellation Research pioneered the complete set of front office and back office use cases for social business in 2010.  This report focuses on the issue to resolution mega-use case, which addresses internal- and external-facing use cases. Internal use cases include knowledge base creation, support escalation and support resolution. External-facing use cases include agent escalation, peer-based support, reactive support and predictive support. These use cases should provide a starting point for mapping out the service and support journey.

Social business initiatives have gained acceptance as a key driver in business innovation.  Since 2010, organizations have experimented and successfully deployed social business initiatives across a variety of business processes.  In Constellation’s recent 2013 survey of 237 social business adopters, more than a majority (57.8 percent) of the market leaders and fast follower respondents had moved from experimentation to scaling to match demand.  This trend signifies the successful growth of social business across a number of use cases.

“Issue to resolution is a very common use case among our market leader and fast follower clientele.  Cautious adopters and laggards should consider issue to resolution as a key entry point into a well defined and business value oriented social business use case”, noted R “Ray” Wang

This report fits into Constellation’s business-focused research themes: Next-Generation Customer Experience and the Consumerization of IT & The New C-Suite.  A related Constellation Academy Workshop is available on Demystifying Social Business.

THE REPORT
More information about "Demystifying Social Business: Optimizing the Issue to Resolution Process (Support and Service)" can be found here: http://www.constellationr.com/research/demystifying-social-business-optimizing-issue-resolution-process-support-service

ABOUT R "Ray" Wang
R "Ray" Wang is the Principal Analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, Inc.  He's also the author of the popular enterprise software blog "A Software Insider’s Point of View". Ray's a prominent keynote speaker and research analyst working with clients on innovation, business model design, engagement strategies, customer experience, matrix commerce, and big data.  He advises Global 2000 companies on business strategy and technology selection.

COORDINATES
Profile www.constellationr.com/users/rwang0
Twitter: @rwang0

Press Contacts:
Contact [email protected] for interviews with analysts.

Sales Contacts:
Contact our sales team at [email protected].

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Citrix Sees Strong Cloud Sales Growth, Snaps Up Reuven Cohen As Chief Cloud Advocate

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Citrix (NASDAQ: CTXS) continues to successfully launch and manage products in the areas of cloud, desktop, mobile and networking, reporting net revenue of $730M for their latest quarter (Q2, 2013), up 19% from Q2, 2012.  Product license revenue is up 21% from Q2, 2012 to $227M for the latest quarter as well.  In the interest of full disclosure, I have never held a position in Citrix stock and do not today, and they have never been a client.

The following table is from their 2Q13 Financial Results presentation:

Managing Multiple Businesses And Making It Look Easy

Citrix continues to be a fascinating company to watch as it successfully competes across a broad range of businesses.  Cloud management, mobility and desktop management platforms, online collaboration, networking and security, and server virtualization are all revenue-generating businesses in the company today.

And while the majority of acquisitions in enterprise software struggle to deliver revenue or even fail, Citrix has been able to bolster is collaboration, enterprise mobility and telecom and networking businesses with solid additions.  Acquiring Zenprise in December, 2012 to bolster its mobile device management (MDM) strategy has led to increased sales, as has the acquisition of Podio in April of last year to augment its Online Services Division (OSD).  In June of last year Citrix also acquired ByteMobile, which gives the company entry into the telecom/carrier market.

At Citrix Synergy 2013 held May 22 – 24 of this year in Anaheim, California the company hosted the Citrix Financial Analyst Track.  You can download the presentation from this track here.  This presentation shows how challenging it can be to manage a business with multiple revenue streams across a broad base of technologies.  The following slide taken from the Citrix Financial Analyst Track illustrates just how quickly Citrix is growing and how mobile & desktop, SaaS and networking & cloud are contributing to their growth.

The addressable market opportunity for Citrix given the breadth of their product strategies is reflected in this slide, also from the Citrix Financial Analyst track:

Why Citrix Snapped Up Reuven Cohen

With so much growth potential in their cloud-based businesses, Citrix needed a seasoned veteran from the cloud computing industry who had both developed and managed new cloud platforms, products and services to the stack level.

They chose Reuven Cohen as their first-ever Chief Cloud Advocate based on his entrepreneurial expertise in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) including being the founder and CEO of Enomaly which was sold to Virtustream in 2012. He is also actively involved in the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) cloud definition, and is a GSA Cloud IaaS BPA awardee, presented Great Britain’s G-Cloud initiative to the Parliament, and is an active delegate in the Sino-EU America Cooperation Workgroup.

He is responsible for leading Citrix’s cloud advocacy efforts with a specific focus on increasing the volume, reach and influence of Citrix’s extensive portfolio of cloud solutions used by more than 260,000 customers and 100 million end users across the globe.  He’ll also be responsible for increasing the adoption of several Open Source initiatives at Citrix as well.   Here are a few of the current Citrix open source projects now underway:

Apache CloudStack, an open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.

OpenDaylight, a community-led, open, industry-supported framework, for accelerating adoption, fostering new innovation, reducing risk and creating a more transparent approach to Software-Defined Networking.

The Xen Project, the home for various virtualization technologies powering the world’s largest clouds in production and is the foundation of many commercial products.

XenServer, an open source project and community managed by Citrix. The project develops open source software for securely running multiple operating systems and applications on a single device, enabling hardware consolidation and automation to reduce costs and simplify IT management of servers and applications.

Congratulations to Reuven on being named Chief Cloud Advocate at Citrix, I am sure he’ll accomplish much in his new role.

Filed under: Citrix, Cloud Computing, Louis Columbus' blog, SaaS Tagged: Cloud Computing, Cloud computing forecasts, Cloud networking, CTXS, enterprise software, Louis Columbus' blog, Software-as-a-Service, virtualization, Web Collaboration

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WTF is a Data Scientist anyway ?

Chief Technology Evangelist, Speaker
Software AG

Theo Priestley is Chief Evangelist, speaker, analyst and prolific blogger. Globally responsible for enabling the brand and technology awareness strategy at Software AG, Theo is regarded as one of the top thought leaders in Business Process Management and was recently featured in Analytics Week's Top 200 Big Data influencers. He has a keen eye on disruptive current and future trends affecting the enterprise and consumer world today. Prior to joining Software AG Theo spent over a decade as a successful business tranformation consultant. During that time he also became an advisor to enterprise software companies, conducting independent industry analysis on the top technology trends and client-based attitudes towards software implementation and business change projects. Frequently writing…...

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The Big Data hype engine rolls on but nothing ever gets any clearer. Let’s be serious, NASA has been playing with ‘lots and lots’ of data since the time of the Moon launches but it was just data back then, and now all of a sudden it’s this big concern for the CIO ? Of course what comes with a fancy new industry vertical is a fancy new job title to come with it; the Data Scientist.

According to yet another survey this time by NewVantage, 70% of organisations surveyed plan to hire Data Scientists, and 100% of them said it’s “somewhat challenging” to hire a competent one. But just what is a Data Scientist anyway ?

There’s a funny Gartner blog post by analyst Svetlana Sicular (yeah, I know….Gartner doesn’t do funny) in which she heard a couple of definitions;

…a data scientist is 1) a data analyst in California or 2) a statistician under 35

But more importantly, Sicular makes a killer point. ”Organisations already have people who know their own data better than mystical Data Scientists…learning Hadoop is easier than learning the company’s business.” In other words, if you have a Data Analyst employed then your search is over.

It seems to me that as well as an entire industry being set up to handle what is basically just more data (i.e. just scale what you have) there’s a whole other market in squeezing a bigger salary out of an organisation for essentially the same job you already employ someone to do.

The notion of a Data Scientist is a little mad but then so is Big Data. Removing the buzzwords just leaves you with….Data.

And that’s all that it’s about, has been about and ever will be about.

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BPM: I’m bringing sexy back – An interview with Peter Schoof at BPM.com

Chief Technology Evangelist, Speaker
Software AG

Theo Priestley is Chief Evangelist, speaker, analyst and prolific blogger. Globally responsible for enabling the brand and technology awareness strategy at Software AG, Theo is regarded as one of the top thought leaders in Business Process Management and was recently featured in Analytics Week's Top 200 Big Data influencers. He has a keen eye on disruptive current and future trends affecting the enterprise and consumer world today. Prior to joining Software AG Theo spent over a decade as a successful business tranformation consultant. During that time he also became an advisor to enterprise software companies, conducting independent industry analysis on the top technology trends and client-based attitudes towards software implementation and business change projects. Frequently writing…...

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Peter Schoof, Managing Editor of BPM.com, one of the largest Business Process Management resources on the web recently interviewed me on my recent appointment as Chief Evangelist at Software AG, my outlook on the BPM industry overall and the forces at work.

In it I elaborate about the preparation for the Software AG Innovation World event, how process sits at the intersection of Gartner’s “Nexus of Forces” and why I’m bringing sexy back to BPM.

You can read the full interview here at BPM.com: Big Challenges and Bigger Rewards

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Quips: Why Jeff Bezos Really Bought The Washington Post... Digital - Analog Convergence In Media, Advertising, and Commerce

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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There’s Always More To The Obvious

Source: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Over the past few weeks many have discussed the state of old media.  Since Jeff Bezos announcement to buy the Washington Post, the theories have run wild.  I thought I'd add to the analysis with a different point of view.  A few facts:

1. The Washington Post is not a national paper like USA Today and Wall Street Journal but has the full potential.
2. Amazon is rapidly building distribution capacity for physical goods in North America.
3. Similar to cloud model, Amazon will have excess capacity to ship hard goods

The Bottom Line: Business Model Distruption Part Deux

Massive opportunities exist to disrupt multiple business models.  One can speculate Jeff Bezos to:

1. Take WaPO national. The full potential of the Washington Post is a content and advertising play.  The challenge has been distribution to physical and digital channels.  Combining the excess distribution capacity of Amazon with the Washington Post can resolve some of the excess capacity, similar to the cloud services in AWS.
2. Bridge between digital and physical ad networks. The paper's advertising revenues can be improved with a link back to commerce.  A convergence of advertising, media, and commerce can be created.  More over, the future of commerce is at stake.
3. Use assets to commoditize same day shipping networks. At this point, FedEx and UPS can not provide any additional capacity for Amazon.  While the addition of the Washington Post will not add enough capacity, the ability to provide same day shipping networks and offers via media will provide a significant longer term growth engine.  Think Amazon Supply on steroids.

Your POV

Do you see these trends in Amazon’s and Jeff Bezos’ future?  What’s your point of view?   Add your comments to the blog or send us a comment at R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org or R (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com

Related Resources

• Monday’s Musings: Four Elements for A #SharingEconomy Biz Model In #MatrixCommerce
• Tuesday’s Tip: Why Context Matters – Forget Real-Time, Achieve Right-Time
• Monday’s Musings: Balancing The Six S’s In Consumerization Of IT
• Monday’s Musings: A Working Vendor Landscape For Social Business
• Research Report: The Upcoming Battle For The Largest Share Of The Technology Budget Part 1
• Research Report: How The Five Pillars Of Consumer Tech Influence Enterprise Innovation
• Best Practices: Five Simple Rules For Social Business

Reprints

Reprints can be purchased through Constellation Research, Inc. To request official reprints in PDF format, please contact Sales .

Disclosure

Although we work closely with many mega software vendors, we want you to trust us. For the full disclosure policy, stay tuned for the full client list on the Constellation Research website.

* Not responsible for any factual errors or omissions.  However, happy to correct any errors upon email receipt.

Copyright © 2001 -2013 R Wang and Insider Associates, LLC All rights reserved.
Contact the Sales team to purchase this report on a a la carte basis or join the Constellation Customer Experience!

 

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The Building Blocks of Successful Corporate IT

R "Ray" Wang

Principal Analyst and Founder
Constellation Research

R “Ray” Wang is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He co-hosts DisrupTV, a weekly enterprise tech and leadership webcast that averages 50,000 views per episode and blogs at www.raywang.org. His ground-breaking best-selling book on digital transformation, Disrupting Digital Business, was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2015. Ray's new book about Digital Giants and the future of business, titled, Everybody Wants to Rule The World was released in July 2021. Wang is well-quoted and frequently interviewed by media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Cheddar, and Bloomberg. Short Bio R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc. He…...

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The job of Chief Information Officer has never exactly been easy. But massive disruptions in business models, technology, and the work force have been throwing up massive new challenges for CIOs and other technology leaders.

We recently put up a post on Harvard Business Review that discusses the organiational building blocks.  Please  take a look at the post and comment as to your views. We'll be going deeper with survey data soon. Blogged on August 8, 2013 on Harvard Business Review

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Integrate Insight from Social Channels into Customer Service Operations

Constellation Orbits
Constellation Research, Inc.

Elizabeth is a well-recognized industry-leading analyst. She was previously Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research.  Prior to Constellation, Elizabeth spent eleven years at Forrester Research as vice president and principal analyst.  She has managed large consulting projects for business and government organizations and provides technical insight and guidance to business and government organizations on their communication issues. Prior to her role as an industry analyst with Communication Initiatives and Forrester Research, Elizabeth held senior management positions with IBM, ROLM and Siemens ICN where she was a senior manager for strategic planning and alliances. Expertise Elizabeth’s expertise includes in-depth knowledge of unified communications,…...

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As a social media user, I expect a brand to hear what I have to say and respond to my questions that I ask via social channels.  While I may receive a response, it most likely came from an stand-alone response team that is separated from the overall customer support organization.  If I ask a phone service representative the same question, it is highly likely that the representative does not know that I posted this question on the company’s Facebook page or on its Twitter site.  Isolated social channels often result in different responses given for the same question on traditional voice and web channels.  Social channels offer a great opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of customers’ interests and behaviors and this information needs to be accessible from the customer data base.  Sharing social insight enables organizations to anticipate customer needs and improve their customer response across all communication channels.  Your social responders may be doing a great job handling inquiries but the information received must be shared to create a holistic view of customers as they navigate among all communication channels. I recommend brands with social site consider the following

Integrate social channel conversations into customer database. Customer comments on social channels need to be included in the customer history database.  As brands actively monitor and filter social conversations, they gain insight into customer’s issues, problems and needs. The amount of data found on these channels is huge and it needs to be analyzed for relevant content and saved so it is available for customer service reps when the customer seeks live assistance.

Engage customers proactively on social sites.   Customers want information regarding matters of interest to them.  Although many service organizations proactively reach out to their customers on matter such as billing or scheduling, they often neglect using social channels for informing customers on matters of interest to them, such service delays or limited-time promotions. It is important to send only specific comments to areas of customers’ interest and to avoid spamming customers with generalized sales information.

Create Social communities.  Online communities invite customer comments and ideas on a shared social site that is vendor sponsored.  Many customers seek comments from peers or technical experts and want an easy way to engage with them. Companies find these communities promote problem solving and improve customers’ options of the brand and its service. Monitor comments social communities to ensure that the peer responses are helpful and accurate and share information gathered from these communities with other departments. Many communities offer “status” rewards for participation and this often promotes high interest by users who want to move to the next level.

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