I am writing this post on a hot Sunday afternoon in Dallas, Texas, where the temperature outside is 104 F/40 C. So as an antidote, let me write a post that is cool and fun to read (and watch).

When we talk about Social Media Marketing and Social CRM, we are often referring to large corporations with big marketing budgets for advertising and brand promotion. Case in point is the recent YouTube campaign by P&G for one of its brand, Old Spice (for more on it, see my post titled Old Spice: The best Social CRM campaign till date).

It is important to note that Social Media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter provide great platform for engaging customers, fans or patrons for not only big business, but  artists, non-profit and small business organizations too by leveling the playing field. All that matters on Social media channel is the power of idea. If the idea is good, it can quickly go viral and provide publicity worth millions of dollar almost instantly. And best part is Social Media channels are free to use and Social Media content or campaign can be created cost-effectively to fit budget of any size.

Here’s an example of Social Media engagement of fans by famous Colombian singer, songwriter and musician, Shakira. Please note that this interview with Shakira was “completely powered by YouTube users” as questions were submitted by YouTube users from around the world and were selected based on number of votes each question received.

Watch this excellent YouTube interview with Shakira and do share your thoughts and comments on how Social Media can effectively be used by artists, non-profit and small business organizations:

If one studies history of automobiles, the first cars powered by internal combustion engines running on fuel gas appeared as early as 1806. But early autos were little more than horse drawn carraige fitted with an engine. It was not until 1889 that Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach designed a vehicle from scratch to be an automobile, rather than a horse-drawn carriage fitted with an engine (for more on history of the automobile, see this link).

Something similar is happening with respect to Social Networking technology today when it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Instead of modifying and re-engineering their CRM business processes to take advantage of unique characteristics of Social Networks, companies are fitting “Social” engine to their existing CRM carriage and are expecting great results from it.

Just ask any executive or consultant who is involved in implementing a Social Media marketing or Social CRM solution about how to engage thousands of customers (Scale) on Social Media channels and their Call Center “in the box” thinking becomes evident, what I call fitting “Social” engine to their existing CRM processes (Carriage).

Instead, we need fresh outside the box thinking to take advantage of unique characteristics of Social Media and Social Networks. For example, instead of trying to respond to each and every tweet or Facebook posting by customers, something not practical for a medium or large business, the emphasis should be on creating advocacy and building trust among customers, keeping in mind the “Social Context” of the medium. No where this is more evident than in support communities, where brand advocates/loyal customers help other customers out by answering their questions or suggesting solution, rather than company Reps trying to answer all the question.

Similarly, companies must leverage unique characteristics of Social Networks and re-engineer their CRM business processes to derive full benefits from it, rather than trying to fit “Social” engine to their existing CRM carriage, calling it “Social CRM” and  expecting great results from it.

What do you think? Look forward to your comments:

Social Networking technology has made it incredibly easy and inexpensive for people to collaborate and work together irrespective of their physical location. Given the proliferation of high speed internet access from home and mobile devices, something unthinkable even a few years ago (remember those dial-up modems), we are increasingly going to see people from diverse backgrounds & geographies collaborate on a project and share their expertise, thanks to Social Networks.

This presents an excellent opportunity for business to tap into Cognitive Surplus, world’s spare brain power so to speak, and leverage it in a way that it is beneficial to all concerned (see this link for an excellent visualization of the size of Cognitive Surplus and refer to my earlier post titled Cognitive Surplus: Implications for Social CRM for more on the subject).

Quirky, a Social product development company is a very good example of not only collaborative work, but also of how influencers can be rewarded for their contribution (see the last column of any product’s page on Quirky’s online store for share of each influencer in total price of the product).

Watch the following videos to learn more about how Quirky taps into Cognitive Surplus of Influencers and rewards them for their contribution, a win-win strategy indeed.

What is the future of advertising in Social Age?

Well, we may get as many different answers as the number of Social Media gurus and Advertising pundits out there, which by the way is not a small number!

Watch this excellent panel discussion and listen to what four real experts have to say on this subject. The experts are:

• Mark Pincus, Founder & CEO, Zynga
• Jeff Weiner, CEO LinkedIn
• Irwin Gotlieb, Global CEO, GroupM
• Dick Costolo, COO, Twitter

I like what Irwin Gotlieb says: “Nature of commercial message is not going to look like a display ad, it’s going to provide functionality and a different kind of interface for the user to act on something. People in Social context don’t want to be interrupted, instead want continue to be engaged and want  functionality that eases a task they are about to engage in.”

Enjoy the video and do share your thoughts on what advertising will look like in Social Age.

In my previous post titled Definition of Social CRM – Explained!, I provided a detailed explanation about what is Social CRM. I received many excellent comments in response to that post and wanted to answer some of the questions about the definition.

To begin with let me reiterate the definition of Social CRM:

Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty.

Loyalty is defined as attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it and/or recommend it to others. Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers than about managing relationships or transactions, which are focus areas of “traditional” CRM.

Now on to the questions:

Q: Why this definition refers to Social CRM as a business strategy and not calling it technology, system, processes etc.. etc..?

A: Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. Social CRM is a plan of action to build Trust and Loyalty. Calling Social CRM “technology”, “system” and “processes” is a misnomer. While executing Social CRM (strategy), technological tools will be used to achieve the goal – but tools are different from plan. It is very important to remember this distinction between Strategy (plan) and Tools (technology, systems).

Q: If Social CRM is a strategy, why mention Social Media in the definition?

A: It is very important to mention Social Media in the definition because Social Media has introduced the “trust” dimension to marketing equation. Before the Social Media age, Trust in marketing relationship was limited to face-to-face interactions (like friendly neighborhood coffee shop or grocery shop). What Social Media has done is to make it possible for any one to have the same sort of one-to-one relationship irrespective of geography. This kind of one-to-one relationships based on mutual “trust” are not possible through “traditional” CRM channels like phone, mail or emails. Moreover, interactions via Social Media are not only “public”, but are indexed and displayed by most search engines in “real time”, thereby having the potential to influence consumer behavior on a massive scale. Effective use of Social Media channels and tools are critical to successful execution of Social CRM strategy, hence I have included Social Media in my definition.

Q: sCRM helps companies make sense of and act on data that they collect from social customer interactions. This can be via phone, email, feedback forms, or anything else. Companies don’t have to use Social Media to do this.

A: Social CRM strategy can help companies “make sense of and act on data that they collect from social customer interactions”. But that is only part of the equation (Listen and Learn). Social Media is much more powerful than being just a medium for listening and learning. It provides a platform for engaging customers in a meaningful conversation for building Trust and Loyalty, and that is what Social CRM is about. Not just for “recording” or “managing transactions” of Customers’ Social Interactions.

Q: What is in it for the consumer?

A: Loyalty, Trust and Engagement. Company has to “earn” trust and loyalty of its Customers through Engagement. And to earn that trust and loyalty – a company has to consistently delight/exceed expectation of customers. This is the big deal for customers. Company doing all it can to earn that Loyalty (providing great product, service at competitive prices – Value for money). This is what is in there for the Customers. Customer is the King (or Queen) in Social Age!

Q: Why your definition is company and business centric?

A: Social CRM is for companies as companies are going to engage customers – not other way around. You have to view customer engagement from stand point of the company not customer.

Hope this post answers many common questions relating to Social CRM. Would love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts and opinion on what is Social CRM.

In one of my earlier post, I defined Social CRM as follows:

Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Loyalty is defined as attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it and/or recommend it to others. Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers than about managing relationships or transactions, which are focus areas of “traditional” CRM.

I received a lot of great feedback on this definition and want to elaborate further on it to answer some of the questions raised by readers of this blog.

Let’s break-down the definition to its individual components:

1) Social CRM is the business strategy: It is not technology, tools or platform. Fundamentally, Social CRM is a business strategy. It is widely accepted by Social CRM practitioners and SMEs that Social CRM is a business strategy.

2) Engaging Customers through Social Media: Engagement through Social Media is the most important aspect of my definition. Any CRM related activity through existing channels like the telephone, email, snail mail etc.. will continue to be part of “traditional” CRM and will not be replaced by Social CRM (unless the Customer prefers to use Social Media instead of “traditional” channels).

Thus, Social CRM will augment “traditional” CRM, but will not replace it. And for some industries like health care or financial services, emphasis will continue to be more on “traditional” channels and not on Social ones for privacy related issues (who would want to tweet about their bank account or health condition). Traditional CRM channels will offer more private communication as compared to “public” Social CRM channels.

Having said Social CRM will augment traditional CRM and not replace it – let me add that Social CRM will be well integrated into overall CRM platform and systems with a 360 degree view of the Customer with feeds from all major Social channels. Customer will have a choice on what channels to use and organizations will reach out to the Customer based on that choice.

3) with goal of building trust and brand loyalty: Ultimate goal of Customer Engagement through Social Media is to build (a) Trust and (b) Brand Loyalty. I have used the word “Trust” before “Loyalty” for a reason because Social Media has introduced the “trust” dimension to marketing equation.

Before the Social Media age, Trust in marketing relationship was limited to face-to-face interactions (like friendly neighbourhood coffee shop or grocery shop). What Social Media has done is to make it possible for any one to have the same sort of one-to-one relationship irrespective of geography. This kind of one-to-one relationships based on mutual “trust” are not possible through “traditional” CRM channels like phone, mail or emails.

While “traditional” CRM helped manage Customer Relationships on a massive scale, it did not help in building mutual trust between buyers and sellers as it is impossible to build “trust” with thousands of customers over phone or mail. For building Trust, you need to know your partner well and not just be limited to mere “transactions” as was the case with “traditional” CRM. Social Media provides the opportunity to marketers to become “personal”, interact with thousands of customers spread across geography on one-to-one basis so that marketer and the customer get to know each other so well as to trust each other – the essence of a true relationship.

Second most important goal of Social CRM is to build Customer Loyalty – the ultimate goal of any business! Some have interpreted my definition as not being “customer focused” or “customer centric” or being “Social Media Centric”. This is not correct. The very fact that goal of Social CRM in my definition is to build Customer Loyalty implies that it is “Customer Centric” – as you cannot build loyalty without having a customer focus.

Hope this clarifies many questions that were raised regarding my definition of Social CRM. Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Ford Motor Company is among a handful of large corporations with many successful Social Media initiatives. One of Ford’s most successful Social Media initiative is a called The Ford Story. This is a website that aggregates Ford’s social web participation along with what others are saying about Ford’s brands.

Few other examples of successful Social Media initiatives by Ford include Summer of Taurus, the2010Mustang.com,  WeddingRoadTrip.com and FiestaMovement.com (See this excellent blog post by Lee Odden for more).

To learn more about Ford’s Social Media success, watch this interview by Lee Odden with Scott Monty, Head of Social Media at Ford.

According to Scott, even the CEO of Ford understands how important Social Media is to the success of the company! Scott also emphasized the importance of having a good product, listening to customers and providing them with necessary tools for engagement.

Great advice in my opinion and a success story that other brands should try to emulate.

Charlie Rose recently interviewed Mark Pincus – Founder and CEO,  Zynga. For some one who is new to the field of Social Games, this interview offers a quick introduction to the subject and games like Mafia Wars and Cafe World.

I like what Mark said about Social Networks – “If you are on Social Network, you are in the game of building Social Capital” – very true!

(See this video and for complete transcript of this interview, pls see this link).

Social Games are all the rage these days. In a recent survey of consumers in the US and UK who play games on social networking platforms such as Facebook, it was found that more than 24% of respondents play social games regularly, indicating a total social gamer population of approximately 100 million in US and UK alone.

And contrary to prevailing stereotypes, the average social gamer is a 43-year old woman – yes, you read that right 43-year old woman! (for more on survey results, see this link)

So with a fast growing affluent user base, what does it take to succeed in Social Games? Here is an excellent Panel Discussion on what issues leaders in this space grapple with on a daily basis?

Panelists are:

• Sebastien de Halleux – COO and Co-Founder, Playfish
• Mark Pincus – Co-Founder and CEO, Zynga
• John Pleasants – CEO, Playdom
• Jeremy Liew (Moderator) – Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Excellent talk by Prof. Jesse Schell of Carnegie Mellon University on Psychology of Social Gaming and what drives player behavior in this area. Thanks to Social Networking, online Gaming (or Social Gaming as many call it) will grow exponentially in the next 3-5 years. Facebook games are a great example of things to come. Please listen to this enlightening talk by Prof. Jesse Schell:

As more marketers use Social Media channels for engaging their customers and prospects, it is becoming obvious that they will have to take on additional responsibility for not only creation of content, but also facilitate sharing or distribution of content through Social Media channels such as YouTube. Some notable examples of this approach are:

• Johnson & Johnson (J&J) – Baby Center.com
• Procter & Gamble (P&G) – Home Made Simple
• Walmart’s Money Saving Tips on YouTube
• American Express Small Business Blog Network
• Geek Squad YouTube channel
• Charmin Enjoy the Go

This raises an important question: Should Marketers behave like Media companies when it comes to Social Media? If yes, what additional skills will be required by those in the marketing department for this new task. And what is the role of an “agency” in this new “set-up”?

In my opinion, marketers should take on additional responsibility of content creation with the help of agencies and professionals/SMEs in the area. Marketers should also provide necessary tools and platform for their customers to discuss about their brands, share content and exchange ideas. Agencies should use their expertise to help marketers connect with customers.

Listen to what Jonah Bloom, former Editor at Advertising Age, has to say on this subject:

What to you think? Should Marketers behave like Media companies when it comes to Social Media? Please share your views and opinion:

Results of CMO Club Weekly Poll published on BW blog made some interesting reading. Question that was asked was “Which of your groups is best equipped to help you with your social media efforts today?”  114 CMOs responded:

• 65.6% In House
• 15.6% Interactive Agency
• 9.4% PR Firm
• 9.4% Social Media Agency
• 0% Creative/Ad Agency

Why majority of respondents preferred In House Agency rather than entrusting the work to outside firms?

Answer lies in the fact that Social Media is still a very new subject and unexplored medium – constantly evolving. More importantly, Social Media/Interactive/PR/Creative/Ad agencies have not done a good job of defining their offerings and articulating them well to clients. And in absence of any well defined service offerings from agencies, clients prefer to do Social Media in-house.

What Can agencies do to remedy the situation?

• Come out with well defined service offerings
• Articulate their service offerings well to clients
• Offer a result oriented approach to induce clients to try out Social Media
• Hire best available talent who understand Social Media well and how to leverage it for Brand Promotion

Agencies will have to take a lead on this and guide their clients. Early birds will get the best returns! What do you think?

Watch this video for what three visionary CEOs have to say about Social Networking:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco: “Social Networking is transforming companies. It is the future of Business Productivity, Health Care, Education and Entertainment.”
• Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsico: “Global company with global brands and reputation can use it as a force for good.”
• Jeffrey Joerres, President and CEO, Manpower: “When it comes to Social Networking, it is a major trend towards what will be a very standard everyday stuff.”

This very clearly highlights the fact that Social Media and Social Networking are not a fad, but for real, are here to stay and will become mainstream in near future. Social Business is not just another way of doing business, it is THE way business will be conducted.

I strongly recommend that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, and lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools.

Social Networking has far reaching implications for the marketing department and I recommend that CMOs setup a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social Networking tools and applications. Sooner marketing department(s) adopt and start using Social Networking for engaging their customers better for their brand(s), else performance of their business will suffer.

Social Media and Social CRM being so new, one is often asked the question what is Social CRM and how is it different from “traditional” CRM?

Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Loyalty is defined as attitude towards a brand that inclines a customer to repurchase it and/or recommend it to others.

Social CRM and Social Media are more about building trust and managing loyalty with customers than about managing relationships or transactions, which are focus areas of “traditional” CRM.

Hope this answers the question. If not, please feel free to leave a comment:

Not a week goes by without publication of findings from a study or a survey confirming growing reach of Social Media channels. Latest in this series is findings by NielsenWire. As per this study, “global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82% increase from the same time last year”. This study further highlights that “Consumers in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210% year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-over-year in December 2009. Year-over-year growth in average time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively” (for more see this link).

This study confirms the phenomenal growth in Social Media usage, not only in terms of number of users, but average amount of time spent by each user on social networking sites. There is a unique opportunity for marketers to leverage emerging media for Social CRM, which can be defined as business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media for building trust and brand loyalty.

But in spite of this clear opportunity, marketers have not allocated time or resources for engaging customers over Social Media channels. According to a survey of 124 chief marketing officers by The CMO Club and Hill & Knowlton, more than four out of five (84 percent) chief marketing officers (CMOs) allocate less than ten percent of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than half (55 percent) allocating just five percent or less. To the question “Does your brand have a web 2.0 communications policy?” almost half said either they don’t have or are currently developing one. Only 14% CMOs said that they were “proactive” about creating external brand advocates and leveraging them (detailed findings of the survey here).

In another study by Weber Shandwick for evaluating how effectively Fortune 100 companies used Twitter to its full potential as an engagement platform, it was found that “for the majority of Fortune 100 companies, Twitter remains a missed opportunity. Many of their Twitter accounts did not appear to listen to or engage with their readers, instead offering a one-way broadcast of press releases, company blog posts and event information. This falls short of the opportunity that Twitter offers as a valuable communications channel and strategic social network.”

Results of a study by Burson-Marsteller on Fortune 100’s use of key Social Media Tools and another study on use of Social Media tools by CEOs of Fortune 100 companies are equally disappointing.

Findings of studies referred above clearly indicate that even large companies don’t get it when it comes to Social Media. Marketers are not having their eyes and ears on Social Media channels that are going to drive their business going forward.

It is very important that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously. They should lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools. As a first step in this direction, I strongly recommend that CMOs should:

• Have a Twitter account and start using it for communicating with customers and general public
• Monitor discussion regarding their company or brands on Social Media channels and if there are any legitimate issues, take it up with respective execs and make sure that they are resolved
• Should use feedback gained from Social Media channels and ask right questions during review meetings. This will send out clear message down the chain that senior execs are listening to customers on Social Media and line managers or customer support staff will be more responsive to handling customer issues via Social channels.
• Set up a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social web applications

These are some of the Must Do items that every CMO should tackle right away. Sooner they adopt and start using Social Media for engaging their customers better for them, else performance of their business will suffer.

Dear CMOs, the choice is yours!

Good Panel discussion on What Comes Next in Social Media? organized by The Paley Center for Media.

Panelist include:

• Jamie Daves, Venture Partner at City Light Capital
• Tom Arrix, Vice President of Sales at Facebook
• Peter Land, Senior Vice President of PepsiCo
• Joe Marchese, Co-founder and President of SocialVibe
• Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder of Meebo

Some key points of discussion are:

1. Pepsico marketing in Social Media
2. New Era in Media Advertising
3. Advertisers utilizing Facebook user experience
4. Monetization models and revenue streams
5. Monetization from communities, not brands
6. Evolution of Social game experience
7. User experience: International Vs. Domestic

One of the biggest stories in 2010 is going  to be the exponential growth of Social Media in Asia, not only in terms of reach but also content created in varied Asian languages. What is different about Social Media in Asia as compared to North America, Europe or Australia?

• Scale of Asia: China, India, Japan, Indonesia, Korea – to name just a few countries.
• Diversity: Culture and Languages
• Usage of Internet: Access to Social Networking sites via Mobile devices, not a PC
• Monetization models

Watch this excellent video interview with Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific Director, Digital Influence at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, followed by a Slideshare presentation by him.

Excellent collection of Top 50 pages on Facebook in 2009. Note that a brand did not qualify for this list unless it had a minimum of 200,000 fans. Ranking was arrived at based on a variety of criteria including frequency of updates and level of engagement among others.

I guess competition will be much tougher in 2010 as many more companies will be on Facebook and with rapid increase in number of Facebook users.

Internet users are flocking to Social Networking sites because of almost hysterical following sites like Facebook and Twitter have generated. Not only number of users, but average amount of time spent by each user on social networking sites has climbed substantially in the past one year. So it is not surprising that TechCrunch has named Social CRM as one of the top ten technologies that will rock 2010!

So what is Social CRM and why those in Social Media and CRM talk passionately about it.

What is Social CRM and why it is important:

Social Networking sites have seen a phenomenal growth in number of users in the last one year. Brian Solis has estimated that for August 2009, Facebook recorded 110 M unique visitors from US and 370 M globally. Similarly, Twitter registered 24 M unique visitors from US and 66 M worldwide.

This offers a unique opportunity to marketers for engaging their customers through Social media channels. Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media for building trust and brand loyalty. Research has shown strong evidence that Social Media Engagement correlates to Financial Performance (see report on world’s most valuable brands – Who’s most engaged?). According to this study “Engagement via social media IS important — and we CAN quantify it. There is statistically significant correlation between social media engagement and the two most meaningful financial performance metrics – revenue and profit”. This study further emphasizes quality of customer engagement through social media by concluding:

• It pays to engage meaningfully in social media. Emphasize quality, not just quantity.

• Engagement is more than just setting up a blog or Facebook profile and letting viewers post comments, it’s keeping your content fresh and replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status.

• Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest.

• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job. You must do something, else risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.

This clearly illustrates importance of Social CRM – engaging customers via Social Media for building trust and loyalty towards the brand.

Why NOW is the time to invest in Social CRM:

There has been lot of discussion on whether Social Media revolution is for real or is it some passing fad that will die down eventually. Well, those who have any doubt should read findings of a recent survey by Forrester. In this survey of 204 marketing executives across industries, it was found that recession is accelerating shift to interactive, mobile and social media.

Marketers were most optimistic about social media, online video, SEO, mobile, paid placement in social media, email and paid search, in descending order. Near the bottom were outdoor, telemarketing, radio and newspapers. As per Forrester’s Interactive Marketing forecast, Interactive marketing will approach $55 billion in marketing spend in 2014 benefiting from search, social media and mobile marketing.

It is important to note that in the past two years, time spent by consumers online has grown from 29% to 34%, but advertisers spend only 12% of their budget on Internet marketing. Forrester predicts that by 2014, spend will increase to 21% of budget. Forrester further predicts that both social and mobile will have the biggest compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — 34% and 27%, respectively through 2014.

So, there you have it! Consumers are spending more time online, interacting with their friends and contacts through Social Networks. TV and Print Media have seen their Viewership/Readership fall significantly. This is the right time to allocate (or should I say “shift”) resources for investment from “traditional” media to “new” media and engage customers through Social Media for building trust and loyalty.

In this last post of 2009, wanted to share two great videos – one to say light hearted goodbye to 2009 and another to welcome 2010. Enjoy the videos. I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Goodbye 2009

And an inspiring video to Welcome 2010

Very few examples come to mind when one is talking about successfully leveraging Social Media for Business. Dell is definitely one among few large corporations that have used Social Media very effectively for Marketing and Sales. Mashable recently reported that Dell has generated a total of $6.5 million in revenue from their Twitter presence.

What is the secret of Dell’s Social Media Success? Watch this excellent interview with Richard Binhammer, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs at Dell to know more about Dell’s Social Media strategy:

Relevance of Social Media to Business is a hot topic of discussion these days. There are many who still doubt importance of Social Media to business and wonder if Social Media is more hype than substance.

Well, one just needs to consider following facts to realize importance of Social Media:

• Customers and potential customers are discussing about brands on Social Media, whether business is paying attention or not
• These conversations are happening online every minute and are visible to any one with access to internet and Social Networking sites
• Customers and potential customers are influenced more by advice and suggestions from friends than by advertising
• If brand managers don’t pay attention to these conversations, they not only risk losing a golden opportunity to listen and learn, but also to participate and influence.
• If current trends are any indication, reach and impact of Social Media are going to increase exponentially in the next 3-5 years as smart phones and mobile devices with internet access become cheaper and more popular.

Neville Hobson of WCG, London has a great SlideShare presentation on Ten key trends and observations on Social Media for Business. Please take a look at it and see for yourself if Social Media is for real or is it hype. Please share your views, more so if you think it is more of hype. I would love to hear from you.

Google is in advanced talk to buy Yelp, leader in user-generated reviews about local businesses in the US, for more that $ 500 Million. Many people are surprised at high valuation of Yelp. In my opinion, this valuation is not high considering that Yelp can nicely compliment Google’s service known as Google Favorite Places. See the following video for a demo.

In the next 2-3 years, we are going to see many such “high valuation” deals involving companies offering Social Media services. It is important to note that valuation of such companies is derived not from revenue they generate, but from user generated content contributed by thousands of users and traffic this generates.

This explains why many Social Media sites or platforms are either free (like Twitter) or have “Freemium” pricing model. Ultimately, they will have to come up with a revenue model that can support the “free” service. And that’s why we are going to see many M&A deals involving some big names such as Google, Microsoft and the like on one hand, and Social Media platforms & services Cos. on the other. What do you think?

Great Slideshare presentation by Olivier Blanchard on the Basics Of Social Media ROI. I like slide nos. 32-34 on Investment Return Relationship and emphasis on Non-financial Impact of Social Media. Also, slide nos. 39-55 on how to measure Social Media Impact.

Excellent business case for B2B organization to embrace Social Media in a big way: