K-Mart recently announced that it is selling Android powered Tablet computer with 256MB of RAM (same as iPad), 2GB of storage, SD card slot, WiFi 802.11G and Android 2.1 OS with 800×480 display for $149. A host of other Tablet PCs powered by Google’s Android OS are also slated to be released in the near future (for more, see this link). This comes in the wake of runaway success of Apple’s Tablet computer called iPad. So what does this Tablet Revolution mean to consumers and the tech sector?

First and foremost, it means Microsoft’s dominance of PC (personal computer) market is under threat as many customers are buying Apple iOS or Android OS powered Tablet computers in lieu of a Windows OS notebooks or desktops that they may have purchased otherwise. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer recently said that “Microsoft is urgently working with its partners to unveil a host of tablet computers running Windows 7, to compete with Apple’s fast-selling iPad” (for more, see this link). Competition among Apple, Google and Microsoft for share of Tablet OS market is great news for consumers as this will drive innovation leading to development of better products at a lower price.

Tablet PCs have the potential to bring about a dramatic shift in the way we use traditional media for entertainment and information. Rather than reading newspaper or magazine for information or watching television for entertainment, increasing number of consumers are likely to use Tablet PCs for accessing digital version of their favorite newspapers, magazines and books, and watch movies or television shows on demand from Tablet PCs.

Many popular Tablet PCs are WiFi/3G enabled and are equipped with microphone (and soon, a front facing video camera if not already) making them a great device for connecting with friends and family members over the internet at a fraction of cost of connecting over phone lines.

Tablet PCs, given their large Hi-resolution screen with multi-touch input, Accelerometer sensor for UI and Touch-sensitive controls, have the potential to change the way we use Social Media tools and take Social Networking to a whole new level. Current Social Media tools such as Twitter or Facebook are “text” or “web-page” UI based. NextGen Social Media tools will leverage full range of functionality available in Tablet PCs and make media consumption for information & entertainment or playing online games a truly Social experience.

Most importantly, a fully functional Tablet PC costs just a few hundred dollars, a little more if it is a premium brand like Apple (note the price tag on Android powered Tablet PC I mentioned earlier in this post). And by all accounts, prices are likely to drop further as sales volume increase.

One may argue that a Tablet PC costing few hundred dollars is quite expensive in developing countries where consumers’ purchasing power is a fraction of what it is in developed world. Well, watch the following video to know more about a fully functional Tablet PC developed by Government of India costing mere $35 and they hope to bring it down to $10 (you read it right, $10). Just imagine what a Tablet PC costing mere $35 (or even lower) can do to bridging of the Digital Divide. A Tablet PC revolution indeed!

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:

Watch SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott detail his company’s organic growth strategy that includes focus on:

• Business Applications that drive industry
• On-Demand/Cloud computing
• In-memory technology
• Analytics, and
• Mobile

This is a great growth strategy, but it is equally important for large Enterprise Applications firms such as SAP and Oracle to incorporate in their offering technological tools that foster collaboration, not only within the enterprise (among employees), but outside the enterprise too (between employees and customers/suppliers).

Benefits of effective collaboration in driving down costs, improving productivity and employee engagement/morale cannot be emphasized enough. And in current economic climate where sales growth is hard to come by, higher productivity is the magic mantra. Collaboration among employees, customers and suppliers is the key that can deliver higher productivity organizations have been aiming for.

What do you think about SAP’s Growth Strategy? Shouldn’t Enterprise Applications firms such as SAPand Oracle incorporate in their offering technological tools that foster collaboration? Please do share your thoughts:

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 one of my earlier posts, I defined and explained Social CRM as “the business strategy of engaging customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty“. Loyalty being 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 (for more, see this and this).

Old Spice Social Media campaign that has generated tremendous buzz, not only in Social Media but in traditional media channels as well, is a great example of Social CRM campaign where Procter & Gamble, the company that owns the brand, has very effectively engaged customers (and prospects) through Social Media with goal of building trust and brand loyalty. Watch this excellent CNN video on the subject:

Google is one of the great success stories of internet age. Given its mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, it has achieved remarkable success by focusing on search results and monetizing clicks. But Google’s revenue model is under threat in the age of Social Media. Facebook recently surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website (for more, see this and this).

What should Google do to continue its dominance in the Social Age? Think outside the box, “Search” box that is! Google has done a great job focusing on its core competency of indexing content on the web and displaying most relevant search results without any “noise” or “clutter” on the screen. And this is what made Google so popular in the first place.

But this strategy of indexing web content and displaying most relevant search results will no longer work in Social Age as users rely more on Social Media channels and less on search engines to get relevant information. Google should shift its strategy from Search to Share, to continue its dominance in the Social Age as people are more likely to pay attention to content from those they trust rather than ones suggested by search engines. 

Facebook recently introduced some great changes to its service in order to leverage the power of Open Graph and “create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken” (for more, see Mark Zuckerberg’s blog post here). Google should up the ante on Facebook by introducing “Social Plugins” that will help collect, index and display content based on Social links. And this transformation from Search to Share involves thinking outside the Search box.

I want to end this post by sharing with you this great CNBC Video titled Inside the Mind of Google that explains very well Google’s success story. Enjoy the video!

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have undergone a fascinating technological transformation over the last decade, starting as client-server apps, followed by web-enabled CRM apps (where users can access CRM application over internet using their web browsers).

But in spite of this technological transformation and progress in system architecture, all CRM systems essentially record transactional information using pre-determined fields on the screen (front-end) to capture information in the database, and company is in total control of conversation (should I say interrogation) with customer at every stage.

Thanks to rapid expansion of reach and effectiveness of Social Media channels, this is about to change. Social Media has empowered customers like never before as they can discuss about brands/products on Social Media channels and companies have no control over what customers are saying about their brands/products. This discussion is visible to all including other customers, potential customers and competitors.

The best any marketer can do is to Listen and Learn from what customers are saying and Engage them in meaningful conversations. In other words, treat Social Media channels as the front-end of CRM system, capture all relevant information from Social Media channels in the database and use Predictive Analytics and Knowledge Management tools to derive insights and help in decision making.

What is important to note here is that “Social” is not a middle-ware or another layer in the architecture of CRM systems, but is the front-end of CRM system, where customers decide the format and content of information.

It is responsibility of the company to record and store all relevant information from Social Media channels and derive value from it by using Predictive Analytics and Knowledge Management tools for effectively engaging customers.

What do you think? Do you agree that Social Media is the new front-end of the CRM system? Or is it middle-ware? Please do share your thoughts:

Social CRM is a very popular term these days on Social Networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. But in spite of all the buzz surrounding the term, there’s lot of confusion as to what it means and how it can help business.

To answer some of the questions, here is a list of eight must read blog posts on Social CRM. Happy Reading!

• 2010: Year of Social CRM
• Definition of Social CRM – Explained!
• Definition of Social CRM – Questions & Answers
• How Customer Engagement Will Determine Winning Brands in Social Era
• Social CRM: Take the Leap of Faith
• Brand Crisis and Social Media
• Social CRM: Don’t wait for Social Media “Oil Slick”
• 5 Lessons Social CRM can Learn from CRM

Excellent interview with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner by Jon Fortt and Michael Copeland of Fortune magazine.

Some of the more interesting points mentioned by Jeff are:

• Currently LinkedIn is used by 60+ Million professionals out of estimated 500 Million professionals world-wide
• LinkedIn is profitable (rare for a valley start-up these days), so far raised close to $100 Million, all of it still in the bank
• Has three lines of business, Premium Subscriptions, Ad Sales and Enterprise Licensing – growth fastest for Enterprise Licensing
• LinkedIn a “Professional Network”, calling it “Social Network” is a misnomer

Jeff also mentioned that no matter where in the world they talked to LinkedIn customers, people always mention that they want to keep their personal lives and professional lives separate. This is not surprising, but given the “always on” nature of Social Networking coupled with high speed internet access from smart phones and portable devices, lines between personal and professional lives are getting blurred all the time.

It will be interesting to see how work-life balance evolves over the next 2-5 years time frame. In my opinion, employers should take a lead and make work fun to the extend possible in order to keep employees engaged and productive.

Foursquare, the hottest Social Network on the web turned one yesterday. Hard to believe that its been around for just 365 days and still boasts of half a million users, 1.4 million venues, 15.5 million check-ins and is growing exponentially by the day if not by the hour! (see this excellent Hitwise Intelligence report for stats on Foursquare)

There are three important reasons for the phenomenal growth and popularity of Foursquare as compared to rivals such as Gowalla or Yelp.

• Technology: Although just one year old, Foursquare has stayed on top of technological aspects and made sure that its app is user friendly and efficient in leveraging location based info from mobile devices. Its latest release, Ver. 1.7 features many enhancements such a new design, faster check-ins besides an easy way to view check-in history.

• Ease of Use: Foursquare is very intuitive, easy to use and the latest release is a big step in this direction. (see this CNN video on how easy it is to use Foursquare)

• Creative Design and Promotion Strategy: Foursquare has been very creative in its design – badges for example and the way you earn them. Also important is how Foursquare (and participating establishments) have promoted the service. For example, Starbucks recently teamed up with Foursquare to offer customer rewards (for more, see this link). And when other companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing to reach target audience, Foursquare has relied on buzz generated by creative promotion strategy. At the  South by South West (SXSW), 2010 taking place in Austin, Texas, Foursquare had people lined up to play this game of four square with one of its founders, Dennis Crowley, outside SXSW venue, with people walking by and talking about it. This is great buzz for Foursquare, with total investment of around $5.99 for a box of sidewalk chalk, that other companies paid tens of thousands of dollars to generate inside the venue! Isn’t that cool? (watch the following video)

To summarize, Foursquare is the hottest Social Network on the web because it is technically efficient, easy to use and creatively brilliant in design and promotion.

What do you think are the reasons for Foursquare’s success?

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.

James Cameron has written and directed many blockbuster movies including The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and most recently Avatar.

In this excellent TED Talk, James Cameron describes his childhood fascination with the fantastic — from reading Sci-Fi to deep-sea diving, and how it contributed to success of his blockbuster hits “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Avatar.” Also listen to him on why he made Titanic.

I like what he says about Curiosity, Imagination, Respect for team, Risk taking, Leap of faith and fear not being an option – rather than failure!

After listening to James Cameron, I was wondering if he directs Avatar like movie on Enterprise 2.0 technologies and Social CRM, how the story line might play out? What do you think? Please do share your comments on what the story line might look like …. let the imagination fly!

In recent months, several publications, analysts and bloggers have highlighted the importance of Social Media and the need for allocating resources for Social CRM initiatives. I have published several blog posts on the subject and some of them are listed below:

• When it comes to Social Media, CEOs and CMOs should lead from the front

• Dear CMOs, Wake up to Social Media challenge

• What is Social CRM and why it is important

• Why NOW is the time to invest in Social CRM

• 2010: Year of Social CRM

• Social CRM: Top priority for CMOs

But inspite of all the attention Social CRM has received in mainstream and social media, many companies are reluctant to invest in Social media initiatives and programs. This is confirmed by findings of a recent study by Burson-Marsteller titled Global Social Media Checkup. It was found that only 20% of those surveyed used all the four Social Media channels, namely Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Blogs to engage their stakeholders. Social Media involvement of these companies can best be described as “minimal” (see following slideshare presentation for more). And if this is the level of involvement of companies on Fortune’s Global 100 list given all their resources and marketing budget, one can imagine the Social Media involvement of lesser known companies and those with smaller marketing spend!

It is high time for marketers to take a leap of faith and invest in Social CRM initiatives in order to engage customers through Social Media channels, because customers and potential customers are on social media channels discussing about products and brands – whether the marketer is represented in the discussion or not.

Moreover, according to a recent “The CMO Survey” from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association (AMA), marketers will devote nearly one-fifth of their marketing budgets to social media in the next five years (for more, see this link). Those marketers who take this leap of faith and move first in this direction will not only have first mover’s advantage, but will define standards, procedures and rules of the game.

NOW is the time for marketers to start Social Media initiatives for customer engagement and emerge as winners, rest will be laggards.

Dear CMOs, do you want to be a winner or laggard? The choice is yours!

The next step in evolution of mobile phone from “simple” telephones to mobile multi-media communication hub is social networking access via mobile browser and apps. This is going to be one of the big stories over the next couple of years that will fuel exponential increase in Social Networking Sites and their user base. It is estimated that currently more than 650 million people worldwide, or 13.4% of mobile subscribers, use the Web via a mobile device at least once a month (see this link). This number is all set to skyrocket as inexpensive smart phones continue to flood the market.

In a recent study by comScore on social networking access via mobile browser, it was found that 30.8 percent of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347-percent jump. This validates the fact that Social Networking is the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on mobile Web (see this link).

This is a global phenomenon, not limited to “developed” markets in North America or Europe. According to a recent global survey by The Nielsen Company covering 15,000 consumers across 15 countries, two-thirds of mobile users around the globe are interested in “smart” services that would feed them information based on location and social settings (see this link).

Given this rapid expansion of Social Networking, Mobile Broadband Internet and Smart Phone technology, one really wonders what can we expect to see over the next few years?

To answer some of our questions, here is an excellent slideshare presentation on Mobile Trends for the next ten years compiled by Rudy De Waele , Co-Founder, dotopen.com

Please enjoy this presentation and do leave a comment on what you think will drive adoption of Social Networking technology through smart phones?

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:

Excellent interview of Chris Brogan by David Thomas of SAS Institute on biggest change Social Media will bring to the way we do business.

Social Media according to Chris Brogan:

• Lot of light as compared to heat
• Puts human face back on Business
• Big companies have a chance to feel small and human again
• Individuals have an opportunity to compete with bigger organizations like never before

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.

It is not uncommon to see companies restricting (or even worse, banning) use of Social Networking sites by their employees. I don’t think that this is a step in the right direction. If companies can trust their employees to run business, can’t they be trusted when it comes to using Social Media in an acceptable way?

IBM is a great example of how companies should handle employees’ use of Social Media. IBM has approximately 400,000 employees spread through out the world, still it allows them to use Social Media without much restrictions. Casey Hibbard has written an excellent blog post on how IBM uses Social Media to spur employee innovation (see this link).

As per Casey’s post, IBM lets employees communicate with each other and the public over Social Media channels without intervention. This in spite of the fact that IBM has:

• A few thousand “IBMers” on Twitter
• Thousands of external bloggers,
• Almost 200,000 on LinkedIn
• 17,000 internal blogs
• 100,000 employees using internal blogs
• 53,000 members on SocialBlue (like Facebook for employees)
• As many as 500,000 participants in company crowd-sourcing “jams”
• 50,000 in alum networks on Facebook and LinkedIn

Watch this CNBC interview with Adam Christensen, IBM’s Social Media Communications Manager and John Abell, New York Bureau chief, Wired.com. According to Adam, IBM’s job is to help employees go out and have conversations that they want to, so that they can lead the business they are involved in. Not allowing employees to use Social Media is “short sighted” and companies will be “missing an opportunity”. (watch this video for more)

To succeed in this new age, it is important to embrace and adopt changes brought about by Social Media. And for that to happen, it is critical that organizations have proper guidelines for Social Media use by their employees. Employees should be allowed to use Social Media freely within those guidelines. (for IBM’s guidelines, see this link and for an excellent database of Social Media usage policies of 116 organizations, see this link).

I want to end this post by sharing a thought provoking video on how the workforce is changing in Social Media Age. Please watch this video and let me know if companies should restrict employees’ Social Media use.

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: