Cognitive Surplus: Implications for Social CRM

By Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. | Published: July 4, 2010

Clay Shirky is one of the leading thinkers on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and is well known for his talks on Cognitive Surplus. He believes that loose ­collaboration enabled by new technologies (such as Social Media) can change the way society works with the aid of “spare” brainpower.

loose collaboration enabled by new technologies (such as Social Media) can change the way society works with the aid of “spare” brainpower. 

Listen to to his inspiring TED@State talk about how cellphones, Twitter and Facebook can make history and his talk at TED@Cannes on how cognitive surplus will change the world. Thinkers and practitioner of Social CRM can learn many valuable lessons from these two TED Talks.

Enjoy the videos and share your thoughts and comments on how we can leverage Cognitive Surplus in business, especially marketing.

From Search to Share: How Google can win in Social Age

By Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. | Published: June 19, 2010

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).

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.

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. 

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.

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!

Knowledge Management critical in Social CRM

By Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. | Published: June 16, 2010

In my previous post titled Social Media: The New Front End of CRM System, I highlighted how Social Media has empowered customers like never before as they discuss about brands/products and their likes/dislikes on Social Media channels. This presents an invaluable and “never before” opportunity to learn from customers in real-time. For this, companies need to Listen and Learn from what customers are saying and Engage them in meaningful conversations.

It is no longer enough just to have a database as in traditional CRM systems since companies don’t control content and format of information. We need Knowledge-base to effectively learn from customers and engage them on Social Media channel.

Social Media channels can generate tremendous amount of information and customers decide the format and content of information. It is no longer enough just to have a database as in traditional CRM systems since companies don’t control content and format of information. We need Knowledge-base to effectively learn from customers and engage them on Social Media channel. Social Media monitoring is not enough and companies need to invest in Knowledge Management tools to continuously learn and evolve. Knowledge Management comprises of ‘a range of strategies and practices used to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences’.

Social Media monitoring is not enough and companies need to invest in Knowledge Management tools to continuously learn and evolve.

Knowledge Management tools are critical in learning from customers and adapting to change. And unless companies learn and adapt on the basis of inputs received from their customers, it is very difficult to engage them and build trust and brand loyalty, the essence of Social CRM. Only companies that learn and evolve continuously, and engage and respond to their customers’ needs will thrive in Social Age.

What do you think? Do you agree that Knowledge Management is critical in Social CRM? Or you think that is not the case. Please do share your thoughts. Look forward to hearing from you:

Social Media: The New Front End of CRM System

By Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. | Published: June 16, 2010

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.

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) 

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.

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:

Why Social Media will drive adoption of SaaS CRM

By Harish Kotadia, Ph.D. | Published: June 6, 2010

SaaS CRM (Software as a Service) has been around for a while. Salesforce.com, one of the largest service providers in SaaS CRM space has been around for more than ten years and has been listed on NYSE for almost six years now. I can still recall the day Salesforce.com was listed on NYSE, having seen a giant banner with the letters “CRM” (ticker symbol of Salesforce.com) on NYSE building on that day on my way to work in lower Manhattan, where I was working as a CRM Program Manager for a Fortune Top 10 client (on how many occasions you get to see “CRM” banner on NYSE building!)

Very difficult, if not impossible, for any CRM vendor to incorporate all new channels and feeds “locally” for every installation of CRM system. 

But inspite of the fact that SaaS CRM has been around for a decade, it is not as popular or widespread as what some might have expected it to be by now. I think this is about to change. As I noted in my previous post, four independent trends, namely Social Media, Smart Phones, Predictive Analytics and SaaS are now converging to bring about a Paradigm Shift in CRM.

In particular, Social Media will drive adoption of cloud computing/SaaS CRM going forward. Some of the key reasons why I think this is likely to happen are as follows:

  • Social Media channels (like Twitter and Facebook) generate tremendous volume of user generated content created by millions of users. Not possible for CRM system to import/store the data “locally”. This is unlike “traditional” CRM, where data was generated by few users and stored in “local” database. SaaS Model makes it possible to store information in the “cloud” (shared space) and access it from (Social) CRM application “on-demand”
  • Social Media space is changing and evolving rapidly. New Social Media channels and tools are being added almost every day. Very difficult, if not impossible, for any CRM vendor to incorporate all new channels and feeds “locally” for every installation of CRM system. Under the SaaS model, it is not difficult to add new Social Media channels/feeds to the “hosted” (Social) CRM application and make it available to users “on-demand”
  • Service Oriented Architecture and Cloud Computing not only make it easy to integrate applications, but also facilitate “plug and play” modules and add-ons that can dramatically reduce time and cost involved in extending functionality of the application. This can be of great help in Social CRM as Social Media space is changing and evolving rapidly.
    “plug and play” modules and add-ons can dramatically reduce time and cost involved in extending functionality of the application. 

CRM and Analytics application vendors such as Oracle, SAP and SAS should take note of this trend towards SaaS and should extend their service offerings to include CRM SaaS.

What do you think? Please do share your thoughts and comments on impact of Social Media on SaaS CRM.

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  • About Dr. Harish Kotadia


  • Harish Kotadia, Ph.D.


  • Dr. Harish Kotadia has about ten years’ work experience as a hands-on CRM Program and Project Manager implementing CRM solutions for Fortune 500 clients in the US.

    He also has about five years’ work experience as a Research Executive in Marketing Research and Consulting industry working for leading MR organizations.

    Dr. Harish currently lives in Dallas, Texas, USA and works as Social CRM, CRM Consulting Lead for Infosys Technologies. Views and opinion expressed in this blog are his own.






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