Do we have to talk about “conversation”…?

It’s the basis of humans living together. It’s the essence of people getting in touch with each other…, and finally doing business together. It builds the fundament of collaboration, of cooperation. It’s the breath of the age of social. What is “it”…? Well, it’s not rocket-science. And still it seems to be the never-ending challenge for companies, for brands, and especially for people who are running the business. It is… conversation.

“Often I wish people understood the word “Conversation” – To start a successful collaboration we must learn to lose fear of networking.”

Do managers really have to talk about “conversations”?
Yes, we do! Don’t you agree? And we all know why. We are getting sad about the way managers (don’t) encourage themselves to engage in conversations. How often do managers not respond to a written letter? How often did they not pick up your phone? How often have they not replied to emails? How often not shown any reaction to Facebook, Twitter and the likes?

Hello managers – wake up! There is somebody trying to have a conversation with you? You cannot argue what somebody wants before having listened to them, can you?! Ignoring is so easy and it happens so often. You can do better. You can participate. And your words have significance when you take part in a conversation.

How will traditional managers get new inspiration? How will they generate new connections? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Do brands really have to discover how to do conversations?
Yes, they do! They need to figure out what they want to be: person or economic construct. Active or passive conversationalists? Motivator or creator? Former sender or modern vendor? Brands might build a consitent dialogue but only value their opinion, playing according to their rules. Listening is where relevance brings brands back in the driver’s seat, and not making them sit still and beg that the driver (who ever that consumer is) knows the way towards to the targets.

Productivity, creativity, innovation, thought-leadership and ROI counts for brands. This M&M philosophy often goes straight against lose conversation. Brands have been shaped and formed around formal structures (organisations and meetings), planned grouping (= not Groupon but agendas), lead work-flows (step-by-step approach). In earlier years, conversations came with a coffee break, some biscuits, a cigarette on the floor. Conversation today comes with an email, a tweet, or a status update on LinkedIn at your desk. And they appear different in character and tonality, “the conversation mode is changing” as Eric Schmidt called it at the DLD11 in his augmented humanity speech.

How will brands find innovation in the future? How will brands get response to products and services? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Do companies really have to reinvent the human dialogue?
Yes, they do! Companies are made from (and made by) people. People always had not enough time in their lives. Conversations cost time. Time builds trust and drive efficiency. Email took us time, too. We had to learn how to communicate online. Not now anymore. We know how it works. It is just a different platform or technology every crucial department of your business will be using in the future, called Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Quora or blogs. They will control our marketing efficiency, our sales opportunities, our upscale, our revenue sheets. And we won’t even know, when we don’t embrace and value the conversation on the social web.

Power to “processes, people, potential and possibilities” means opening up our mindset to a new way of conversation. A way that shows the value of starting the talk. A way that shows clients how companies rate their review, input and sharing of brand messages and product conversations. Customer just want to get the feeling that it is not a maschine out there they are buying from. They want to see the personal human touch that makes mistakes, laughs about themselves and answers when getting questions.

How will companies renew their strategy, their tactics, their visions…? How will companies build products that their customers want? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Spot On!
Conversations are the basis of your future business-strategy, as well as your web-strategy. This is nothing new, you knew it before. Companies have them multiple times every day. Brand can get engaged in them every minute on a day in the future. And you even more. Every minute you can have the chance to have conversations today. The only difference is that conversation is also happening online – not on the phone, not via fax, not via mail, not on the floor, or in meetings. You just have to embrace conversations… it is that easy.

Study: Social Media still at early stages in companies in 2010

A recent study by SmartBrief and Summus on the State of Social Media for Business 2010 shows how companies use Social Media at the moment. More than 6.000 business decision makers took part and there are some trends that can be seen here. And what did we expect…? Social Media is still at early stages.

Most companies (66,5%) use Social Media 18 months now. Almost half of them are “playing” with Web2.0 tools, only 5,4% work with them for more than 3 years. Most companies focus on the top 5 Social Media tools: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogs. The reason why they use these tools? As most of their clients are to be found at these places. Although they admit that they also use some niche platforms like FlickR.

Publishers knew it before brands: It takes time to make Social Media usage efficient. The study states that after 2 years companies see the value in Social Media and make it an integral part of their business strategy. Nevertheless, most of them predominatly still use it to raise awareness for their brands (no wonder if 60% of Americans and Canadians follow brands as of promotions and coupons, which an Empathica Consumer Insights research tells us). They talk about product or service information, spread their messages, and don’t rate the conversation with the clients. By not listening they waste a lot of energy and leave the real benefit of the user input behind.

One question that could be quite interesting for a discussion is why it takes so long for companies and brands to adopt and get used to Social Media. Is it because they don’t collaborate with Social Media agencies or because they like to work with internal resources? As we can see from the results, it could also be another factor: One third is not in the position to decide about Social Media, 33% see data security as an issue and 15% saw resistance from the managemetn a critical point.

Spot On!
In my eyes the two most interesting topics for hindering Social Media efforts could be minor trust and no understanding of efficiency of Social Media strategy. Only 7,3% see their strategy as very revenue generating. 14,2% rate their Social Media strategy efficient. Just 14,7% said their companies do measure Social Media efforts, while more than 33% don’t measure at all. At least Social Media is not seen as a fad anymore. If companies don’t understand the long-tail of Social Media, the achieved results won’t meet the expectations of the management. Although Facebook and Twitter seem to be the main platforms for Social Media use as of their reach (intensity), the real benefit could be for more companies by understanding the real impact of the community ideology, blogs, bookmarking sites, or in the future location-based social networks.

The new ROI – If I only had time…

Sometimes I am asking myself where the social web world, tries to take us… Companies want to have us as personal social advocates, want us to spread and share their latest marketing message, or that we engage in their digital embassy. They create offline virtual and online fitting rooms (here and here) to take our time for brand passion and fashion sharing. Time is becoming the main ROI figure of the future, the gold companies try to get from their customers in the future.

Have we ever talked to companies in the past? Have you started communication with them without any purchase intent or customer service issue? in the last ten years before we started getting engaged in the social web maniac, I have not… The social web, clever smartphone capabilities and new search technology make us doing these things. In the past, I was playing football and golf, going out in bars, meeting friends, seeing TV shows and reading books and magazines. And I still love doing this… though I am always chasing time to accommodate a number the things I like doing.

My magazine rack is full of issues from Business Punk, GQ, Brand Eins, company brochures and other fashion materials. Yes, I stll see much value in print reading. On my bedside table, nearly 8 books to review try to fight for the pool position (and I just found another one I would like to read). And in my car, I have found the latest program for LeWeb10 where I will be going and know how much material to review, read and learn about I will find in these two days.

I read my list of RSS-feeds, check my Facebook updates or try to follow the main news and social influencers on twitter. I try to share as much information as possible on Delicious. I do networking on LinkedIn or on XING. Many companies and brands call me their fan on Facebook. And yes, there are some more social topics I try to get engaged in. And in the centre of this social activity stands this blog…

Have I mentioned that I am living a traditional father’s life. I do have a job to do (with quite some traveling) plus look after my family, my lovely boys and my wife. They want to talk to me, have their “airtime”. They like to get some decent minutes of awareness on the playground of life. I remember when my father was at home and we had time to talk to him. And then, he had forgotten everything we said after some minutes. I see some danger to fall into his patterns of family communication as well…

Life is becoming more and more challenging these days with the evolution of the social web, social media and all formats of social networking next to our common daily habits. Although I am trying to live the 36-hours day with respect to trying what is possible as a human being. One sentence jumps to my mind and keeps repeating itself every hours I am awake…

If I only had time… If I only had time. If I only… If…

No, the social web has not yet conquered the last corner of my sleeping soul although there are companies that already envision the extreme world of social media in the future. Still, there is evidence how less efficiency could create a better work-life-balance. At some stage, in order to remain successful business people we probably need a personal web manager in the future. This person could become the master of the new ROI calclation in employment output.

If anyone feels like me, share your view and let’s discuss. Tell us how you manage your business time today…

The Social CEO – Study offers insight in Top 50 companies

A new study “Socializing Your CEO: From (Un)Social to Social” by Weber Shandwick found out the majority of CEOs from the world’s largest companies —64%— are not social. The definition of “not social” means that the world’s top 50 companies are not engaging online with external stakeholders. It shows us that most of them are not doing publicly visible communications activities.

93% of CEOs in the world’s top 50 companies communicated externally in traditional fashion. These CEOs were quoted in the major global news and business publications and 40% follow the tactic to participate in speaking engagements to an external, non-investor, audience.

“Strong evidence exists that CEOs are not silent in these turbulent times. They are extensively quoted in the business press, frequently deliver keynote speeches at conferences and participate in business school forums. But when it comes to digital engagement externally, CEOs are not yet fully socialized, often with good reason.” (…) “As we continue to track the rise of the Social CEO and chief executives become more comfortable with the new media, we expect that this will change and change fast.” Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick

The key research findings of a Social CEO were…

- Social CEOs lead companies with higher reputational status. Most admired company CEOs in the study had greater online visibility profiles than less admired company CEOs (41% vs. 28%).
- Social CEOs are multi-channel users when they engage online. 72% used more than one channel (on average 1.8 channels).
- 60% of Social CEOs were American-based companies, 12% were EMEA-based.

“There are several reasons why CEOs are not more Social. Time is better spent with customers and employees, their reputations are at an all-time low among the general public, the return on investment has not yet been proven, legal counsel tends to caution against it and anything that smacks of ‘celebrity CEO’ is a no-win. (…) In this increasingly digital age, CEOs should embrace the value of connectivity with customers, talent and other important stakeholders online. With 1.96 billion Internet users around the world, CEOs should be where people are watching, reading, chatting and listening,” said Gaines-Ross.

Spot On!
In their study Weber Shandwick recommends “six rules of the road” for CEOs to enhance their social reputation and interactivity.
1. Identify best online practices of your peers and best-in-class social CEO communicators. Then establish and stretch your own comfort zone.
2. Start with the fundamentals (e.g., online videos or photos). Inventory and aggregate existing executive communications for repurposing online.
3. Simulate or test-drive social media participation. Understand what you’re getting into before you go live. Start internally although recognize that internal employee communications spreads externally seamlessly.
4. Decide upfront how much time you can commit to being Social. It can range from once a week to once a month to once a quarter or less often. Be your own best judge of what feels right.
5. Craft a narrative that captures the attention of audiences that matter and humanizes your company’s reputation.
6. Accept the fact that Getting Social needs to be part of your corporate reputation management program. Purposefully manage your social reputation as well as your corporate reputation.

Is customer orientation and focus the strategy for a succesful CEO future, or the social approach gaining reputation? Are there other rules you would recommend? How about the efficiency topic – gaining or losing time and productivity? Either way, let us know…

News Update – Best of the Day

We all know that men and women are different – also in their social web usage. But did you know that men are shopping more online than women in Korea (would love to see European results…), while women check their Facebook status first in the morning? Read more in the studies by Rankey and Oxygen and Lightspeed Research.

Some more (bizarr?) findings of the Oxygen and Lightspeed Research study on women aged 18-34…
- 79% are fine with kissing in photos
- 50% are fine with being Facebook friends with complete strangers
- 42% think it’s okay to post photos of themselves intoxicated
- 21%check Facebook in the middle of the night

Starting to set up your social media presence is a difficult thing. Having the sustainable efficiency in the back of your mind and the right strategy in place is the second, and probably the more important one. Shannon Paul gives some excellent advice on how to develop a roadmap for your social strategy…

What do you prefer .NET and JAVA? This short film tells a funny story about a family that gets into a family chaos on the boy’s question: “Why do we always use .NET?”. Watch it and then decide anew…

News Update – Best of the Day

Our daily business values are changing – especially work-life-balance, efficiency, innovation and compensation will be re-defined in the future. Talent seeking becomes a new challenge for businesses. But how will the future workplace look like? What are the impacts of the emergent workforce? The recent “The 2009 Emerging Workforce Study” paper gives some interesting insights.

Some key-findings…
- The mean age of emergent workers is 42 years old and male to female ratio is 57%:43%
- The average emergent employee works 44.3 hours per week.
- 95% of workers today prefer a job that allows them to think creatively
- The overwhelming majority (86%) of workers say their most important priority in their career is maintaining work/life balance, yet 36% of workers aren’t satisfied with balance.
- Time and flexibility are extremely/very important to 61% of all workers, but only 36% say they are satisfied with their time and flexibility.

And there is a huge gap between the employeer’s interest and the employees expectation…

All brands and companies want to have engaging Facebook pages once they have decided to set one up and get involved in social networks. Sarah Hartshorn put together a nice list of 12 Facebook apps that will get people more engaged in it.

The World Cup 2010 in South Africa is going to be kicked off in some days. The world is excited and dads will all spend a lot of time in front of the TV. In order for all parents not to “forget” their kids during the next five weeks, I share this wonderful commercial with you. Continue making your kids your stars!!!

2010: Online ROI – a challenge for companies

The solution to the following question is complex: How should companies measure online ROI in future? In times of display, affiliate and search advertising the measure of success has been kept very simple. Page impressions, clicks, leads, sales – that was it. With the evolution of social media the topic of online measurement has become more complex.

In the Pre-Web 2.0 era, there was a formula that has put everything else into the shadows. It was based on the clic. Obviously still many CMOs see this as the crucial measurement factor of their online activities. The click was considered the basis of the digital marketing manifesto.

The formula of the previous online ROI went something like this…

Page impressions and clicks to convert click-through rate that generates leads and ultimately (hopefully) sales.

And this formula also corresponded to the value in the online marketing of cost-per-mile (CMP), cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-lead (CPL), cost-per-sale (CPO). Simple, clear, pragmatic.

Marketers were satisfied, the sales man less (mostly) due to inferior leads and associated fluctuating revenues. There was a lack of transparency. The management is considered to be overstretched. 2010 everything will be different.

In 2009, the main German association for publishers and buyers, the IVW, killed the power of the page impression, the visit is the ‘Golden Surfer’ from now on. An English study by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) is following and strengthens the effectiveness of the ‘silent click’ and the value of the content and context.

Moreover Eyeblaster invents, and especially Dean Donaldson promotes this, the Dwell Time. Efficiency measurement of web activity becomes a challenge for companies. And if we take it to the top companies do need an eye-movement study to measure the time-based attention, the way we know it from the print era (similar to copy-test).

Another challenge is that there are numerous social media activities added, and here we are looking for a reliable measurement method to justify the expenses. In Germany the Association of Social Media and Social Media is quickly introducing a new currency: share of voice or share of buzz. A conceptually coherent model , but in practice is questionable in its feasibility, management and marketing relevance. A similar measure as the CTR won’t be found in the social media industry, probably still for a long time. Probably not even 2010…

Let’s illustrate the complexity of measuring social media ROI at a viral campaign, the buzz generated by social media coverage and results. Previously, the click was relevant. It was a unique short-term assessment without measurement of long-term effect. With the ended of the campaign the measurement time was over. Whether the click came from the desired target group of bookers ranked in it’s relevance secondary.

In a viral campaign, however, due to the target-transparency, the question of efficiency measurement is completely different. All these values are quite different in context and only win in their semantic and concluding statement its relevance for the advertiser.

Questions arise such as …

How much time commitment gives the user his social activities and the commitment to the company?
How do I rate detailed comments on blogs, micro-blogs or social networks?
How to evaluate an Re-Tweet in this context?
From whom are the comments and actions coming?
How does buzz spread via this person and to whom?
How relevant is the target audience about the distribution for the advertisers?
How to integrate ratings in the measurement methog on video- or evaluation platforms?
What about the statements that I can not even see, because a front door at Social Networks is obstructing my access to the results?

Without individual-subjective definion of measuring units, each company, every Social Media ROI measurement is worthless, and social media marketing measurement fortiori. The metric must be defined in the relevant context of the desired outcome best possible – in other words the individual needs of the corporate strategy or intention of each social media activity has to be adjusted from case to case. Increase in visits to the website? Generation of Fans or Followers? Couponing on a community? Knowledge on brand confessions obtained? Or actually generate online sales?

Each profile of an active social median, its social graph, in its sustainability and its recommended value of inside and outside “of his” social community has different weight. Determine where the true relevant measurement is the responsibility of the advertiser. At the Webcific I have called the new monetary views as “cost-per-commitment” to provide the relativity of the word in question and to make clear the relevance of the word, but for the future.

Commitment begins with the communication to customers and does not stop when clients order at the company’s shop. However, maintaining the commitment of campaign spending via email or traditional online activities still is essential. As customers loyalty runs outside the social media spheres, too. Defining commitment as a measure of social media may be based different on the company blog than on Facebook or Twitter.

A crucial factor in the social web is always forgotten: Traditional marketing campaigns have a beginning and an end. That’s when Social Web communication starts…

The CPI formula in times of social web might be …

Reach and engagement convert to social activities that lead to multipliers, and (probably generate) revenues from sales.

The future of online ROI measurement should be driven on the basis of how much communication output must a company deliver through a variety of social media, until the customers brand promise is gaining credibility and creates customer communications. This leads to commitment, which I have just referred to as “social activities” that need to be defined. They are the drivers of the talks for the multiplication of messages from the public relations, marketing and sales department.

Spot On!
Measuring the Social Web ROI is a long term process. Metrics from shares, posts, comments, ratings or Tweets replace the old click-metric. For the new metrics remain the web’s property, thanks to social search integration. Communication is dynamic and it may be that the pure bookmark result of yesterday, generates many social activities and conversations tomorrow.
Who dominates social communication that generates brand-vangelist peers (as I always like to call it). From anonymous platforms users become now fans, followers, blog readers and community members. They all have names that are transparent, a huge advantage of today’s web-talks. In the decisive moment, when they start participating in the discussing companies can find important multipliers of the message of a brand or a company, and therefore define important parameters. But companies should remember that communication can take place anywhere and adjust according to their web strategy. This modern weaving culture should incorporate engagement metrics or policies between sales and marketing. Otherwise, the effort of monitoring, measuring, analyzing is worth nothing, and will not meet the result of the challenge of 2010.

Study: CMOs tied up by internal obstacles

Facing significant challenging markets, chief marketing officers (CMO’s) understand their marketing operation models are in strong need of improvement when it comes to increasing strategic success of their businesses. Numerous internal obstacles such as cross-functional feedback loops, corporate cultures, poor adoption of customer relationship management systems, inter-departmental politics, and a lack of adequate data and information systems tie up their efficiency and the possibilities for customer engagement, says a recent study from the CMO Council

The study Calibrate How You Operate states a lack of top management support and not having ownership of profit and loss responsibilities are other relevant issues company CMO’s are struggling with. Marketer chiefs are afraid of their inability to implement needed marketing platforms and automation processes which they need to effectively support the company’s strategic growth initiatives.

“Marketing operations directly affect a company’s go-to-market strategies and other strategic growth initiatives. Unfortunately, Calibrate How You Operate reveals a disturbing trend: companies are not spending nearly as much time, energy and budgetary resources as necessary on marketing operational improvement to heighten their competitiveness and bolster their top and bottom lines.” adds Donovan Neale-May.

One problem of the modern CMO is that the company is not monitoring the competitors efficiency which is mirrored in the question “To what degree are competitive best practices being analyzed, tracked or adopted by your marketing team?” 43% said “somewhat”, 15% “not at all.”, 32% “moderately” and just 9% answered “extensively.”

“Companies don’t track and analyze what their competitors are doing,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “What we’re not seeing is the mindset to do this.”

An interesting finding from a web-marketing perspective is that CMO’s will continue to invest in web-centric platforms including email campaign management, web content management, eMetrics and web analytics platforms. Just 8% will challenge e-procurement and strategic sourcing topics.

Spot On!
Instead of focusing on their strategic goals, CMOs are being pricked by daily business efforts of tactical work. The question remains if these tactics are of an old-fashioned nature and like a never-ending “random act of marketing”. The good point is that customer engagement and customer centric communications are spot on for marketers. One sign for a shift towards targeted, focused and precise communications. The interesting point about this topic could be whether optimizing customer engagement, including improving go-to-market strategies and efficiency and delivering a unified and consistent message as the focus of CMO’s interest also bear a social media component in mind. A question that is not answered by the study.

The CMO Council study polled 406 marketing executives between November and January (online questionnaire and phone interviews).

This is a Twitter wake-up call! Well done, Jim…

Some days ago, I read a comment on another blog moaning “OMG – not another Twitter post!” Bearing this in mind, I now reply with a post to Jim Connolly’s clever decision. The marketing expert who deleted over 20.000 followers some days ago.

So, my comment is…’YES, a critical Twitter article – finally somebody did it.’

One of our editors asked me the other day: ‘Why would you use Twitter?’ I replied…

Imagine you have a mobile phone.
Imagine there is nobody in your address book.
Imagine you have forgotten all numbers.
And, what is the value of your mobile phone in this case? That’s were you start to twitter…

So, I thought about the comparison and came to the conclusion. There is a big benefit of a mobile phone compared to Twitter. The communication barrier which is called the ‘Dial’ button. Although you have a lot of people in your business ‘communication network’, you just talk to them actively when it’s the appropriate time. But people love to listen to Twitter in a passive mode. This is becoming a critical efficiency issue…

Jim summarizes about his future Twitter balance… “BUT this time, I am only following friends, clients and contacts, (which will be quite a large number in itself.)”. Yes, he is popular and back at far more than 500 followers again…

Spot On!
Let me ask… Do we all know what the critical topic with Twitter is? It can be a ‘time thief’ where we spend hours killing the efficiency of our productive work output by trying to invest in our knowledge, in our vanity, in being the first to know and in our ‘trendsetter image’? Ah yes,we can learn a lot from Jim’s decision. It’s a wake-up call, not only for the Twitterati…

Social Media: nightmare or gift for customer service?

When we lived in the offline world 1.0, customer service was already a dangerous topic for companies – still a small one though. If you failed to meet customer expectations you risked to damage your company and product image but word-of-mouth was not at an adult stage.

With the rise of social media the risk of poor customer service quality increases drastically. And some of us already know of the benefit and costs that might arise. For those who don’t, take your time to read this post and try to become a change agent in the favor of customer service inside your company.

In our times of customer generated media, customer service will become the key element for a successful business. Especially when companies are taking into account that the customer rules the marketing communication process. The customer not only talks to peers, friends and relatives. With social media elements the customer becomes the ‘silent’ marketing and pr driver. Thus, the customer 2.0 turns the marketing communication process upside down and probably sometime in the near future will make customer service more important than marketing.

Let me tell you a story…
Some months ago, I bought a pocket camera. It showed a bug after 5 month of not even intense usage. The manufacturers customer service told me to send it to a reseller in order to get it done as quickly as possible. Three weeks later (!) the camera came back. Result: It did not work anymore. So, I addressed the online marketing manager who advised me to buy his product. He passed me on to customer service that send me an ‘urgent inquiry’ mail voucher for the reseller. This urgent voucher did not perform as an urgent customer care reply – but as a nightmare. After another 3 weeks (!) I still had not heard back of my camera. Again asking the online marketing manager via a business network ended in an email from customer support, telling me ‘as of illness… and difficult product availability …lalala… we could not send the camera back quicker’. The online marketing manager did not reply at all but clicked on my profile in the business network.

What do you think of that story? Take your time…
It definitely shows that this company does not know the rules of modern communication 2.0. Can companies apologize because they don’t have the resources to care about their customers? Or because they don’t have the right logistic that supports their resellers with service quantities? Definitely not – not even in the offline world 1.0. And sending an email through a third person is odd, is like having forgotten the value of a client, is like hiding behind the walls of customer service 1.0, right?

Companies need to start treating customer service as an investment rather than an expense if they want to see social media as a gift for customer service. With the rise of social media even more: A negative-minded customer is sometimes just a few words away from changing into a customer evangelist.

Seen form a superficial perspective, social media and customer service doesn’t make money in the beginning. In the long-run, we all know the power that it has in terms of word-of-mouth efficiency. This positively influences your image, your brands, your products, your sales, your customer loyalty, your employees and finally your share holders.

Social media as well as customer care is an investment in the future of communication. For this online marketing manager sites like eBay and amazon.com still seem to be in the focus of the sales process. Customer service is an ‘not very much loved’ alien department somewhere under ground floor level. And even if this marketing manager and his pr manager have great contacts to editors of publishing houses that could help protect and build up their image, customers would be doubtful after having read such stories. Social media is changing customer service rules and the way companies must monitor their image in the market. Just think about what I could have said…

‘They paid attention to me, they heard me, they showed me that I matter.’

What a success in terms of customer service for a company could that have been?

Spot On!
Social media will become the future customer service access point. Just take a look at a study in the US from end of last year showing the future of customer service and what clients want…

- Companies should use social networks to solve my problems (43%)
- Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%)
- Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%)

Obviously, the customer 2.0 is the more uncomfortable customer for companies than in the offline world 1.0. But not if you invest properly in the modern communication process 2.0. Just imagine I had stated the company name in this post (as much as you will ask, this will not leave my word-of-mouth). Or if I had shared this story with the name on Twitter, Facebook, XING or LinkedIn? The reach that social media generates of some individuals 2.0 is massive and thinking about some of my followers, I do see loads of influential social medians with an even bigger reach – bigger than most of today’s well-known magazines. So, social media can become a nightmare. For those who see the options of the investment it will be a gift.

PS: The Bank of America already does combine social media and customer service with a Twitter Account.

About the survey… The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study presents the findings of an online survey conducted September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 years of age and older. The margin of error associated with a sample of this size is ± 3%.

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