What is a Social Hub? Why is it Important?

 

Thanks for joining me this week on “No Fluff” social media.  Appreciate you reading my blog but I know you are busy so let’s get right to it.

If you are a social media professional, do you find yourself saying……….

“I wish I could listen and engage more on social conversation with my customers but I just don’t have enough resources to handle it all.”

“The tool I use to monitor social media can’t weed out the ‘noise’ and give me just the ‘actionable’ stuff.”

“I feel like I’m missing a huge opportunity to generate sales in social by not routing leads into our Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) so the sales team can respond.”

“I feel even worse that I’m not responsive in responding to my consumers that have had a bad experience and tell the world about it on our Facebook or Twitter account.”

“I wonder if the same consumers engaging on social networks area also calling, emailing or chatting with our brand.”

“It would be fantastic if I could combine a person’s Twitter handle with their other consumer data like name, address and email.”

“I don’t want to respond just because they are influential, but it would be nice if I could automatically detect when an influencer mentions our brand so I could provide a little VIP service.”

“Maybe the thing that frustrates me most is we have PR, marketing, customer service, legal, R&D and our handful of agencies all using a different social listening, engagement and reporting platform.”

If these thoughts sound familiar you certainly aren’t alone. At least not down here in the trenches of social media where I’m at.  Fortunately, one of the emerging trends in 2013 for social professionals is the concept of a Social Hub.

So what is a Social Hub?

Monitor MORE social conversation with LESS people by automatically routing ‘actionable’ social interactions to the right resource. Who couldn’t use a little productivity bump and save a few bucks in their budget?

Start driving social sales by automatically routing sales leads in to your CRM system for your sales team to follow-up on. Cha Ching!

Automatically route those complaints and questions on Facebook and Twitter to your contact center so customer service agents can retain consumers and improve loyalty.

With a Social Hub you can log in to your CRM and see the full 360 view of each consumer with their social data like twitter handle and followers on the same screen as their name and other demographic data.  Wonder if social customers spend more, are they more loyal? Those reports are possible with Social Hub.

I know you don’t want to treat influencers differently just because they have 50k followers but with Social Hub it easy to automatically identify them, maybe give them a little extra attention or quicker response, then sit back and take the credit from all the positive word of mouth driven by those positive mentions.

Granted no social software is best in listening, responding, reporting, and managing social content and that is the primary reason why large organizations have so many different tools.  But isn’t it time for a little teamwork in social media. A Social Hub can help stop the turf wars and get everyone holding hands in the same system.

The bottom line. A Social Hub is a social media business rules engine. It applies business rules to automatically route interactions to the right people to drive the right engagement.

It’s the glue Sales, Marketing and Customer Service need to sell, connect and serve your consumers.

Wow! That sounded a little fluffy didn’t it? Well we speak nothing but the truth here at No Fluff so keep in mind Social Hub is brand new stuff. It’s not perfect. It will take some tuning and continued improvement to work out the kinks.  No different than any other influential emerging technology.

Below is an example of what a 360 view of a consumer can look like after implementing a Social Hub. It includes the consumers contact information, where she last tweeted, social insights on her engagement level, other household members, campaign/promotion activity, customer service case history and more.

See you next week and if you found this information about Social Hub valuable please click one of those fancy social media share buttons below.

Emerging 2013 Trend: Social Command Centers

Ready for some ‘NO FLUFF’ social media discussion straight from the trenches on the front lines?

I’m no executive, I’m no strategist. And I’m most certainly not a social media ninja or guru.

I have dirt under my nails and implementation battle scars.

I manage projects with tight deadlines and tighter budgets.

I help sell and implement actual software that actually has to work.

And I’m on a quest to find the magical social media ROI wizard.

If honest straight talk from a social media source you can trust sounds intriguing, I invite you to join the conversation and discuss, debate, argue, applaud or hopefully at the very least learn a few things that will help make your 9 to 5 just a little more enjoyable!

I’m starting a weekly blog series on social media kicking off with emerging trends for 2013.

Now I said NO FLUFF didn’t I? I’m making a weekly commitment for me not you!

See I really enjoy blogging but it doesn’t come easy.  Therefore I get lazy and undisciplined and don’t do it. But now its in writing, and you are counting on me, every week when you are kind enough to visit my blog you expect new compelling content.

And in 2013 I’m going to do my best not to let you down.

Enough about me, let’s get focused on you and this week’s social media trend, Social Command Centers.  By the way, if you missed my first post in this series, it’s right here –>Social Selling.

First, what is a social command center?

“A room filled with a bunch of fancy flat panel TV’s showing a variety of real-time social media metrics.”

How is that for an academic definition?

For those that require a more sophisticated explanation let’s turn to one of the most highly publicized social command centers deployed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month. (pictured above)

The Social Command Center powered by Salesforce.com’s MarketingCloud measured over 1.2 million conversations across the 4 day conference.

Most Talked About Brand

1. Samsung 72k mentions 2. Sony 49k mentions

Most Talked About Product

1. TV’s 58k mentions 2. Tablets 44k mentions 3. Smart Phones 42k mentions

Most Talked About Influencer

1. Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson 3k mentions 2. will.i.am 2k mentions 3. Tim Tebow 1k mentions

Other interesting facts. #Android was the most used hashtag, 35-44 year old men outnumbered women 2 to 1, and @CNET was the most retweeted account doubling second place @Mashable.

The CES Command Center was monitoring and visually representing in real-time on multiple huge flat screens the brand and product conversations, celebrity influencers, key hash tags and Twitter accounts all backed by demographic data like sex and age.

Its like the front page of the Sunday New York Times. There are thousands of words that make up the paper but its the headlines on the front page that grab your attention.  A Social Command Center is driven by thousands of social conversations but attempts to provide those attention grabbing headlines.

Let’s dig a little deeper why Social Command Centers will continue to trend in 2013.

First, another definition, a Social Command Center is a dedicated area inside a company where a social media team can monitor the online conversation about their brand or industry.

1. Who is Talking About You?

2. What are They Saying About You vs Your Competitors?

3. How Much are They Saying About You?

4. Where are They Saying it About You? (Geographically)

All at an executive summary level. We all know those short attention spans!

So Why Is a Social Command Center Important?

1. If customers are talking about your brand everyday, shouldn’t you create a central, visible, symbolic area to listen?

2. If your customers are talking about your brand everyday, shouldn’t you have a hub where the people serving those customers, your employees, can listen, learn and engage?

3. Breakdown the ridiculous barriers of ‘who owns social media’ and finally get marketing, PR, legal, product R&D and of course customer service in the same physical room! Or should I say sandbox with how childish this discussion has become!

4. A social command center, when the shit hits the fan, and you are dealing with a real crisis, will help bring technology, process and people together. It is absolutely the best way to triage and execute workflow for social response and engagement, and fast!

5. Dell has a social command center, launched by Michael Dell himself. Why? Because he wanted to make a clear cultural statement that listening and responding to customers has his personal commitment.  Over 10k social media certified employees later, I’d say the command center continues to help drive their customer focused culture.

6. Plain and simple it provides visibility! And its sexy! Who doesn’t love looking at 65′ flat screen tv’s!

7. Social command centers translate for any kind of business; B2B (Cisco), B2C (Gatorade), Non Profit (Red Cross) or Education (Clemson University).

I love the Red Cross story. Why is a social command center so important to Red Cross? 80% of people expect emergency responders to monitor social, 33% expect a response in 1hr!

House fires to hurricanes, Red Cross used a social command center to respond to 70k crisis last year, often sharing life saving info.

BTW, Red Cross is looking for social media volunteers for their social command center. Find out more here http://ow.ly/gRCIn

Thanks again for reading my blog, see you here next week! NO FLUFF! If it’s not too much trouble please click the Subscribe button just to the left of this post if having this type of post automatically emailed to you would be more convenient.

Did you learn something about social command centers and why they are important, if so leave a comment.

Here is a 3 minute video on the famous Social Command Center from Dell.

How Brands Can Sell More TV’s Using Social Media

Since I’m looking for a new TV and in celebration of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas I thought I’d blog about how brands can sell more TV’s using social media.  Below is my actual tweet at 10.36pm on Jan. 9th. The rest of the twitter conversation is completely made up.

ChadSchaeffer 10:36pm via HootSuite Going to buy new TV soon. Suggestions? 55″ so it can be hung in built in. Plasma vs LED? Wireless for apps obviously.

Panasonic sees my tweet and replies……

@chadschaeffer Who are you rooting for? Is there anything more fun then a new TV? Man cave or family room? How big will the wife let you go?

@panasonic Uggh! Cowboys fan. TV for SB party in family room. thinking 55”. Want wireless for netflix, youtube, amazon, app store.

@chadschaeffer Link to cnet TV reviews http://ow.ly/gez, link SB party recipes http://ow.ly/cke, 2 Excedrin for being Cowboy fan

@panasonic you must be Eagles fan! Looks like P55VT50 is highly rated.

@chadschaeffer If we are lucky enough to earn your business here is link to P55VT50 http://ow.ly/gez. Twitter code #TW01 15% discount.

@panasonic Wow! I think you did earn my business. Great service. BTW..love the hot wing recipe!

@chadschaeffer Please send us a pic of your new Panasonic once it arrives. Questions just tweet us, here to help. Enjoy the game and wings.

My last tweet would probably mention @panasonic

If you are looking for new TV check out reviews on @panasonic. Plus they have awesome service on Twitter. Bought P55VT50. Please RT!

Now I only have about 1,300 followers on Twitter, 425 Facebook friends and a few hundred people read my blog.

So my reach is 2,000 people.

Perhaps 1% of my followers read and RT and they each have a reach of 2,000 people. 20 x 2,000 is an online reach 40,000.

Panasonic would likely RT my last comment to their 16,000 followers, again same ratio of 1% read and RT and their reach is 320,000.

Total online reach is 362,000.

Now 1% would be way too high a number, 3,620 people are not going to run out and buy a Panasonic.   But is 1% of 1% too high?

Could an interaction like the one above influence the buying decision of 36 people? Maybe but probably still high. Would 3 people be reasonable and at $2,000 for the P55VT50 would you agree the return on investment of 3 or 4 tweets is worth $6,000?

Also keep in mind this does not take into account my offline influence through positive word of mouth when I share my incredible experience with Panasonic.

But here is the hundred thousand dollar question. How many total TV buying conversations are on Twitter everyday leading up to Christmas and through the Super Bowl.  I’m guessing hundreds of thousands.

I smell opportunity!

Ready for the million dollar question? How much is it worth to the Panasonic brand to just be social? To connect with people talking about TV’s? To engage and have conversations about TV’s? Or simply be nice and helpful?

Making a Career Change! Am I a Sell Out?

If you’re like me, you’ve had one company that you’ve always admired, always wanted to work for. 

Growing up most little boys want to be firemen or policemen.  As teenagers we want to be professional athletes.  Finally we realize musicians get all the girls.

Since I can’t sing, I’m slow, barely 5’9”, overweight and would probably shoot myself or fall off a ladder before I could actually help anybody I chose a more traditional path as a businessman.  

Fortunately throughout my career I have been able to do what I’m passionate about every day.  For me that is customer service.  What gets me jumping out of bed in the morning is helping large companies treat their customers better. 

For customer service professionals the emergence of social media is an exciting opportunity.  It’s a new, easier way for consumers to interact with brands and consumers are much more empowered. 

I couldn’t be more excited to announce a new career change for 2013.  I’m joining the Marketing Cloud Team at Salesforce.com.  I’ll be helping the world’s largest companies become more social, connect with their customers and have more success with social media marketing and advertising activities.

If you know me well you might be thinking “Chad is going to work for a big company? Did he sell out?”

Salesforce.com has over 100,000 customers, 10,000 employees and about $3 billion in revenue so it is a big company.

It’s also #27 on Fortune’s List of Best Companies to Work For.

Forbes named Salesforce.com the most innovative company in the world ahead of firms Amazon.com, Apple and Google.

It’s average 5 year revenue growth is 40%, also ahead of Amazon.com, Apple and Google.

Barron’s named Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff the most respected CEO in the world.

They are one of the most philanthropic organizations in the Fortune 500 with the 1/1/1 model. Salesforce.com employees spend 1% of their time on community service, they give 1% of all software/services to non-profits and donate 1% of earnings to charity. Please check out the 90 second video at the bottom of my blog, its inspiring.

Personally, Salesforce.com  gives me the best opportunity to build Brand: Chad Schaeffer.  I really enjoy blogging, speaking and tweeting about helping brands become more social and Salesforce is the biggest and best platform to get my message out. 

The interview process was rigorous, I spoke with over 10 people, every one of them smarter and more successful than me so I’m going to learn a lot and build a strong network.

Finally, although I have some expertise in social customer service I don’t have much experience with social marketing and advertising and I can’t wait to learn new skills.

I’m humbled to get this opportunity but I also plan to bring a few things to the table for Salesforce.com that I’ve learned from working at small companies. 

Despite 100,000 customers, any client I work with will think they are the one and only Salesforce customer.  I don’t take any customer big or small for granted and hope this is a welcome addition to the professional services culture.

Small companies are just plain hungrier, they want it more, they go the extra mile for their clients, they surprise and delight their customers for no reason except it’s the right thing to do.  I can’t see why Salesforce couldn’t use a little fire in their belly?

Speaking of fire, I will let everyone in on a secret very few people know. 

This will actually be my second stint at Salesforce.com.  Hopefully it will last longer than a couple of hours like the first one did.  On August 13th, 2006 I accepted an offer to join the Salesforce team. 

That night we had friends over for a BBQ to celebrate my new job and we made a fire in our outdoor pit. 

The next day I was cleaning up ashes that spilled on to the patio and threw them away.  At 5am the next morning my family was woken by smoke alarms.  I grabbed my 1-year-old baby, ran out of the house and watched my home burn to the ground. 

We lost everything.

At that moment, although it was my dream job, life had a different path and I decided the timing wasn’t right to change careers. 

That path has now taken me back to Salesforce.com and I can’t wait to start making an impact.  I’m excited to meet my new teammates, work with new technology and build relationships with new clients. 

So did I sell out? After 6 and half years I think things were meant to be don’t you?

And no….no fire in the fire pit or fire-place tonight!

I hope 2013 is filled with your dreams coming true, thanks for reading my blog.