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.
Chad - Rappin' On Social Customer Service 