The web is currently undergoing a normalization toward social. Base components of the social web such as friending, liking, voting, peer recognition, etc are permeating online presence down to static business sites.  As a result, the 2010 installment of SocialDevCamp Chicago is attracting professionals from a wider variety of industries.  Registrants include web and marketing personnel from healthcare, design, human resources, non-profits, and of course software companies.  Such an eclectic audience might be viewed as a hindrance by some, particularly those believing specialization and exclusivity maximize knowledge gain.  The SocialDevCamp team, however, is excited for the event’s diversity to increase the collective “known unknowns” of the audience.

The term known unknowns is borrowed from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and refers to knowledge “you know that you don’t know.” This is a counterpoint to “unknown unknowns” or knowledge “you don’t know that you don’t know.”  We are not implying that SocialDevCamp has any connection to politics or global affairs but WE ARE suggesting that uniting a diverse group of people via the common interest of the social web can boost curiosity, knowledge, and creativity. For example, a talented PR professional at SocialDevCamp might have executed countless successful social campaigns for large brands without exploring the functionality of software.  Listening to a session on developing apps will probably not transform anyone into a programming genius, but the new knowledge does expand the realm of possibilities for client pitches and also improves future discussions with developers.  Similarly, an experienced developer interested in the social web could gain valuable insights on building a new product by talking to experienced PR professionals.

We hope you will join us on August 14-15 at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s amazing campus center (really – a train runs through the building).  Make sure to investigate the speaker list to determine where you will create new “known unknowns.” A good start will be listening to keynotes from Chris Messina of Google and Ben Huh of the Cheezburger Network.  And in the process, you’ll likely pick up new friendships and hobbies. Check out what the event looked like last year through our recap video:

Andy Angelos is an entrepreneur and musician living in Chicago, Illinois. He is currently working on working on SocialDevCamp Chicago, ScaleWell, and an online communications firm entitled Get Talked About. He is a practitioner of thinking before talking, especially on Twitter.

This is part two of the guest posting series between David Armano (Edelman Digital) and Gia Lyons (Jive Software). Read part one here.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve worked with several clients to plan and implement employee- and customer-facing social business initiatives. I’ve found it ironic that, while many enterprises decide to implement social business software and encourage social business behaviors in an effort to break down silos between employees and employees, employees and customers, and employees and the social Web, they approach their implementations from a very silo’ed perspective. For example, employee-focused pilots tend to take root in a business unit, then IT and/or Employee Communications teams take over when it grows into a strategic initiative. And in the mean time, Marketing and Corporate Communications are leading a completely separate customer- and social Web-facing social business initiative. The left and right hands often don’t meet until their procurement office gets the purchase orders.

From Silos > To Strategic Focus

However, if you can somehow remove these organizational-chart blinders sooner rather than later, the big picture becomes clearer. You can focus on the full business processes you’re trying to evolve, and all of the people who need to participate in social business transformation – employees, prospects, customers, and partners. You’ll then have a better chance of identifying the “from” you wish to leave behind, and the “to” you want to become.

In my new role as Communities Program Manager at Jive, I’m responsible for infusing existing business practices with social business behaviors (among other tasks). So, we focus first on the process and who enacts it before we figure out where social business software can improve or innovate how we do business.

Here are a few business practices we’ve evolved into social business practices, categorized by how most companies are measured:

Revenue Growth

Attracting Leads: From Static Website Content > To Interactive Thought Leadership

To attract more leads, we’ve augmented our static website content – case studies, whitepapers, customer webcasts, etc. – with content from influential and, well, pretty damn smart employees, customers and partners in our customer-facing Jive Community. Most of these mavens and connectors are part of our newly launched Jive Champions program. But, while the content is great, it’s the willingness of these Champions to interact that puts the zing in this particular sauce.

We routinely market this thought leadership content in the social Web. We, of course, “FaceTweetIn” it, but we also use social media monitoring to listen for and then engage folks who are interested in our or our competitors’ products and services. My colleague, Mike Fraietta, listens to 100% of the Twitter stream, plus everything else out there, ready to share our community’s thought leadership when appropriate (he’s one of our Jive Champions, so he dispenses advice and shares his experiences along the way).

I also make sure to market this content and its resulting discussions to our employees in our internal social networking software environment. Sales, Support, Services, Product Management, and our executive staff are very much plugged into our prospects and customers, which means they can propagate our thought leaders’ content in a very targeted fashion to progress a sales opportunity, or increase customer penetration.

We have another social business practice focused specifically on progressing a sales opportunity that includes integration between Salesforce.com, our employee-facing Jive SBS instance, and our customer-facing Jive SBS instance. That’s another blog post, however.

Read more…

As we continue to transition towards new modes of operation in business and towards a new society in general, I have pondered what it will take to make this “shift” proceed smoothly and with optimism. While the structures that we thought to be infallible slowly crumble around us and we acknowledge that we are operating within a fundamentally broken system, it is easy to become reactionary and allow fear to prevent us from embracing change. But how can we use the tools we have to our advantage? In one of humanity’s greatest displays of ingenuity, we have created the Web. How can we now use this communication platform to our advantage, to rebuild trust in each other, to redefine our values and visions, and to create a world in which we can pursue our personal objectives in a way that is mutually beneficial for all?

It’s a tall order, and not one that technology alone can solve. As I’ve stated before - 

Technology is the tool, not the builder. We are the builders.

It is our responsibility to design environments in which the behavior and actions we wish to see can emerge. Before we can take action, I believe a common ground needs to be established where we can come to a place of shared understanding and shared meaning. To that end, I proposed a concept for a conversation and collaboration platform I’ve called “Junto”. The term comes from a club by the same name originally initiated by Benjamin Franklin. The intention behind the meetup was to bring together colleagues and intellectuals to discuss the issues of the day – of business, politics, ethics, and how to better serve the community and evolve as compassionate, consciously aware humans. They identified a core value system which they could all agree upon, one that placed highest regard on mutual improvement and the spirit of inquiry itself. Though friction was inevitable, progress could be made because of a commitment to engage in generative dialogue in service of a larger vision.

While our version of this platform is still being built, ‘The Conversation’ is already underway. I look forward to watching this environment being built for free access on open standards, where live, public video-based dialogue can occur on a global scale. The technology that is needed already exists; what is lacking is the focused intention for the conversation. I’ve been showing what this conversation looks like for months already – I model it in the way I interact on my blog, on Twitter, and on Skype. I’ve even begun recording and posting clips of it. “Junto” is simply a word to represent the essence of the way we can choose to approach problem solving, collaboration, and each other. I believe it is up to us now to decide whether we are ready to be the change we hope to inspire in the world around us.

Venessa Miemis is a futurist, digital ethnographer, and modern day philosopher. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Media Studies at the New School in NYC. The focus of her graduate work is on facilitating trust-building, generative dialogue, and open collaboration in networked environments.  Her blog, Emergent by Design, probes the potential impacts of social technologies on human behavior, thought processes, and the evolution of consciousness. Connect with her on Twitter @venessamiemis.

Originally posted on Britopian from guest poster Jacob Morgan.

Social CRM is a very interesting topic but since the “space” is still relatively undefined, it can be somewhat of a challenge to address. The goal of this post is to keep things simple and high level so please keep that in mind and hopefully we can dive into more in depth in the future.

Let’s put aside terminology, jargon, and abbreviations for a moment and focus on some facts to help us understand exactly what’s going on:

• The fastest growing sector for internet use is communities (+5.4% in a year) (Nielsen “Global Faces on Networked Places”)
• Member communities reach more internet users (66.8%) than email (65.1%) (Nielsen “Global Faces on Networked Places”)
• By 2010 over 60% of Fortune 1000 companies will have some form of online community deployed for CRM purposes (Gartner Group – “Business Impact of Social Computing on CRM)
• “By 2010 more than half of companies that have established an online community will fail to manage it as an agent of change, ultimately eroding customer value. Rushing into social computing initiatives without clearly defined benefits for both the company and the customer will be the biggest cause of failure.” (Gartner Group)
• Trust and transparency are as important to company reputation as the quality of products and services. (Edelman Trust Barometer 2010)

There are plenty of other statistics and pieces of information out there but the key point that needs to be made is that customers now control the business ecosystem. People are talking about you and to you in these communities and these means of communication have now overtaken email.

Let’s also remember that CRM has always been about three things: marketing, sales, and service/support. The new element we are dealing with now is conversations which, in addition to being its own element, also affects marketing, sales, and service/support (to keep things simple I’m using “conversations” to also justify ideation, feedback management, collaboration.) At the end of the day, customers have evolved and businesses need to evolve with them.

What about social media?

Social media has and always will be about channels and tools such as Twitter and Facebook. In the near future we won’t even see “social media teams” at all. They will all be a part of Social CRM teams or integrated into other business functions which in the case of Comcast is the Digital Care team. So now that we have a good idea of what social media is and what the landscape looks like, what about Social CRM?

There are long-winded and confusing definitions that have been used to describe what Social CRM is. Many of those definitions focus on technology and/or social media, which in my opinion are incorrect. I’m not going to offer a definition of Social CRM because quite frankly I think it’s been defined to death. What I will say that is that Social CRM is first and foremost a strategy that positions the social customer as the focal point of how an organization does business. This strategy can be supported by technology but technology always comes second to strategy.

Social CRM does not in any way replace what CRM is or does but it does add the new conversation/relationship based element which previously did not exist. If you want a more detailed explanation, read my Social CRM presentation on Slideshare.

What we are currently seeing in terms of companies jumping on the social media bandwagon is just the “tip of the iceberg.” Eventually companies are going to move into a deeper level of integration which includes processes, frameworks, crisis management plants, change management, and Social CRM strategies (which will be specific for each company). Companies will look at the communities they have built, the friends and networks they have amassed, the channels they engage in (along with the new data silos they created), and the conversations they are having; and then they will say, “how are we making the social customer the focal point of how we do business?”

That’s when Social CRM will become the answer.

Jacob is the principal of Chess Media Group, a social business consultancy that is focused on creating Social CRM, Enterprise 2.0, and Social Media strategies for mid and enterprise size clients. Jacob also authors a popular social business blog. You can connect with Jacob on Twitter @JacobM.

Image credit: Jacob Morgan