Michael MaozWe have a terrific Canadian client who is right now embroiled in a Twitter nightmare. Like in the example of a global fast-food purveyor, and a large construction-equipment company before them, Twitter tweaked their sense of themselves before a crowd of millions. To this I’d say that, like Doug Adams’ wonderful Hitchhiker’s Guide, your Social Media project should have, “.…the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.’
Whether you are a veteran or new at Social Media, it is likely that your competition is on equal footing. If they are not, then use their superior ability as a classroom and as a carrot to obtain greater funding. But why did I mention the NCAA Men’s team, Syracuse? Because they are just a small example of how you can overcome injuries, or even the absence of your star center, and still continue forward. I have no idea if they’ll go much further, but the point is that even with the myriad setbacks, they have used leadership, teamwork, and skill to overcome deficits that would swamp the fragile craft most teams sail upon.
Social Media projects are a bad idea unless they are in the context of a Social CRM program. The difference? In a project, we have a beginning, middle, and end. In a program we have a beginning that can start in the middle of another process, but iteratively, through small heuristic steps, we test, learn, analyze and improve. There is no end point, but instead we live Zeno’s Paradox happily. It is not the arriving from point A to point B, it is the journey, taken together with the members of your organization in concert with your partners and customers.
Suggestion: CIOs are not going to ‘own’ Social initiatives. At best you can be the conductor and lead violin. Marketing, Customer Service, Logistics, Product Development and the Customer are going to be your orchestra, and the determinants of your success or failure.
To all who came down to Orlando for the Customer360 last week: thank you so much!! I got to have 24 individual sessions with some of you, and your insights were encouraging and rewarding for us.
Category: CIO CRM Gartner Customer 360 Summit Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership Social CRM Social Networking Strategic Planning Twitter Tags:
2 responses so far ↓
1 seamus walsh March 19, 2012 at 9:18 am
Michael, I like your lead violin analogy. With 8-12 IT providers serving sales and marketing at the the average Fortune 500 company these days, IT involvement orchestrating data sources for a 360 degree view across the enterprise remains complex.
2 CRM Update – Mar 19 : 2:07 pm March 19, 2012 at 10:24 am
[...] What the CIO can learn about Social CRM projects from the Syracuse Orange- http://blogs.gartner.com/michael_maoz We have a terrific Canadian client who is right now embroiled in a Twitter nightmare. Like in the example of a global fast-food purveyor, and a large construction-equipment company before them, Twitter tweaked their sense of themselves before a crowd of millions. To this I’d say that, like Doug Adams’ wonderful Hitchhiker’s Guide, your Social Media project should have, “.…the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.’ Whether you are a veteran or new at Social Media, it is likely that your competition is on equal footing… [...]