Get hip to the social tip in London.
“How can we become a social business?” Expect that theme to dominate this year’s Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour–London, and rightly so, as the question is on everyone’s mind.
Every company now lives in the social spotlight, whether business leaders know it or not. But if you’re new to the social business–or as salesforce.com dubs it, the social enterprise–concept, don’t get caught up in terminology or messaging. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that it’s all about core CRM practices, and answering this question: How should companies update their existing marketing, sales, and service practices, to ensure that they’re connecting with customers on Facebook, Twitter, support forums, competitors’ discussion boards, or anywhere else they congregate?
The answer will differ for every company, based on their current CRM practices, industry, and most importantly, their business goals. Accordingly, we’ve created our CRM Excellence Framework, built by distilling and benchmarking best practices from hundreds of organizations over 13 years, to help businesses rapidly identify the next, best step for their CRM program. Lately, that next step often involves overlaying social capabilities onto existing business processes.
So, what are the best social capabilities for your business? Here are five highlights from tomorrow’s Cloudforce London session roster, and how they’ll help you answer that question.
1) Collaborate: Chatter Collaboration for the Social Enterprise (1:30pm to 2:30pm).
Many of our clients are asking how they can not just break down barriers between their marketing, sales, and service groups, but actively drive greater levels of team collaboration across these groups, as well as with their customers. One excellent strategy is to use Chatter, which is collaboration software that works from within Salesforce–keeping the software as the system of record–as well as with any customer groups you create.
2) Social Enterprise: Measuring Return on Investment (1:30pm to 2:30pm).
A recent study from Nucleus Research found that access to social capabilities improved salespeople’s productivity by 12%, and that on average, every $1 spent on CRM returned $5.60. Apply those findings to help build the business case for adopting more social business capabilities.
3) Market: Introduction to Heroku–Building Next Generation Apps (3pm to 4pm).
Many customers are now working with us to integrate Facebook and salesforce.com, and Heroku can be a key component of those endeavors. In a nutshell, Heroku is a cloud-based platform built on Ruby on Rails that includes built-in integration with Salesforce. Tap Heroku to easily and quickly integrate salesforce.com with other cloud services, as well as social networks. Use it to build social Web-to-lead practices. Or experiment with social discovery, which is the process of ensuring that you learn and respond to what customers are saying about you on social networks.
4) Pursue Gamification Via Bunchball.
At the Social Enterprise Expo that’s part of Cloudforce London, keep your eyes peeled for our new friends from Bunchball. We’re excited by their Nitro for Salesforce product, which offers new opportunities for which brings gamification–think challenges, points, levels, status, achievements, rewards–to Salesforce.com. Any existing gamification fans out there? Watch this space for an upcoming blog post on marrying gamification with CRM.
5) Must-See Sessions: AppExchange, Contact Center, Force.com.
When it comes to getting more from your Salesforce software, insights abound. The morning, in particular, begins with sessions on how to increase user engagement by using the top AppExchange apps. Also learn how to build the contact center of the future. Later in the day, meanwhile, IT experts in particular should learn how to apply Force.com to customize and extend your Salesforce software.
Takeaway: Social CRM Spotlight Success Tips
As noted, every business today now lives in the social spotlight — whether they know it or not. To succeed, in other words, will require not just existing, but seizing the limelight. Let the above Cloudforce London sessions help you take your act to the next level.
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What are the top sessions you’re aiming for at Cloudforce? And just as importantly, given the locale — not to mention the increasing London 2012 Olympics fever — what are your favorite songs about London?
Our crack team of local CRM-experts-cum-musicologists has already floated “London Calling” by the Clash, “Waterloo Sunset” by the Kinks, “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon, “Going Underground” by the Jam, and “London Sky” by Jamie Cullum. What are your biggest London hits?
Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Ben Piddington.