Tag Archives: Social

Apr 3 2013

[Video] Chris Heffer speaking about Social Data and CRM for Social Media Week 2012


This is the video for the presentation I did as part of Social Media Week 2012. I presented on how social data could be used in CRM. The presentation was part of the Social Data and Privacy Event held at Nebarro as part of Social Media Week London 2012.

Topics covered in presentation

  • What is CRM
  • How could social data be used with a CRM
  • What is the future of business in with these ideas
  • What CRM systems are good at and where they are not not so good
  • Use case for social data for consumer packaged good industry (FMCG)
  • Use case for social data for television production companies industry
  • Use case for social data in retail – one
  • Use case for social data in retail – two

Would love your feedback if you get a chance to watch any of the video.

Slides from event

Mar 16 2013
Video

Chris Heffer speaking at Facebook HQ for Social Media Week


This is the video for the presentation I did as part of Social Media Week 2012. I presented on “why you don’t need a social media strategy”.

Would love your feedback if you get a chance to watch any of the video.

Full write up without the video – Why you don’t need a social media strategy from #smwldn

Slides from event

What is social business - balance
Dec 17 2012

What is social business?


social media RIP tombstone

Do you want to know what social business is?

Do you want to know how it will change business in the future?

I believe there is no such thing as “Social Media”. It is just a phrase to describe the current state of the internet.

I believe social business is the future of business. Social business will be the way business is done in the future and eventually what we know currently as social business will just become “business”.

I have come up with my definition of Social Business.

Restoring the equilibrium of power, to make the values, interests and beliefs of the customer/employee equal to those of the company Continue reading →

£20 note fanned out
Oct 29 2012

How do you sell in the social era?


Are you looking to improve or modernise the way you sell?

Do you want to learn how you can use the social web to help you sell more?

In this post I will discuss both the traditional and the new ways salespeople can work.

After reading this post you will have an insight into what the future of selling will look like. Hopefully you will start to see that there are alternative ways of working that will help you to help your customers more, which in turn will help you hit your sales targets.

A salesperson is often one of the highest paid people in the business. I believe unless salespeople change the way they work, they will lose their influence over the sales process, which warrants their high compensation packages.

£20 note fanned out

What does a salesperson actually do?

Wikipedia explains the verb describing what a salesperson does:

Selling is offering to exchange an item of value for a different item. The original item of value being offered may be either tangible or intangible. The second item, usually money, is most often seen by the seller as being of equal or greater value than that being offered for sale

Basically a salesperson attempts to convince a potential customer that there is more value in what his company is trying to sell than what they are charging for it.

Imagine a world without salespeople? The world of business would stop. Right? Continue reading →

Oct 22 2012

Why you don’t need to buy any social software


(Until you read this post)

If my last post on why I wish social was NOT in my job title didn’t stir up enough controversy – then this one might!

“Invest in social culture before social technology”  

In this post I will explain the harsh question you need to ask yourself before you decide to spend a pound, euro or dollar on any social media related software. And while you’re at it, hold the head count for any staff to work on social media as well.

Social is a not about the technology, it is about a cultural shift to create a more honest, open, transparent way of doing business.

“No one can sell you a tool to fix your culture”  

To clarify my definition of software in relation to this post I am talking about a company trying to sell you a tool do something with social: monitoring, responses, collaboration tools etc. I am not including free software such as WordPress, Hoot suite etc.

You can achieve so much without spending a penny. If you have a plan which builds a strategy for using free social tools closely aligned to your core business objectives, then you could achieve more than any other “social strategy” which could easily cost hundreds of thousands or more.

So what if you have 100,000 likes on Facebook. Who cares if you’ve got 100,000 followers on Twitter. Neither of these translate into anything your CEO cares about.

Free things to do with social that really help drive business in a way your CEO cares about Continue reading →

Oct 5 2012

Why use social media?


why use social media

Are you considering using social media at work or in your professional life?

Are you trying to figure out what social media can help you achieve or see if it’s worth your while?

Read on to help you understand the value social media can bring to your career and some examples of how easy it is to start getting results.

Most people I talk to about social media fall into two categories: those who think it is important but don’t use it much if at all and those who don’t see the point because they don’t think they can get anything out of it.

I want to share some tips on what I have done to achieve a few milestones of success in a fairly short time frame. If you follow these tips you will be able to define what it is you want to achieve and get results a lot quicker than I did.

My social media goals

  • Establish credibility inside and outside my company
  • Build up my personal brand so people know who I am before I meet them
  • Communicate my thoughts and ideas to more people
  • Build up my industry knowledge so that I can be perceived by others as an expert
  • Connecting and conversing with like minded people

If you share any of these goals then read on and I will give you some tips to help you achieve them.

How can you achieve these goals? Continue reading →

Jul 31 2012

What is social data?


Social data is the key to how the businesses of tomorrow will build a more personalised service for their customers.

Social data comes from a variety of different sources and forms part of your digital foot print.

Your digital footprint can includes sources such as:

  • Microblogging sites such as twitter
  • Online search history
  • Photo sharing sites
  • e-commerce sites (including buying history)
  • Online search history & interaction
  • Online TV/video history
  • Emails including attachments
  • Website subscriptions
  • Facebook
  • Blogs
  • Chats/instant message

The key parts of your digital foot print which come under social data are the parts which come from the social networks where you publicly or privately share information about yourself. The different areas of social data are:

  • Demographic: ages, race, gender, education, income, geography
  • Psychographic: attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, lifestyles etc
  • Referrals: customer ratings/reviews, reward mechanisms
  • Intention: desired state, desired products, planned activities
  • Product: brand or product mentions on the social web
  • Behavioural: specific past activities or actions that indicate future intent such as purchase history
  • Location: physical location of a customer or prospect within a specific time frame

The companies who will lead the way in social business will be those who fully embrace the amount of data out there about people and companies. They will be able to give consumers confidence in sharing more and more information with them in return for a better, more personalised service.

I have created a couple of articles which discuss how social data could be used  to change the way people do business

Your turn

How do you think social media data could be better used? Are there any ways you are currently using social data to provide a more personalised service?

European Social Media Marketing Summit
Jun 28 2012

Crowd sourced summary of #CSMB2B in 42 tweets!


I have continued on with the social collaboration themed summary posts due to popularity of the last two ( #SBSS12 & #SBS2012) .  Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation using the event hashtag #CMSB2B.

The European Social Media Marketing Summit was held in London at the Regents Park Marriott Hotel on 25-26th June 2012. The event was organised by Useful Social Media and sponsored by Lithium.

I was lucky enough to be asked to chair a panel discussion around “How to unlock the potential of your social media strategy” with Kerry Bridge from Dell and Conor McKechnie from General Electric Healthcare. I controversially started by declaring my position against the session title and said:

“You dont need a social media strategy you need to align social to you business strategy”

Luckily this view point was shared by my fellow panelists! The discussion followed.

The event featured presentations from some of the worlds biggest brands.  The line up included:-

For the benefit of anyone who couldn’t attend or for anyone who would like a recap, I have compiled this article featuring what were, in my opinion, the key tweets and quotes from the day. It features a compilation of some of the things that were said on the day by the speakers and the opinions of those in the audience. I narrowed down the many hundred of tweets into just 42. Too much good stuff to get into a shorter list!

Hopefully it should give you an idea of the summit and some of the ideas discussed.

I have also added some photos of the event onto my Facebook page

Social Business Summit London 2012
Jun 22 2012

Crowd sourced summary of #SBS2012 in 63 tweets!


Due to the popularity of my last crowd sourced summary I thought I would continue on with the social collaboration. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation using the event hashtag #SBS2012.

The Social Business Summit 2012 was held in London on June 21st 2012. The event was organised by Dachis Group and sponsored by IBM.

The event featured keynotes from some of the most influential thought leaders from the world of social business. The line up included:-

For the benefit of anyone who couldn’t attend or for anyone who would like a recap, I have compiled this article featuring what were, in my opinion, the key tweets and quotes from the day. It features a compilation of some of the things that were said on the day by the speakers and the opinions of those in the audience. I narrowed down the many hundred of tweets into just 63. Too much good stuff to get into a shorter list sorry!

Hopefully it should give you an idea of the summit and some of the ideas discussed.

I have also added some photos of the event onto my Facebook page

https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215884336791171074
https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215834722075541504
https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215827931254095872
https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215804686907879425
https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215798768677818369
https://twitter.com/PhilipBD/status/215797121176174592
https://twitter.com/nilofer/status/215796290607517696
https://twitter.com/alanghamilton/status/215717060527919104
Jun 8 2012

Crowd sourced summary of #SBSS12 in 60 tweets!


In the true spirit of social collaboration I thought I should crowd source the content for this summary. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation using the event hashtag #SBSS12.

The Social Business Strategy Summit was held in London on May 31st 2012. The event was organised by MyCustomer.com in association with BPT partners.

The event featured 25 of the most influential thought leaders and leading analysts from the world of social business.  The line up included:-

  • Paul Greenburg – Author of CRM at the speed of light, known by most to be “The Godfather of CRM”
  • Sameer Patel – Global VP & GM of Enterprise Social and collaborative software at SAP
  • Sandy Carter – VP of Social Business Evangelism and Sales at IBM
  • Laurence Buchanan – Director of Digital Transformation and CRM at Ernest and Young
  • Mark Tamis – Social CRM strategist at NET-7
  • Esteban Kolsky – Founder of thinkJar
  • Luis Suarez – Social Software Evangelist at IBM

For the benefit of anyone who couldn’t attend or for anyone who wants a recap I have compiled this article featuring what were in my opinion the key tweets and quotes from the day. It features a compilation of some of the things that were said on the day by the speakers and the opinions of those in the audience. I narrowed  down the many hundred of tweets into just 60. Too much good stuff to get into a shorter list sorry!

Hopefully it should give you an idea of the summit and some of the ideas discussed.

I have also added some photos of the event onto my Facebook page.