Stay tuned for a blow-by-blow of the highlights from the 2009 Customer Reference Forum (CRF) but, in the meantime, here are my initial impressions after the three day conference.
- *Social Media is King* – The Forum was keynoted by Laura Ramos from Forrester Research. I will be posting on this specifically but her primary message is that Social Media is here whether people like it or not. In fact, if you are not already involved, you are behind the curve and you risk being left behind. Laura’s presentation was the perfect segue into my workshop on Thursday. As you can imagine, I am going to be talking a lot more about this.
- All of the speakers were great – Let me start by making it clear: I’m not just saying that because I was a speaker. While I am quite happy with the workshop that Rhett Livengood and I facilitated on Social Media, all of the speakers were very interesting this year. It is going to be a hard-fought battle for the “Top Speaker” award. <shameless plug>Vote for Umang!</shameless plug>
- Networking is worth the cost of admission – The Forum is largely unchanged since inception and the opportunities for professional networking have always been, by-and-far, the best part of attending. Every year I attend, I walk away with a stack full of business cards and my head hurts (in a good way) from all the ideas I come up with in talking with the other attendees and vendors. Speaking of which, I met a new vendor in this space, TechValidate, that really impressed me! I am going to do a full review of their offering and will post shortly.
I am looking forward to continuing those conversations on the Customer Knowledge Sharing Network (CRKSN). CRKSN is a set of non-competitive online communities (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) focused on Customer Reference Marketing knowledge sharing. You should know that CRKSN is not affiliated with the CRF, which is for the best, in my opinion. If you are interested in joining, please leave a comment and I can help you get set up. Again, stay tuned for more in-depth thoughts on the Forum in future posts.
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- How Social Media is Transforming Customer Service and the Customer Experience (slideshare.net)
- Number of Social Networking Users Has Doubled Since 2007 (mashable.com)
- Forrester Goes Deep Regarding Online Behaviors (myventurepad.com)
- Facebook and Twitter are for oldies (nevillehobson.com)
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#1 by Diego Pereda - February 23rd, 2009 at 13:41
Umang, it sunds like a very interesting event. Social Media is indeed King. Could you cover anything regarding the use of Social Media in Large conservative corporations?
#2 by umangshah - February 23rd, 2009 at 17:06
You bet. I will definitely talk more about what B2B companies can do with Social Media. I think the key is gaining knowledge in this area. People tend to get stuck on deciding which technology to use as opposed to how to reach there customers online. These are truly two different things. We should focus on establishing a dialogue with our customers and not caught up with the stigma. I will talk a bit more about this when I discuss Laura Ramos’ keynote from the Forum. Thanks for the comment.
#3 by Lisa - February 23rd, 2009 at 18:20
Umang, Social Media is the Buzz! Glad you are continuing your role as thought leader in this new and evolving space. I’m looking forward to our Social Media Webinar, scheduled for March 15, 9 am Pacific Time!!