Social CRM Infographics–An Evaluation Framework

I’m feeling WONDERFUL today! How about you? Hi everyone, I'm so super excited to finally release my framework for evaluating Social CRM Infographics. OMG, aren't you excited too? Come on everyone! Get super excited!!! Yay!

In all un-hyped seriousness, did  you know that Infographics are one of the new SEO tools? If you follow the SEO kids you’d know that. They’re so smart because they know that all you need is someone else’s idea and a cheap graphic designer. And I find it rather amusing that anyone thinks that people today, you know, the ones that don’t have enough time to cook a proper meal and live with microwave ovens, really give a hoot about how something evolved? Exactly who is the consumer of this information? Who has time to read this stuff (including my blog)?

Other Social Media people!

One of these days, these PR people are going to realize that they need to be communicating to their potential customers, and not to the people that pat them on the back at cocktail parties. So, here’s my simple framework for evaluating infographics and I’ll use two examples to prove my points.

1. It must quickly convey what happened.
2. It must completely bypass the contrived evolution of what happened. Just what happened so I can get to my next meeting.
3. A person must be able to digest it’s complete meaning in under 10 seconds.
4. It must give proper and complete attribution to the creators of the content – not the aggregator and not the employer of a graphic designer.

So, let’s take a look at the following  infographic.  I really have no idea why I would give a hoot about the Evolution of Social CRM – actually, it's the evolution of plain old CRM. Especially from contributors who don’t have a complete grasp of CRM.  You just can’t talk about the social stuff and get away with it. CRM has always been about communication, as well as other things. So, what’s new?… Exactly!… What’s new?

The following Infographic that I got from GetSatisfaction’s blog (not picking on GetSatisfaction, who I like, just some of the sources) is a great example of the worthlessness of Infographics when compiled from PR people with little real world experience. If you really had any experience dealing with customers, you’d know better than this. Sure, it’s pretty. BUT….

The problem with this is pretty obvious to me. My eyes glazed over when I saw how long it was. Even the individual sections require way to much time to digest for a meaningful point. It doesn’t convey what happened. It is an aggregated set of self-serving PR pieces that explains nothing in a way that the average potential customer needs to hear it, or see it. It amazes me that these are marketing / PR people putting this together, as they clearly do not understand people. I’m sure they’ll find self-serving statistics, but I would then ask “How many customers do you have, and is this approach working for you?” Sure, their backs are nice and scratched from all of their friends, but is this stuff accomplishing anything? I don’t believe so.

Social Stick People – The Ultimate Social CRM Infographic

I’d like to introduce you to a another friend of mine, Mark Tamis. Mark has experience. He’s actually had a job and worked for other people. He listens. He knows it all because he’s experienced, not just smart with a slick vanity shot. And the end result is this extremely simple Infographic which explains what is happening. And it doesn’t even need to use the term CRM because it’s about behavior and enablement. It doesn’t need to be pretty, because it makes the point. He’s able to do this because he’s lived “the before” and he has seen the change to the now.

This is what PR people don’t seem to understand. Our CRM customers still have to do their jobs. CRM is not about PR – it will never be about PR. But, they do need to understand why customers may be making new demands of them. This social customer infographic clearly explains it. It needs no further explanation as far as I’m concerned.  It’s simply time to move on. Some will be consulting, others will be flipping burgers.

Keep it simple. Base it on real world experience. Don’t contrive. Don’t bore. Don’t patronize. Your job is to communicate what your customer needs you to communicate – nothing else. Get the job done!! Add value by helping your customer, not your ego. Get some experience. Just do something already!

If this gets under your skin, then your are exactly who I intended it for. You really should comment, but I doubt you will. Social media people make social media people popular – and you wouldn’t want to make me popular because I’m not on your cocktail circuit. By the way, your social media friends aren’t your customers. Their web traffic doesn’t mean squat for your business. But, I’m happy to provide a do-follow link to anyone from the social media world that comments, because I know how important page rank is to you PR/SEO folks. Happy to oblige.