But, before we get to that, we still have to see the many opinions of those leading the way on the Social CRM front. For instance, Brent Leary said that "The impact is already being felt and it's still very early on in the game".  So, businesses are feeling the impact of the social customer because "The biggest impact right now is on how people find information and how they share it with each other."

I think Brent's argument is that we are evolving along with our technology and as the pace of development increases, so does our ability to adopt it.

"As smartphones get even smarter, and  mobile broadband expands our abilities to share huge amounts of information quickly, the speed of social adoption will accelerate.  So business will have to get more comfortable speaking the language of the customer, using social media and networks to reach them if they want to effectively enter the world of their customers.  It makes sense if we keep in mind that business people all have one thing in common - we're human.  And if we want to communicate with other humans to stay in business, we better figure out the right social components and strategies to use."

I definitely agree that the language of our society changes over time and with all the 140 character limits, and texting charges, it's become ridiculous. I use contractions all the time, even when I write. I don't think the abbreviated language of teenagers is going to have a huge impact on how businesses function. Maybe how they market.

The key question for me, and please jump into the discussion, is whether consumers are going to demand that businesses transact like a Facebook page. We gave them Internet shopping carts, but I'm having a harder time seeing what's really going to change in a paradigm sort of way. The Internet's already here, where's the next big shift? Is there some specific social component I'm missing that is going to be a big time game changer?

Brian Vellmure follows this theme on communication...

"The emergence and rapid growth of Social Technologies transcends CRM. It transcends the business landscape, for that matter. It is a fundamental shift in the way we as humans are now communicating. Will it have significant impact on how our customers communicate? Absolutely. It already has."

I totally get where he's coming from. When you look at this objectively, we can all now sit on our fat butts and anonymously, and asynchronously, be very very obnoxious. Here's two things I'd like to throw in, and then you all can jump in down below. First, people have always had a place to congregate and be heard. Have you ever heard the term "Commons?" Back when there were no on line social support communities, people would drag their very lean butts out of their log cabins and take the wagon into town. It was not anonymous. And while it was direct, it was also asynchronous in many ways because "did you hear what Jedidiah said down the Commons last night?"

Second, even taking the Internet into account, we've had access to online communities for nearly 30 years. Yes young T-shirt wearing Social CRM consultant! AOL is almost (if not) 25 years old! How's that for research? You all didn't think I could pull out an important fact did ya?  The fact that we've been online doesn't lessen this conversation because we've certainly advanced along the technological line, and as Brent points out, the adoption line. Simply put, social components of CRM or any piece of it are far more accessible today, even if we had forums, newsgroup and AOL and CompuServe communities for 25 years or more.

But have people really changed during that time? I would say NOPE! And I'm not the only one. Meet Jim Novo. Jim is the only marketing representative on the panel. Jim isn't what you think of when you think of the marketing department. He's the former VP of Marketing for the Home Shopping Network and they did some really neat stuff back in the 90's when he was there. He still does this neat stuff and it's working quite well for him. So have people changed? Will it be a requirement that businesses change or die? Here's what Jim thinks...

"I don't see how "new social" affects anything, it seems there is a focus on tools instead of culture. Customer-centric companies were listening through the mail, call centers, chat rooms and message boards, etc. for the past 30 years, at least.

If a company has a relationship marketing culture, they already new it was important way before the web, and on the web before "social" was hot. I think all the fuss is primarily oriented towards companies who have a different business model than customer intimacy, perhaps operational efficiency or product leadership.

For those companies, CRM itself may never mean anything, it doesn't matter, it's not the business model. So all this furor over social is really a bunch of crap - the companies that are relationship oriented already got it on day 1, the companies that don't care about relationships don't care about social either."

Are you all going to hate me if I agree with Jim? Good. Because I believe he has a valid point. Just because our customers are becoming more social doesn't mean all companies care. The ones that have always been customer centric will certainly adopt any tools they feel they need to keep their customers loyal. The ones that've been product focused? Well, they'll try to use the tools their own way, and spin it so it sounds good. There, I said it. Don't agree, you can let me know below.

OK everyone. Just simmer down, now. Remember, we're having a social conversation here, so let's talk. And who better to be an arbiter of this debate than Esteban Kolsky. Esteban has got me thinking clearly again. All this paradigm shifting has got me reeling so I welcome his input.

"The way businesses conduct themselves in the future is changing – whether you change your CRM or not. As the new generations start to penetrate the workforce and consumer bases we will see these changes become more dominant.

The best part of a generational shift (as opposed to a paradigm shift) is having the forewarning and being able to do something about it – if you are sufficiently smart. Businesses must adapt to survive, and they have some time to get there.

Socially-enabling your CRM is one of the steps to evolve through, and organizations will have to make it happen in the very near future to be able to effectively compete in the marketplaces."

Once again, I agree! It's amazing how all those different perspectives can blend in my mind. Esteban, of course, is talking about businesses that already have CRM. In my mind, and I don't think he would disagree (he can below), CRM is not software, so if you are already customer-centric and your customers demand (or if you just figure it out?) to be engaged through some new medium, or channel, you're gonna do it, right? I would!

So what are the rest of the businesses going to do? That's a great question if I do say so myself! What are all the business that aren't customer-centric doing now? They're rushing out to buy CRM software! So, I'm sure at some point (if Social CRM ever trends with any significance at Google) enough people may hear about it to make it dominate our hearts and minds. Then the consultants wearing T-shirts and Twittering private business discussions will have tons of customers -- and their product will be commoditized. Nice margins in that business!

Enough discussion for today. Part III of the first question on my journey to Social CRM wisdom will feature a few more thoughtful panelists. Oh yea, thoughtful doesn't mean they all agree that the social components of CRM will have any impact. You'll just have to wait to see who may feel that way.

Return to Part I