Thoughts on IBM’s Social Business Predictions for 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011 by Sterling Raphael
Well, it’s that time of the year again! Time to dust off our crystal ball in the hope of taking a peak around the corner to 2012. Along with the normal resolutions pertaining to personal commitments/lifestyle changes, I think it’s important we take a look at a few of the Social Business Predictions for 2012.
Appropriately, the prediction from Alistair Rennie – Community Manager…Watch for this role to take off in 2012, with organizations of all shapes and sizes, in a variety of industries calling on experts to help to build, maintain, and activate members in an online location around common interests and topics. The key? Ability to be transparent, drive sharing among members, and listening and shaping conversations”
And then we have P. Greenblog who wrote a very timely article (back in 2009!), when evaluating an engaged and responsive audience, the truths of which are still pertinent today:
“Social CRM acknowledges that company equity is created or destroyed by processes outside of the traditional corporate boundaries…The takeaway is MIB:
Let your customers be your guide to success!
How do you foresee consumer behavior evolving in the coming months?
For sure, the takeaway for businesses for 2012 in terms of social CRM is that our business plans must surround customer participation or involvement. Social CRM is quickly on the rise and yes, we have to echo that sticky word, engagement! Businesses can no long operate “as usual” centered solely on ‘customer management.’ In his article, IBM’s Social Business Predictions for 2012, Alistair Rennie, GM of Social Business, clearly substantiates this as he writes, “Just like the Internet opened up a world of new opportunities, the rise of social business is creating new jobs. With the adoption of these new internal and external social business tools comes the increasing need for staff to manage the new processes and communities, to measure their effectiveness, and to educate and enable the workforce to participate. Corporations are quickly realizing they must create new roles like the community manager to take on these new responsibilities. In today’s highly connected global business environment, the way people communicate, find and share information and work together has changed dramatically.”
We all understand that communities are always centered on ‘people’ with mutual interests. Even though the way we do business in the coming year will continue to evolve, the way we communicate is where the revolution should take place. There’s no doubt that the explosion of Social CRM has risen to the level of a business necessity, and as Gartner projects “overall spending on CRM software will surpass $12 billion in 2012, and the social CRM will include abruptly 8% of all CRM spending in 2012, an increase from 4% in 2010.”
Appropriately, the prediction from Alistair Rennie – Community Manager…Watch for this role to take off in 2012, with organizations of all shapes and sizes, in a variety of industries calling on experts to help to build, maintain, and activate members in an online location around common interests and topics. The key? Ability to be transparent, drive sharing among members, and listening and shaping conversations”
And then we have P. Greenblog who wrote a very timely article (back in 2009!), when evaluating an engaged and responsive audience, the truths of which are still pertinent today:
“Social CRM acknowledges that company equity is created or destroyed by processes outside of the traditional corporate boundaries…The takeaway is MIB:
- Manage what you can,
- Influence what you cannot directly manage and
- Balance what you can neither manage nor influence.
These three need to be core corporate competences.” I expect that this trend will remain for the foreseeable future.
According to some of the stats from a research report sponsored by Avectra, also included in our blueprint for 2012, consumers expect social interaction on the web. 65% of organizations believe enterprise 2.0 collaboration will increase productivity.
According to some of the stats from a research report sponsored by Avectra, also included in our blueprint for 2012, consumers expect social interaction on the web. 65% of organizations believe enterprise 2.0 collaboration will increase productivity.
- Business managers and IT managers are beginning to work more closely together to co-own and co-sponsor emergent collaboration initiatives. Forty-six percent (46%) of respondents state that their organization’s business and IT departments were jointly responsible for sponsoring the effort.
- Forty-three percent (43%) of companies cite financial gain (cost savings and revenue generated) from implementing enterprise collaboration tools.
Findings reveal how emergent collaboration is increasingly a necessity for businesses to stay competitive in a global economy. To view and download the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration, visit the Chess Media Group Resources page. Registration is required.
Let your customers be your guide to success!
How do you foresee consumer behavior evolving in the coming months?
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Sterling Raphael
Sterling is president of Avectra Labs, the innovation think-tank of Avectra, a web-based Social CRM provider for associations and not-for-profits. In this role, Sterling is responsible for driving product strategy and international expansion. Sterling is a staunch advocate of Social CRM, educating associations and not-for-profits on the value of moving away from transactional relationships that define many memberships toward more social human relationships.
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