The question that you may be grappling with is this: How should Twitter be used for customer service? The answer: It's not your decision because Twitter is a two-way conversation and your customers will use it to post comments whether you like it or not. Therefore, the decision has been made for you and your company's customer service department needs to determine how Twitter will be used to create the best customer experience possible. Your company may have just started down the path of using Twitter as another communication channel. (If If you're not there yet,

Here's a simple but important tip for getting more for your marketing money: profile your best customers. The term "profiling" has negative connotations from a social perspective but for your business, it's one of the most effective tools for determining where and how to conduct your business. If you have a grasp on what type of people are most likely to purchase your products or services, you can seek out the location and the marketing plans that give you the best opportunity to reach those people. The number of ways to sort your customers is endless and really depends on the needs

It’s an odd dynamic I see in play today - in today’s ever connected environment marketers tell me they feel even more removed from direct customer interaction. As a former sale person, I used to schedule “ride-along” time with my sales team just to get out on sales calls and hear how we position ourselves in front of the customer, how that message lands on the customer and more importantly what the customer is saying in reaction to how we are positioned. Today I would argue that is still important (and few marketers actually do it) but with the tools we have at our disposal you don’t even need to get out of the office to talk with customer.

can only come from streamlined customer acquisition processes that takes advantage To truly accomplish streamlined customer acquisition, your marketing Ken Ross recently wrote on the Expert CEO blog about the future of Software Software as a Service in today's economy . Although he discusses software in particular, I think his arguments apply

0160; As part of the discussion, Chris Herbert asked how a company should go about budgeting for a custom publishing plan such as this. The question about custom publishing budgeting, of course, comes up all the time. 34; Here is how we explain custom publishing budget We've had some excellent feedback around Russell Sparkman's guest post on creating a consistent content plan .  Below is a response from Russell with some additional points from yours truly. 

Case Study at the Media Convergence Forum from Liz Cahill, VP of Marketing and Communications of Lee Jeans 13 years ago Lee recognized women were the top consumers of their jeans. And at the same time cause marketing was starting to take hold. Lee studied the causes that women really identified with and breast cancer was a clear winner.

Bloggers & > June 15, 2006 -->

There's a big difference between the information that will engage your customers and that which will engage your prospects. Your customers already know you. This does not mean that your customers are now as enamored with your company as you are. Customer content should If you're trying to "kill two birds with one stone," the result may be just that literal. They're using your solutions to gain business benefits that contribute to achieving their company's objectives.

I've been aggressively skeptical about the role of social media in an environment where there is a finite number of customers, an emphasis on long-term contracts, and no patience for fluff. The recession will depress any rapid change in marketing capabilities. In a failing economic environment, the emphasis is on near-term cash generation and survival, not "community." Building a community seems less relevant when you have a small number of known customers tied up in long-term contracts. With most of my career with Fortune 100 blue chip companies, I know what it's like to market in a hyper-competitive, show-me-the-money environment.

Zuberance is in the business of helping companies mobilize customer advocacy programs. So I attended the webinar to find out more, and now I'm full of ideas about how B2B marketers can expand their reach through more effective engagement programs that inspire customers to include your company in their conversations. It's estimated that 40% of your customers are advocates - Zuberance research with B2B & B2C companies I received a request to publicize a webinar this week from a company I'd not heard of before.  0160; Their name is Zuberance .