Read posts about embracing the social customer.

Will Bank of America Listen to the Social Customer?

I am not going to complain about Bank Of America’s decision of charging $5 to use their debit card, even though I’m a current card holder of the Alaska Airlines “Award Winning Mileage Plan”. The great thing about living in this country is that we have options, so yes, I will be cancelling my card this week.  $5 isn’t a ton of money but it’s the principle that kinda bothers me.

The bigger question in my mind is if Bank Of America is listening to the conversation online about their business decision. Since last week, Twitter has blown up with conversation from outraged customers telling the world that they aren’t happy and will be switching banks; and others starting a petition (over 20K signatures). Their competitors are even joining the conversation and reminding their customers and the general public that their card services will remain free.

The Evolution of Social Business

The following is an iteration from a previous version of what I referred to earlier as the social business life-cycle. After some valuable feedback from Ray Wang from Constellation Research, Tatyana Kanzaveli from Deloitte & Touche and Rawn Shah who works for IBM, it makes more sense to call this an evolution rather than a life-cycle. Thanks for the support.

Social Business Evolution

An explanation of this framework can be found on Social Media B2B.

The Social Business Life Cycle

This is a work in progress. I am still not sure if “Social Business Life Cycle” is the right word.  I was also thinking about calling it the “Social Business Adoption Life Cycle” but I am not sure.  I would love your feedback on how I can improve this so that it makes more sense.

Social Business Life Cycle

6 Types of the Social Customer

In my book, I have identified six types of the social customer, all with varying degrees of influence. I don’t discuss influence specifically because every customer, social or not, has some level of influence over others.

The Social Customer

A Glimpse into the First 5 Chapters

When I first set out to write this book, I wanted to build the sections in a way that allowed for easy chapter-based steps which could facilitate the practical application of the strategies contained in the book. Each subsequent section and chapter serving as a requisite building-block of the next in much the same way as other books.

In a perfect real world scenario, this book is meant to mirror in chronological order and the natural evolution into a social business – cultural change –> tearing down silos and communicating across the organization –> social technologies that facilitate communication –> governance models –> tactical considerations that address the social customer –> and social CRM being response to the external social customer. This is essentially the first half of the book. Here is a glimpse of the Table of Contents: