New eBook on Social Media

 Last month, I got a chance to meet another blogger, Brian Solis of PR 2.0, face to face in San Francisco.  We had a great conversation, and the next day he asked me if I would be willing to collaborate on his upcoming eBook on, what else, social media. 

Here we are one month later, and Brian just launched his eBook today!  It is titled, “Customer Service: The Art of Listening and Engagement Through Social Media.”  Brian was nice enough to give me billing right on the front cover – thanks, Brian!

If you haven’t read any of Brian’s writings, then you should definitely pick up this eBook.  He and I come from a very similar perspective on many things, and his thinking is simply brilliant.  If you have read Brian before, then you need to pick this up, as you know what you will be getting – lots of good information!  It relates very well to my three key points from my post earlier this week on social media and relationships:

• Social media is one tool in the toolbox for interacting with customers.  It will work well if customers are willing to engage in that medium!
• Social media is a great tool to help create and strengthen relationships.
• It is all about the people.

You can download the eBook from Brian’s site or from right here at Customers Rock!

PDF version

Word version

Let us know what you think, and if you have any other examples of using social media to engage and interact with customers, please send them along.

Free eBook: Customers Rock Tips

 It’s here!  I have put together a free eBook to thank you, my valuable readers, for your continued loyalty to me this past year.  The eBook is a compilation of five of my favorite blog posts from the last 12 months.  I have also included the comments along with each post so readers can continue to follow the conversation; many of these were quite enlightening!

Topics include:

• Taking care of existing customers
• Customer or client?
• Tips for listening to customers
• Stories and the personal touch
• Measuring customer relationships

Feel free to share it, post it, print it, or copy it.  Send it to someone you think would benefit from information about keeping customers longer and strengthening customer relationships.  I would love to have this eBook shared with as many people as possible. 

Let me know what you think, and thank you again!

Download free eBook: Customers Rock Highlights

(Photo credit: Spanishale)

A Tale of 80 Interviews and 103 Authors: Assignment Zero and the Age of Conversation

 In March, Wired.com announced the formation of a crowdsourced citizen journalism project called Assignment Zero.  The idea was to have a crowd of volunteers write a report on, well, how crowds of volunteers are affecting business in the New Media age.  In April, I signed on to be part of a collaborative project to write an ebook called Age of Conversation.  This book was jointly written by 103 authors each contributing one chapter (a one-page essay) on the aforementioned topic in whatever way they chose.  It turned into a hardcover, softcover, and an e-book orderable through lulu.com, with all profits going to Variety Children’s Charity.

Each of these initiatives was something of an experiment in collaboration – one in collaborative journalism, the other in collaborative publishing.  Moving others to action towards a common goal is a great benefit of web 2.0 technologies!

Results of each initiative:

Assignment Zero: Some great feature stories were published on Wired.com (including this great article from Kristin Gorski on Crowdsourced Books!).  One of the best results was a powerful resource: the AssignmentZero Interview Directory, containing transcripts for 80 interviews of some of the best minds and experts around crowdsourcing, customers, and technology (go to the bottom of the above linked article and click on the category that interests you).

I had the privilege of interviewing two leading thinkers.  First was Dr. Martha Rogers, co-founder of Peppers and Rogers Group (where I was formerly a senior consultant); her interview is called Customer Relationship Management: Crowdsourcing at Work or How a business can collaborate with customers.   I also interviewed Jack Jia, founder and CEO of Baynote, Inc; his interview is called What Exists Beyond the Seen Crowd or The wisdom of invisible crowds.  Although I had a few standard questions to ask each of them as part of my reporting assignment, I was able to be flexible and explore other areas as well.  A real learning experience for me!

Age of Collaboration: A fabulous book with many varied insights from the 103 authors.  I just received my hardcover book the other day and am still working through it!  It was great to see the different perspectives on conversation; it reminds me how important it is to understand another person’s context before trying to get your own message across.  My chapter is on page 14 called Conversations and the Customer Experience.  It is about looking at a customer’s experience as a set of conversations across the customer lifecycle.  If we can manage the conversations properly, we can create a fabulous customer experience!

The most amazing part of this collaborative effort is that it has only just begun!  The conversation is continuing at Facebook, on the various blogs of the authors, and best of all, through new conversations between the authors.  We are becoming a large “team” who is getting to know each other better and building a special community.  We are using social networking to pull together sub-teams to champion the book and its cause.  I love being part of this kind of team with such passion – a team of great thinkers from around the world.

How can you start to collaborate today?  Who would you do it with?  Your customers are a great place to start, and they just might be waiting for an invitation.  Your competitors are another area to consider.  Sometimes a collaborative offering can be more impactful in the marketplace as it focuses on meeting customer needs more completely.

Take a few moments this weekend to peruse some of the AssignmentZero interviews, or get yourself a copy of the Age of Conversation ebook and start reading.  Keep a pad of paper and a pencil close by; you just might find an idea or two worth putting into action through your own network next week.

(Photo credit: solarseven)

Age of Conversation: Launched Today!

 What book has 103 marketing bloggers representing 10 countries and four continents and where 100% of the proceeds support Variety Children’s Charity? 

The newly released book The Age of Conversation! 

Back in April, two really smart bloggers, Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton (themselves representing two countries and continents), set a goal of publishing a book with contributions from 100 bloggers.  Topic: the conversation age.  Each author wrote a one-page chapter for the book, interpreting the topic from their own point of view.  For example, my chapter is titled Conversations and the Customer Experience.

The format of the book provides for a quick read with lots of great food for thought on conversations in this age of new media.  The book is being released in three formats, so you can choose how you want to read it!

Hardcover: $29.99

Paperback: $16.99

e-Book: $9.99

Again, all proceeds are going to charity.  No author is going to earn any money from this book.

I highly encourage you to buy a copy of the book today, and spread the word on your blog, in your newsletter, and through your own conversations.  Be sure and come back here and leave your thoughts on the book!

Check out the great press this book is already getting:

Advertising Age

Social Computing Magazine

Update: more press!

Fast Company blog

Business Week blog

Authors

Below is the list of all 103 influential authors.  Here’s to The Age of Conversation!

Gavin Heaton, editor
Drew McLellan, editor

CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G.Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

CB Whittemore

The Conversation Draws Near

 It is almost here!  Next week, on Monday, July 16th, we will see the launch of Age of Conversation.  Back in April, I signed on with Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton to co-author this book (one chapter), along with over 100 other contributors (see below for list).  While originally designed as an eBook, due to popular demand, it can also be had as a paperback or hardcover book.

All proceeds from all book sales will be going to Variety Children’s Charity.  Get ready to have a good read for a good cause!  Special thanks to Drew, Gavin, and all the other authors for making this happen.

I can’t wait to buy it and read the other chapters, and I hope you will do the same!

Authors:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G.Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

Timely Advice for Graduates

Back in March, I was invited by Drew McLellan to share my advice for how to land your first job.  Although the focus is mainly marketing, much of the advice applies across the board.  In my response I also applied the advice to relationships with customers.  Here is one of my entries, with the customer application included:

2. Be honest at all times.

Story: I was an engineering undergrad and interviewed for a job at HP. I was told the hardest part of the interview would be the technical interview session. With sweaty palms, I entered the conference room and was asked many questions to test my technical abilities and knowledge. There was one question that was especially challenging, and I didn’t know the answer to it. I could have faked something, but I decided to be honest and said, “I don’t know the answer.” The interviewer thanked me and moved on to the next question. “Wait, what was the answer to that question?”, I said. The interviewer answered, “I don’t know, either. I just wanted to see how you would answer.” I got the job (and then worked for HP for nearly 14 years!). Honesty and integrity will serve you well as you put your best foot forward into the job market (and beyond). Go get ‘em!

(Application to customers: Be open, honest, and transparent with customers at all times.  If you truly can’t answer their question, let them know — but then find someone who can.  Customer trust is often shaken by even small mistakes.  Admit them, apologize, and do what’s right for the customer.  Building strong relationships will help your organization grow trust with your customers, but it takes time and planning.  It is worthwhile!)

Drew took all the great advice he received and has turned it into a beautiful, free eBook just in time for college graduation season!  The book is 50 pages long and is so nicely done it would make a fabulous gift (I am giving a copy to my niece who just graduated from University of North Carolina!).

 There are two download options: with or without photos.  I highly recommend the photo version, which is a little over 3MB.  If you prefer, you can download the tiny, text-only eBook, which is 300K.

Again, many, many thanks to Drew for pulling together such a fabulous eBook.  Drew, you are so generous with your time!  Below is the list of contributors.  If you send it on to a grad, let us know how it was received!

College Grad Advice eBook contributors:

Aaron Potts
Andy Brudtkuhl
Andy Nulman
Andy Wibbels
Ann Handley
Ann Michael
Anne Simons
Becky Carroll
Bob Glaza
C.B. Whittemore
Carolyn Manning
Chris Cree
Christine Brown
CK
Darren Barefoot
David Reich
Delaney Kirk
Derek Tutschulte
Designer Mike
Doug Karr
Doug Mitchell
Drew McLellan
Joan Schramm
Kevin Hillstrom
Lewis Green
Liz Strauss
Mario Sundar
Mark Goren
Mark True
Mary Schmidt
Nick Rice
Patrick Schaber
Paul McEnany
Phil Gerbyshak
Roberta Rosenberg
Roger von Oech
Rosa Say
Seth Godin
Sharon Sarmiento
Stephanie Weaver
Steve Miller
Steve Sisler
Terry Starbucker
Toby Bloomberg
Tony D. Clark
Valeria Maltoni

(Photo credit: fozrocket)