Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

I went and signed up and immediately opted to follow CRM gurus Paul Greenberg and Brent Leary (and connected with Marji, of course). I didn’t quite have the hang of things yet, so although there were other people I wanted to connect with, I wasn’t having luck finding them. No worries, I thought. I can figure it out later—or ask Paul or Brent. (One interesting way, by the way, is to see who everyone you know is following.)

I refreshed my Twitter home page about two hours later, and to my surprise and delight, Gartner Managing VP Scott Nelson had opted to follow me. How cool is that?! I immediately acted in kind.

Over the next few days I added people to follow and people opted to follow me. As my list grew, so did the insight I was getting. It’s interesting to see what people are up to professionally and personally. (Paul, for example, has shown a special talent for multitasking: writing the next edition of the CRM industry must-read, CRM at the Speed of Light while watching the Yankees and Twittering.) When you evangelize the importance of relationships in business for a living, being able to learn more about important people in your life—and other really cool people who you’re lucky enough to meet online—is fabulous. As is learning about what’s interesting and important to them.

Many of the posts—tweets, as it were—from my circle of contacts are links to interesting articles and compelling podcasts. I wanted to share my favorite ones here, but just in this first two weeks, the list has grown too lengthy. (I guess Digg and de.licio.us are next on my list of social media tools to adopt.) But I’ll share a few examples of Twitter’s “community effect.”

Just today Barry Kirk, a senior marketing consultant at Maritz, asked the question, “Does a loyal customer need to be an ‘engaged’ one? Guess it depends on your definition of ‘engaged.’” The question came with a link to the Loyalty Redefined blog post “So What If I Don’t Want to Engage,” which I found to be an interesting read. The question also started a conversation between Barry and I that I would never have otherwise had the opportunity to have—I didn’t know Barry until we connected on Twitter. With his insight into loyalty, who knows what I might be lucky enough to learn as a result.

One of my contacts suggested I follow social media consultant Angel Galloway. I did, and she’s shared some valuable links. And Brent Leary has posted several links to his radio show, Technology for Business Sake, that proved noteworthy. For example, from one show I learned what former Salesforce.com veteran Tien Tzuo, now CEO of Zuora, and ACT! creator Pat Sullivan, currently CEO of Flypaper.com, are up to these days. I also was introduced to blog expert Andy Wibbles. After listening to Brent’s interview with Andy, "Letting Your Small Business Go Blogwild with Andy Wibbels," I visited Andy’s blog, which led me to a humorous yet cutting post on what he calls Tardsourcing.

I learned from a post by Sage senior manager of PR Ryan Zuk that Sage partner James Kingstone, marketing editor of DesignR1 Software, recently motorcycled cross-country, his bike emblazoned with ACT! signage, to raise money for The Hole in the Wall Fund. He blogged about his adventure, as did Sage CRM General Manager David van Toor.

And in another case I asked a question about finding a great NY restaurant with a private room to host an event. Paul Greenberg quickly responded with a link to Yelp. I found four possible venues as a result.

Since I’m only following—thus getting the posts of—16 people, Twitter is not at all overwhelming, and has definitely been valuable for the knowledge I’ve gained and the relationships I’m building. Being a reporter at heart, I asked my Twitter circle of friends, “What have you found most valuable about Twitter?” A few replied almost immediately. They said:

+ “Near instant notification of things I may care about.” –Scott Nelson, managing VP, Gartner
+ “Great way to keep on top of what's going on with the people and topics I care about. Just gotta screen the signal from the noise.” –Chris Selland, VP Marketing and Business Development, EasyLobby
+ “The incredible range of ideas, and the ability to connect with interesting thinkers.” –Deborah Nason, freelance business journalist
+ “Another nice quick, easy, way to keep up with folks you want to keep up with -- the way you want to keep up with them. –Brent Leary, CRM Essentials
+ “Research tool and instant response to questions.” –Paul Greenberg, author, CRM at the Speed of Light and head of The 56 Group.

Check it out if you’re not on it yet, and if you are, let me know what you’ve found most valuable.

Update (8/13/08): After a stressful cyberstalking incident earlier this week, I’ve decided to close my Twitter account for a while. I still believe it has business value, but for the moment I’ll focus my efforts on our blog and on Linked In.