This week was bloody. There was savagery in the Twitterverse. And it was awesome!
Here are some of the more vocal warriors:
Prem Kumar Aparanji
Mitch Lieberman (added!)
Brent Leary (oops, wasn’t involved…but still a sharp guy!)
John Moore
Esteban Kolsky
I loved this friendly “battle” because it was trying to solve a problem. I don’t think it was solved but it sure was fun and got everyone thinking. Isn’t that the purpose of any great conversation?
The discussion was over the nomenclature for Social CRM. One side said it’s Social CRM (#scrm) another side said it’s CRM Using Social (#crmus). Still others said it’s #ivehadenoughofthisarguementcantwealljustgetalong. I doubt the actual term matters much. Semantics are important. But cart before the horse.
Just a few days prior, everyone is discussing what social CRM even IS? How can you determine semantics unless you know the definition and purpose! One of my consulting clients is in the same boat. They’ve launched a new social platform for he medical industry. It seems every day they are trying to come up with the terminology for the web UI. But most of the discussion is actually trying to figure out the true benefits and function of the platform!
HOW WILL PEOPLE USE IT?
This is the one question that needs asking to determine the semantics and nomenclature. The key to developing excellent terminology is discovering the user’s mindset while using the tool.
In regards to Social CRM. How will people use these tools? More importantly, how do they WANT to use the tools? I don’t think there are any great Social CRM tools out there yet. People are integrating social tools and CRM tools. But it’s more than just a simple API integration. This new Social CRM era must be rethought. Kind of like Google Wave.
It will be another year before these definitions get nailed down. So many companies are trying desperately to build tools that are effective and useful. But the market mindset seems to change every day.
Maybe the answer is not to build “new” tools but to look at the way people have been interacting forever and build tools that reflect those attitudes and behaviors.
Social CRM Manifesto 
I deeply respect all these guys. But this industry has a long history of rejecting any category that can’t be boiled down to a 3 letter acronym, so I think we haven’t found the answer yet 🙂
Maybe the problem is we’re looking at it all wrong. I’m starting to hear “social” and “middle management” used together a lot lately. To find the description that resonates with everyone perhaps we need to focus on the common problem these things solve rather than the technologies used to solve them.
It was not a fight… just a friendly discussion… besides, the wounds won’t take that long to heal 🙂
I have been thinking about it more, and I was about to write another blog post, but don’t want to start the whole thing again.
Here is my final answer: it is not a new or old technology mixed with the new. Social Media is about a paradigm shift. Similar to what CRM did when it entered the world and were all the sudden able to keep track of clients across entire processes. We are allowing customers to position their voice well within the processes in the organization.
This is about CRM or SCRM or whatever else. This is about the dream of EFM (feedback) and CEM (experience) finally become reality, and using CRM tools as the element to change the paradigm.
Like that better?