Had a little run-in with the Salesforce.com Social Media team today, which, in my opinion was hilarious. First, some background. As you knoow, Salesforce.com’s new tagline is “The Social Enterprise”. They are actively working to make all aspects of business more social and collaborative.
They’ve done a few presentations on how they are doing it, and I have watched their engagement across the board increase. I know a few staff behind the social media initiative, and they told me about how they are building a “Command Center” that serves as a nexus of social interaction.
Today, I tweeted this offhand comment:
About 3 minutes later, they responded with this:
And here is the video:
Lessons learned
#1 – Being social goes beyond work related stuff. Yes, work related trumps all, but there is a great opportunity here to build relationships with people, with your customers, prospects, and the community as a whole. It CAN be fun, provided you’re also getting the job done.
#2 – Being social is FAST. This interaction happened within minutes, while the conversation was still hot. If it were a complaint, question, or issue, it would have been handled very quickly. This is a great example of what a social infrastructure allows you to do for your customers.
#3 – It left a lasting impression. I did not receive a form letter email, but a response from an actual human being. It had personality and authenticity. I like that.
Conclusion
Salesforce is living the Social Enterprise and it’s showing. For one such as myself, intimitely familar with Salesforce, I’ve watched the evolution. It’s only going to get better. Now imagine if every company could deal with your questions the same way. Your local pizza shop. The grocery store. An airline. It is happening, and the question is, what are you going to do about it? As a customer, you can participate and drive up adoption. As a business person, you can implement systems to provide service like this to your customers and members.
