Don't miss Connect! THE Social Event of the year!

I hope you join me at Connect 2014!!!

It is not to be missed!

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Connect 2014! IBM's Largest Social Event! Join me!

Connect is coming!  YEA!

With Halloween behind us, it's no surprise we're seeing Black Friday previews online and Christmas tree displays in stores. (I've actually seen displays as early as September!) This abrupt change of season is a reminder that 2014 is quickly approaching, bringing more changes. But as far as I can see, the changes on the horizon look very good.

For starters, the Connect 2014 Conference,  January 26 - January 30, is expanding to reflect the growing breadth of what it means to be a social business. In addition to the strategic social business content we saw last year and the Technical Program, Connect 2014 will include the Kenexa World Conference - focused on empowering HR, your workforce and your business. This addition addresses exactly what we are seeing in the marketplace; in order to be competitive, your business strategy needs to consider social, mobile, cloud, a smarter workforce, digital, smarter commerce and analytics. And even more importantly, businesses have to figure out how to integrate these game-changing technologies into a seamless customer experience.

We're also getting an earlier look at the sessions for Connect 2014. The content team recently shared some IBM abstract submissions we can expect to see on the agenda, including IBM Sametime 9: From On-Premises to Mobile, Cloud and Beyond, Getting Beyond Theory and into Practice: Deploying Mail and Social Business in the Cloud and IBM Digital Experience Platform: Strategy and Roadmap. I'm told they will continue to release additional session titles on a regular basis. So stay tuned!

And in keeping with the theme of early holiday shopping, the conference team recently extended the early bird discount until December 13, 2013. With news like this, maybe Santa will want to start his shopping early too!


5 Tips for a Better Social Customer Experience

Customer experience is a key differentiator for businesses.  In the age of social, the experience is even more important.

From some research this weekend around the "experience" area, here are some of the tips I find most helpful in this area.

Top 5 Tips for a Better Social Customer Experience;

  1. Post relevant content.    This technique pulls relevant people to your area.  Much like a retailer would leverage a storefront, or product, or specials to get people into the store.
  2. Use big data to understand your clients needs.   I believe the combination of big data and social is a game changer.  Using the social conversations that exists, you can learn how to better meet the needs of our clients.
  3. Be Consistent.   Your company will be on a number of social sites, and probably your own website.  Consistency in multichannel is crucial.  The new Generation C demands it!  Be Consistent in brand message and content and service. .   Consistency drives trust.   Trust drivers loyalty!
  4. Help your clients.   Provide them with social tools to help them decide on your products from the experience.   Think about recommendations from others. There is a new type of purchasing recommendation.   Instead of behavior driven – if you buy this, buy that because others did this, leverage the power that social brings:  “You share these attributes with the people who read this. You might want to take a look at it.”.  Gamification and other tools in the social world can increase your customer experience.
  5. Use predictive analysis to improve both current and future interactions.  Anticipating your clients needs keeps them in your camp longer.