Sunday, February 22, 2009

Leveraging multimedia to reach out

[Update: This post does seem ironic in retrospect!]

I wanted to scribble a few lines on Social CRM. My research begins at alter of the almighty Wikipedia. Here’s my search for Social CRM. What? No page exists?! Let’s try CRM 2.0, shall we? Nada. But Wikipedia suggests ever so thoughtfully ‘Did you mean: CMR 2.0’. Unfortunately this time around I didn’t.

Strategy #2: YouTube. Much better! I got 63 results. Interesting and relevant too.

Now this post is not about how I seized the opportunity and created and a wiki page and neither is it a conspiracy to bash Wikipedia. Rather it’s about the growing trend to ‘multimediaize’, if I may use the term. Inevitable I’d say: Encyclopaedia Britannica vs. Animal Planet? For that matter books vs. TV? Let’s extend that one more time TV vs. Internet? Bandwidth prices are tumbling and the ‘other’ screen is catching up too - most newer handsets are capable of streaming YouTube or iPlayer. Podcasts anyone?

And in the enterprise space, companies should start taking notice: in the 3-4 minute time a visitor (a potential customer maybe?) is searching for information it’s a no brainer that you need (not) throw 10 pages! There are however obvious reasons to keep text, but I believe companies are still not leveraging multimedia. YouTube, Dailymotion or even your own website, but please start using multimedia to reach out (Product Offerings, Case Studies etc etc). Reaching out increases mind share increases knowledge increases consumption.

Case in point: Paul Greenberg & Brent Leary’s CRM Playaz discussion actually became Paul’s top rated post. It’s an audio with supporting text. Though I have to admit content still drives a fair amount of (listeners) readers.

Honestly if the Vatican has started taking notice of YouTube, then so should enterprises.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the shoutout, John. Actually, though there is a CRM 2.0 wiki out there at crm20.pbwiki.com that's got a fair amount of visibility that might be of help to you in your writings. However, your general point is dead on. People tend to prefer rich media in how they deal with things though no one is going to be giving up reading in the near future for just listening. Its a different sensory experience that we have just begun to recognize the possibilities for.

Check out the wiki when you get a chance. Or join it. Its been around since around 2006. I created it and it has up and down amounts of activity but enough to have an impact in multiple places being quoted in most of the reports on CRM 2.0 from 800 pound gorilla analyst firms. And, of course, my own stuff. :-)

Deepak said...

Wow! Thanks for stopping by... I can see CRM at work already :)