Hello, fellow Reference Management Professionals!
My name is Barbara Krasner and I'm the recently retired Director of Customer Advocacy Marketing from Alcatel-Lucent. At Alcatel-Lucent, and its forerunner, Lucent Technologies, I developed and led one of the IT industry's leading customer reference programs. As a rather young retiree, my goal is to lend my experience to others. My skill set includes strategic consulting, program development, metrics planning and reporting, and bringing your program to the next level.
So, one of the things I've been thinking about is: does it make sense to explore Twitter as a means to expand your company's "fan club?" Holler back at me with a comment.
I also have been thinking about case studies. Here's my latest philosophical thinking about them: I believe they should replicate a customer interview - that is, be in the customer's voice as much as possible - and not be yet another piece of marketing collateral written with fluff (I'm a professional writer with more than 200 magazine credits to my name, so I believe I can get away with saying that). And, whatever happened to quantifying benefits? I'd love to begin a discussion on this as well.
For now, I hope to see many of you at the upcoming Customer Reference Forum in California in mid-February!
Best,
Barbara
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
twitter is great....agree with you on case studies....they should all be ROI case studies....video versions are even better...
ReplyDeleteHi Barb -- welcome to the blogsphere! I love the idea of a blog on reference management and look forward to your thoughts. We all know we need to work harder on proof points, but the "how" is not always so easy!
ReplyDeleteHi, Barb -- love this. Twitter away. The medium is the message and vice versa. Totally agree about case studies -- they need to reflect the customer point of view and why it matters to them; otherwise, companies would just make it up (and, unfortunately, some do). Can't wait to see you when you're out here.
ReplyDeleteI agree. To keep case studies credible and distinct, they have to have less of the marcom promises you find in all the other marketing materials and a lot more "customer experience" details and data. Otherwise, each one sounds the same.
ReplyDeletePre-qualifying customers can help ID whether they will be able to share quantifiable results. During that pre-qual phase, it's important to ask about measurable results - and whether the customer is willing and able to share them in some form. If not, move on to another customer to feature.