A few days ago, my friend Jennifer Vides wrote an excellent piece on social media; something she is quite familiar with as she consults on the matter (and other media) from a marketing perspective. Many of the points in her article mirrored my own feelings towards social media. And although it is not my area of focus, there is an ever increasing level of attention towards it from the CRM community at large that makes it a common topic of discussion.
Social media and Social CRM, as the marriage of the two is being called, is, in my opinion, a mixed bag of good and bad. The good has fueled an intense interest by CRM vendors, to a level that easily leads one to believe they are bordering on forgetting that social media is not a replacement for CRM, but instead a complement.
Personally, I have a measured liking of social media in that I understand and accept its value and potential, but am also weary of its negatives.
Some positives we can highlight include its propensity for facilitating networking and connecting with others that share (or perhaps not) similar interests, jobs, likes, dislikes, etc. It is also an inexpensive way of reaching a lot of people which one can generally assume have an interest in something that one has to offer, whether it be a product, comic relief or knowledge about a specific topic.
Blogs are an excellent example. They are an invaluable resource on just about any topic, specially for those us working within the world of technology. Many other positive examples can be easily referenced, such as the person who lands a job via their LinkedIn profile, reconnecting with long lost friends and family via Facebook, etc.
Now for the bad.
