Earlier this month I read a great article, The 4 Fail Whales of Social Media Marketing, authored by Lauren McKay, in destinationCRM.com.  It is no surprise I have revisited this article a few times to reflect on the advice Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), Charlene Li (@charleneli), and Peter Kim (@peterkim) shared with attendees of the Web 2.0 Expo.

The 4 Fail Whales include:
  1. "Social media doesn’t match up with our corporate culture"
  2. "My social media marketing campaigns aren’t working"
  3. "I don’t know how to measure this stuff"
  4. "I’m not sure social media matters anyway"
 
With my primary focus on our community, I appreciate that Charlene Li stressed that social media isn’t about marketing campaigns and is about building relationships with customers and collaborating.   And, I had to agree with her insight that businesses need to change relationships not only with customers, but with employees and external constituents as well.  How is your business culture changing?  Have you made change within your organization to embrace this philosophy?  And, are you using any measurement tools that provide feedback on sentiment? 

In the ACT! community, we are working on a new forum, Ideas Exchange, where you are invited to share your product and service ideas with us.  Currently, we receive product enhancements requests through several channels, including:  support, email, conference sessions, Webcasts, partner newsgroups, and conversations with our partners and customers.  With Ideas Exchange, your ideas become more than a suggestion.  Your ideas will spark other passionate community members to add, refine, and sometimes challenge entries, resulting in the best possible improvements.  As a member, your contribution is invaluable, as you will inspire change and even vote on the ideas that best support your business growth and success.  This is exciting stuff, and we can't wait to learn about your ideas.
 
McKay, L. (2009). The 4 Fail Whales of Social Media Marketing. destinationCRM.com.