The Social Customer Manifesto

Texture

Very interesting "open-source business card" project being tested over at Kickstarter from VRM colleague (and NPR innovator) Keith Hopper.  Check it out.  Keith says:

"I discovered that if you power off your iPhone with the camera app running, you'll get an impromptu close-up shot when you next turn on your phone. This is usually a shot of a table surface, the ground, your shoes - many of which provide interesting textural backgrounds.

This phenomenon inspired me to shoot texture shots taken as iPhone close-ups. In order to learn more about effectively framing and lighting a digital shot, I post all photos without edits, cropping, or level and color changes.

If you want one of the first packs of Creative Commons-licensed MOO MiniCards, the money will go to pay for the cards and the shipping for your order. All the photo and edit work to complete the project I'll do for free. Any additional money raised will go towards hiring a graphic designer to design a 100th card (99 photos + 1 professionally designed card). The 100th "credits card" will give photo, design, and support credits to every participant that pledges at least $1 to the project."

Trying a new form of innovation/business exploration? Check.  Art?  Check.  Cool stuff?  Check.

I'm in.

Thin Value vs. Thick Value

Some really thought-provoking bits in here on "thin value" (i.e. inauthentic, brittle, and unsustainable) vs. "thick value" (i.e. more for us = more for you).

Umair Haque at BRITE '09 conference from BRITE Conference on Vimeo.

Really interesting stuff starts about a minute and a half in.

Thanks to Joe Andrieu for the link.

A Declaration of Customer Independence

"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all customers are born free, that they are endowed by the market with innate abilities to relate, to converse and and to transact — on their own terms, and in their own ways..."

photo: schaffner

That's Spamtertainment!

This Is An Insane(ly cool) Idea

Check this out, courtesy of the Hoosier Contrarian.

It's a proposal for building power generation directly into roadways.  Very cool thought.

Video: Doc Searls Pulls Out A Gun

Doc Searls pulls out a (pricing) gun at the 2009 VRM West Coast Workshop on May 15, 2009.  Some great thoughts in here about the transformation of "content" industries, and hints at the tools that customers could wield to set their own price.

And just because it's fun to pull it out of context, I love this blurry screen grab, too.  :-)

photo: christopher carfi, creative commons 3.0 attribution

Social CRM / Social Selling (Webcast Archive)

Back in March, I had the opportunity to chat for an hour or so with Mark Woollen from Oracle and Anneke Seley from PhoneWorks around topics related to how customers and sales teams interact at a time when the customer is increasingly in charge of the dynamics of the relationship.  A bit of presentation bits at the beginning, and then the balance of the hour is Q&A with the participants on the webinar.  Here 'tis:

Link to the video here.

(Disclosure: The Customer Collective is a customer of Cerado)

YPulse Youth Marketing Mashup

Just got a nice note from old friend Anastasia Goodstein, who is the prime mover behind YPulse (which is a formidable marketing blog and is the place to understand what is current in media, technology and entertainment with tweens and teens).  YPulse is gearing up for their next "YPulse Mashup" event.  Here's the scoop:

"Hey Chris! I hope this email finds you well. We have an amazing line up this year including Don Tapscott, Donna Fenn (Inc.) and so many other cool speakers.

 I was hoping you might share it with your readers. We created a special code SC (Social Customer) just for your readers/Twitter followers to get 10 percent off the price."

Indeed.  So, if you want to go and save a couple of bucks, use the code "SC" when you register.  The conference is June 1-2, 2009 in San Francisco.

ListenLog Overview at VRM West Coast Workshop

Keith Hopper talks about ListenLog at the 2009 VRM West Coast Workshop in May, 2009.

Link to the video here.

tags: vrm, vrm2009

VRM West Coast Workshop

VRM agenda
Originally uploaded by christophercarfi.

At the VRM West Coast Workshop today. Agenda attached. (Click through the pic to expand).

About 40-50 folks here. Open Space format. Follow along here: VRM twitter stream