Huffington Post contributor Phil Simon and I met at IBM's Partnerworld conference, and had a chance to discuss the premise behind Opting In. An example Q&A:
What is the perception of IBM and social media today?Very much appreciate the airtime on HuffPo, Phil.
IBM has transformed over the last six or seven years into a culture of participation. We have one of the largest presences on LinkedIn and Twitter, and IBMers continue to explore the leading edge of both inbound and outbound usage of social media. More importantly, we have recognized the importance of social business as a tool to reach clients and potential buyers. Our research has found that people who visit ibm.com as a result of a referral from a blog or tweet or other curated content are more likely to convert into participating in an offer from our website than if they just came to ibm.com directly. That is a direct reflection of the authentic voice used established by IBMers and our communities.
Link: Huffington Post: Social Media and the Mature Organization >
I like their finding "more likely to convert" when it comes to people refered somehow from social media and blogs.
I read "What would google do" not long ago and this book told the story about how DELL had great success at having employees working only to interact with the social media users and bloggers in a way to reach both happy and unhappy clients wherever they communicated and try to help them
It'd be nice to see other large companies like IBM do this to :-)