Social CRM; the group as the unit of focus

Early efforts in Social CRM too / platform enablements have been focused on the individual:

• Capturing Social activity and informing network value calculation through it
• Identification of behavioral characteristics (connector, maven. Etc.)
• Facilitating two way communication through Social Channels
• Etc.

This is great progress but I think we are yet to see one key aspect of Social CRM; the group as the unit of focus…

There is plenty of academia research on the topic; we behave in different ways as members of a group as we do as individuals.. and these behavioral characteristics change from one group to another (our work, our family, our church, our sport communities).

What are the platform / tool capabilities that will allow us to work with groups as social units and “affect” their behavior by introducing members (i.e. advocates), information (support? Offers?), shared purpose (challenges? Causes?).

• Identify groups/subgroups as they come together (i.e. a group that continuously uses Twitter to discuss a topic)
• Identify the composition & behavior (distinct behavioral characteristics that are present in the group; how many of each?)
• Pattern matching; where does the activity of this group seems to be going based on observations of similar groups we have had in the past? and what variables can I introduce to affect this behavior?

What do you think?

Filiberto Selvas

Filiberto.Selvas@Gmail.Com