MS Dynamics CRM 2011 Launch Event in Montreal

I had the chance to assist as a sponsor (Avanade) to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 launch event in Montreal and I wanted to share one thing in particular that struck me by surprise: A speech session by Mitch Joel about marketing. Now, I’m the kind of guy that immediately rolls his eyes just when hearing the word “marketing”, but bear with me, Mitch has a delightful vision of marketing worth writing an article about!


This slide probably best gives you an idea of his speech:

"Your brand is not what you say it is...it's what Google says it is. It's also what Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn say it is"

Wow, wise words but let me take a step back to fill you in on where this all this comes from. He states we are standing right at the tipping point of a marketing revolution comparable in magnitude to the emergence of E-commerce. So what is this new marketing paradigm about? One word: Social.

The most powerful marketing campaigns are no longer achieved by purchasing advertisement space or air time, but rather when you get your customers to advertise for you: Yelp, Facebook, etc. He even comes up with an interesting fact: A bad review is more likely to qualify a lead than a good review! That by the way reminds me of DecorMyEyes.com, the company that became famous because of its high ranking in Google, all thanks to its hundreds of bad reviews and scam reports. Mitch explains all this in his book called "Six Pixels of Separation" and as ironic as it sounds, here I am shouting to the world that I can't wait to read that book! OK now that you get the idea of social marketing, why is he talking about this at the launch event for Dynamics CRM? Perhaps a happy coincidence or a strategic topic, in any case, it aligns great with Microsoft’s recent announcement in their Statement of Direction that they will focus R&D efforts in providing solutions for a social CRM. Now it all makes sense, I was really delighted with his speech and the big lesson I took home is: Embrace the social marketing paradigm now or you might as well just reduce your marketing to the printed Yellow Pages.