Finally got to meet Jeremiah Owyang today. He highlighted today's session at the Customer Reference Forum.

After cuddly Ben yesterday, today we got scary Jeremiah.

Not scary personally of course. He's a friendly guy and his heritage in running customer communities inside a large tech vendor (Hitachi) which sells into a fairly dry enterprise market (data storage) meant he connected with the B2B audience, their situation and challenges. He's done that job himself so there was alot of common understanding with delegates. Where he differs dramatically is that he came from a tech background, not a marketing or sales background, and dived into social media very early and very deep.

Jeremiah gave us a great tour though relevant social media tools and techniques. With a wide divergence in exposure to, and participation in, social media among delegates this was very helpful. Going beyond this he added insight into what to expect next, and practical advice about steps that customer reference professionals should be taking now.

Some key takeaways were:

• The battleground of online interaction has moved from just two locations (corporate web site and Google ranking) to multiple locations, most of which are owned by other people, either communities or social media platform providers
• You will not control the new world, customers will be able to access positive and negative references. It will happen. The old cycle of asking vendors for references as part of the buying process will change. Deal with it, and equip yourselves with appropriate skills, techniques and tools to influence the influentials.
• The role of the reference manager will change. The job description will grow but so will the skills and experience necessary to be successful, both as an individual and in terms of the program.
• Welcome out into the daylight. Reference managers won't be trapped in a dark organizational broom cupboard attached to the side of marketing or sales departments. They will move up front and centre.
• But to evolve and build next generation programs and tools you will need to partner much more widely internally. Other people in different functions of your organization probably already have some of the answers you need. Find them, partner with them, learn from them.
• Find partners and suppliers who a, get it and b, have the experience and toolsets you'll need to build next generation programs.

So why was he scary? Because the underlying sub text of his guided tour through social media was that the world of customer reference programs (or customer advocacy programs) will change dramatically. Or as one, delegate turned to me and whispered into my ear: "so, he's telling us we either evolve or die." Yup.

What's the smartest thing a reference manager could do right now?

• Get involved in social media, first look and listen and only then start to participate.
• Add that geeky twenty something to your team who lives and breathes social media (picture a young Jeremiah straight from college).

Jeremiah has already posted on today's session and included links to his presentation. Take a look.