I've started writing for ITEC's newsletter. ITEC produces conferences for IT professionals. ITEC helps them learn "how to tackle the challenges of an ever-changing business and technology landscape."

My focus for ITEC will be on the intersection of IT and marketing. The impact of social on businesses is requiring these two groups to collaborate and co-create value more than ever before.

There's a retired life insurance salesman in my neighborhood whose success in a 40+ year career was largely based on his ability to build a community of trust. He built trust by being committed to helping people first and selling insurance second.

Walking his Lower East Side Manhattan territory, he knocked on many doors, made many acquaintances and accepted many requests for advice and help

Customer centric approaches over the years have had many philosophical flavors and technical implementations including CRM, customer infallibility, consultative selling, NPS, loyalty programs, employee comp plans tied to customer satisfaction and others.

Social media has finally given companies the tools they need to really attain customer centricity.

I'm often asked what being customer centric means. Lately, the question is being posed more frequently. This is the result of companies trying to develop social media strategies, focusing on customer experience and customer engagement and dealing with tight budgets.

"Being" customer centric results from adherence to a set of core values that are appropriate for your customers, products/services, employees and business goals.

In the past I've written about my third favorite question.

Here's another favorite:

"So what?"

I use it to challenge new ideas, the status quo, problems, solutions, etc. It comes in handy when developing new customer-facing initiatives.