Daily Archives: September 14, 2015

DreamForce

I was offered a free ticket to Dreamforce, the Salesforce.com conference and took the opportunity to see what a tech conference was like. The difference between Dreamforce and the SLA or AALL conferences was AMAZING. People were excited to be at Dreamforce; speakers were well rehearsed and the entire ‘compound’ was packed. There was a place to donate books. They had a playground with beanbag games, hula hoops, a large screen, a beading activity and places to lounge. Attending this conference made me want to work for Salesforce.com and use their product.

My ticket allowed me to attend a limited number of events, most of which were keynote type sessions. I wasn’t allowed to attend the Foo Fighters concert nor did I get free meals. The organizers emailed me several times about upgrading my ticket, so it wasn’t that they didn’t want me. I wanted to see what was what and I was thrilled with what I was able to get for free.

The very first session was a marketing session and the takeaways will be very useful for my clients:

  • Consider that your customers have a journey (the customer journey), which is comprised of the following lifecycle:
    • Acquire
    • Sell
    • Onboard
    • Engage
    • Advocate

I was quite intrigued by the example they gave for ‘onboard’, which was from Mattel. If a customer purchases a toy online, they are sent, as part of their purchase receipt, an invitation to download an app which connects the physical toy, to an online environment and allows Mattel to create a relationship with the customer.

As I listened to the presentation, my mind was whirring about how this could be used in libraries, especially in public libraries. Could a patron who checks out a book and receives an emailed receipt also be sent a link to download the library’s search tool app?