I recently came across a blog post entitled reference programs in a hyper-social world, which included a mix of interesting notions (i.e., think tribes vs. market segments) and observations of what’s wrong with many of today’s programs.

Here’s a list of recommendations for adapting to the “hyper-social world”:

• Let go of control and empower customers to tell their own stories
• Make sure all your customer stories are customer-centric to a fault
• Think tribes, not market-segments
• Don’t pay for your customer references
• Forget information channels and think knowledge networks

We’ve been exclusively focused on supporting B2B customer reference programs for 7 years now. There has definitely been a shift away from incentives for references, telling the customer’s story (not so much the vendor’s), and toward more credible and authentic customer stories in audio, video and text. On the social media front, many clients have established online customer communities, customer advisory councils, and begun gathering more “customer-sourced” content.

Yes, it’s still “gathered” because sales people still need an easy, timely way to find successful customer “proof points” in order to serve the needs of prospective buyers (and close deals). Even in B2C it can be hard to find customer stories/reviews that are meaningful and sufficiently plentiful. That problem is multiplied in six, seven or eight figure B2B deals.

The role of the reference program is becoming that of the customer networking nerve center, irrespective of the latest and greatest tools/sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) that operate independent of the vendor. The smart program managers always saw themselves in this light. There are plenty of companies still stuck in the old paradigm of churning out written case studies to meet some arbitrary quota—and consider that a reference program. But those situations are the anomaly from our experience.