Twitter: @BrentLeary

Website/Blog: http://BrentLeary.com

Bio

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine’s Most Influential Leader Award. He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, on the advisory board of the University of Toronto’s CRM Center of Excellence, and on the editorial advisory board for The Atlanta Tribune. Leary writes a regular online column for Inc. magazine, and serves as Blogger-in-Residence for TheSocialCustomer.com. He blogs at BrentLeary.com, and can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

How can we use technology to close the digital divide?

The latest social tools and mobile technologies have dramatically lowered the cost and complexities of business creation. And because certain barriers have been lowered, more people are exploring ways to start a business – which means more people will be competing for the hearts, minds, and dollars of today’s socially-empowered customers.

Technology is evolving at an accelerated pace, which means we need to be vigilant in perpetually understanding how we can best take advantage of it. The Digital Divide can quickly shrink if we permanently embed technology into our business and personal lives. But it can expand at the speed of light today, if we turn our head for just a moment. Knowing what’s available to us today may not help us be as competitive as we need to be tomorrow. So it’s imperative to continually be up to date with how technology is changing, and how those changes impact business models, as well as customer relationships. We should also be ready, willing and able to drive those changes wherever possible.