I’ve been seeing more and more about Bluesky recently, and with it growing to over 20 million users, it’s certainly a social platform to consider in place of X (who knows what will happen there in the future). Have you started looking at it as part of your own social media strategy? I’ve created a starter pack, people and organisations writing and sharing content on Customer Insights – Journeys (formerly D365 Marketing). Just click on the button and sign up, and you’ll be set to follow people who are sharing content about Customer Insights – Journeys. You can also check out this starter pack by fellow MVP  Joe Unwin which is a list of MVP’s to follow – Microsoft MVPs Starter Pack — Bluesky.

Amey has shared an article about the event timezone field. When you include this in your email to show the event time zone of the event, it doesn’t look too smart! And the long format label is pretty cringe worthy too. So she shows how you can create a field for the pretty and year round correct GMT offset time zone that can be used in event communications, with style.

Another great post from Pauline. Imagine a virtual agent that doesn’t just sit quietly in Teams, waiting for you to ask questions. Instead, it takes the initiative! Did you know your agents can send proactive messages? No more waiting for users to reach out. Now, you can give them a friendly nudge whenever needed.

Did you know you can’t use fields with security enabled when creating Segments? Well, you couldn’t but now you can. Fiona has shared her experience and how you can start using them when building your Segments in Realtime.

We saw the export real-time segments feature was announced in the November release, but it took a while to roll out to everyone. Here is a well timed blog from Maya Atchan as a guest post on Stephani McDowell’s website. This shows you all about any limitations and how to get started using the feature.

The bootcamp has a series of subjects, but the Dynamics 365 Customer Insights Bootcamp will show you how to augment customer data profiles and deliver Marketing Automation based on Customer driven insights takes place in person at the conference venue. This Training includes Customer Insights Data and Customer Insights Journeys formerly known as Dynamics 365 Marketing. It’s online so no travel issues with getting there, and the CI bootcamp is January 30th 2025.

I mentioned Bluesky earlier. For more information on what it is, how to use it and getting started, check out this article from Content Writer at Buffer, cover what you should know about the latest social media app, Bluesky.

Should companies focus only on those with successful interactions, or should they also include customers who have experienced friction, rejection, or abandonment? This white paper explores why surveying disengaged, rejected, and dropped-off customers is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience (CX) and how it can help companies address potential issues proactively.

Customer journey mapping allows businesses to identify gaps in the customer experience, improve touchpoints, and ultimately provide a more cohesive and engaging service. For CX professionals, it’s an invaluable tool that sheds light on what customers are truly experiencing, not just what you think they’re experiencing. Here are five essential strategies every CX professional should know regarding customer journey mapping.

First-party data is data organizations collect themselves, meaning they aren’t dependent on other people’s lists. It’s the key to personalization and can have a significant impact on your return on advertising spend (ROAS) when it’s used in paid media campaigns. Martech shares a video discussion on first-party data and why it is so important and making sure you ask the right questions.

I am not Copilot’s biggest fan, but each organisation needs to make up their own mind. I found this article interesting and thought provoking, at one point stating Microsoft’s Copilot efforts are riddled with privacy and security issues, with a high-ranking employee referring to most Copilot-themed tools as “gimmicky.”