In Megan Adams LinkedIn Learning social media marketing course, Social CRM, she takes her viewers through a journey of exploring the new and evolving practice of social CRM. As social media becomes a more intricate aspect of people’s lives, it’s become more important for organizations to begin to integrate this trend into their processes in order to stay competitive. Throughout the course, Adams delivers the ins and outs of effective social CRM.
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Social CRM is a strategy- supported by social media, online tools and technology, that enables organizations to better engage with customers (Adams, 2018). By adding social data points of customers to CRM, organizations enjoy many benefits that conventional CRM software cannot provide. Social CRM assists organizations in understanding their customers which ultimately creates more meaningful engagements and stronger brand advocates. By allowing customers to choose how they wish to interact with the organization, instead of building systems, the organization can collect more data and improve processes including: marketing, sales, customer service, support and experience.
When a company wants to begin leveraging social CRM, they’ll have many choices of software tool that could best meet their needs. Will it meet the size requirements for the organization, are the features easy and intuitive, does it integrate with our existing tools, what are the security and customer service features available, are all questions that need consideration. These, however, are just some of the considerations to review before making a decision (Adams, 2018). The successful adoption of social CRM requires organizations to first have “buy in” from their leadership and then allocate organizational resources such as time, money and manpower. Because of the technical nature of social CRM, organizations should expect to have to thoroughly train staff to develop their skills to be effective and provide sufficient ROI for the organization.
Develop Your Strategy
One of the main purposes of social CRM is to have an effective brand strategy. Brand is the overall impression- resulting from communication and marketing methods -of a product or company that distinguishes itself from competitors (Adams, 2018). Companies want customers to think positively about them and spread that positivity throughout their network. Social CRM allows these companies to nurture their brand equity by removing the “faceless organization” with a more personal and humanized relationship. With new social tools available, it’s much easier for business and consumers to connect and foster relationships, although this also comes greater challenges and opportunities. Brands can be praised or tarnished quickly across platforms. Monitoring how customers feel and perceive an organization is critical to success.
Adams continues her training to elaborate some “rules of engagement” and how laying out clearly defined rules will set the standard for every prospect and customer interaction the organization has (Adams, 2018). Online engagement should be treated just like you would with a client or prospect face to face. People want to be respected, feel appreciated and have their concerns met quickly. Considering the fast speed of direct communication through social channels it’s in the organizations best interest to use for improving customer service and experience levels. Being proactive and solving problems quickly could be the competitive advantage that sets a company apart from their competitors. With good rules to follow, the organization should know how to deal with certain customer segments and personalize their communication and support.
Manage Social CRM
Managing an organization’s online social presence has many considerations. True influencers are people who drive action not just awareness (Adams, 2018). Leveraging bloggers or influencers with large audiences online are great to collaborate with and help promote the organization. When an influencer is relevant to an organization’s brand, a great partnership can form where everyone wins, and the organization attracts potential customers. Managing the relationship with these prospects should always begin with providing value. When value is provided upfront, trust and credibility is built, and a long-term relationship can develop which can eventually turn transactional. Once a customer is acquired, the usefulness of social CRM doesn’t stop. Social CRM allows for increased retention because it facilitates support in the customers preferred environment (Adams, 2018).
Your Toolkit
When it comes to social CRM process documentation gives organizations the ability to systematize their social workflows of different business units. By having these processes documented, they can create a standard of customer experience and then allow incremental improvements over time. Collecting data is critical to understanding where these improvements can be made. Using analytics helps organizations to better understand the behaviors of their target audience and how to improve overall satisfaction and ultimately increase the lifetime value of that customer.
Conclusion
Social CRM is a growing trend that can’t be ignored. As a small business owner, Adams presentation has brought insight into the importance of understanding the value of each customer and how the social data on them can improve their experience and sales. I’ve looked at the main software I use for my business and have discovered that it actually does collect social data on prospects that enter the system.
I wasn’t aware of this before but can now see that I have access to some social data on new prospects. For example, above you can see data on a new lead. This is showing a low overall social score which helps me determine the quality of the leas. I can determine from this lead that I wouldn’t spend as much time trying to convert this lead as compared to someone who scored higher.
References
Megan Adams. (2018, ) Social media marketing: Social CRM. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/social-media-marketing-social- crm/welcome?u=2109516
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