Five ways to get started on “social CRM”
January 25th, 2010 - Posted in Social Media Marketing, Strategy by Tim Freestone
A decade ago, the CRM sector was hitting its stride. The commericialization of the web made it possible for businesses to keep better track of their customers, marketing initiatives and the revenue associated with each, with the evolution of software as a service (SaaS) making it even more accessible and powerful. The next iteration in the maturity of CRM is social media. Beyond the nebulous benefits of connecting with existing and new clients via this increasingly popular channel, there are steps you can take to use tools like Twitter and LinkedIn to extend your CRM capabilities.
The stakes are high, of course. Forrester Research estimates that around 75 percent of adults online in the United States use social media platforms, so there’s a decent chance that a meaningful portion of your target market can be found in this environment. The challenge then becomes … what do you do with this access?
Like Forrester, I agree that you need to dodge the hype and get right down to business. There are plenty of specific ways you can extend your CRM capabilities into the social media space, from monitoring client satisfaction trends to identifying pain points that can be used in pursuing new business. The potential is easy enough to identify — execution tends to be the tough part.
So, here are five suggestions from Forrester on how to get started … with an enter:marketing twist:
