The Importance of Social CRM How-To Guide

How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
The Importance of Social CRM
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Social media is a pervasive presence in corporate and personal life. Even
for those who aren’t users of social media, rarely will a day pass without
them encountering the presence of social media in some aspect of their
lives. Social media is clearly deeply integrated into the fabric of society,
serving as a communications channel and a way to connect with people
and brands.
Marketers have long been proponents of social media as a means of
engaging customers and prospects, as well as promoting their brands. The
uses of social media continue to evolve, growing in sophistication and
value. Not long ago, social media and Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) were viewed as separate initiatives with different
purposes. Now, there is clear intersection between the two, giving rise to
the concept of Social CRM. The logic is obvious: an initiative that is all
about managing customer relationships should have some degree of
visibility into or integration with the vast social media networks and
followings companies have built.
This How-To Guide will explain what Social CRM (SCRM) is and how
your business can benefit, detail various applications of SCRM and
outline an action plan for getting your business started in the world of
SCRM.
WHAT IS SOCIAL CRM?
CRM blogger Paul Greenberg provides this definition of Social CRM:
“Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a
technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes and social
characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative
conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted

How-To Guide
and transparent business environment. It's the company's response to the
customer's ownership of the conversation.”
This definition is rich with meaning and implications. The operative word
is “engagement” and it differentiates SCRM from Social Media
Monitoring, with which it is often associated. There is certainly a
connection between the two, but Social Media Monitoring can occur
passively – monitoring is essentially a listening activity. SCRM,
however, is a management activity, implying a level of proactive
involvement in the process. Both processes can yield valuable insights
into customer behavior, pains and sentiments, as well as new trends, and
feedback.
As a business strategy, SCRM exploits existing social media networks,
such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, to invite and encourage dialogue
about a brand, its products and services, and in general how it performs
when it comes to serving customers. The goal for the brand is to attract
and engage an audience – followers - in conversation. These
conversations differ substantially from colleagues chatting around the
water cooler, because the reach of these conversations is magnified and
visible to a large audience. In social media forums, hundreds, or even
thousands of followers are free to express opinions, create dialogue, ask
questions, and receive honest feedback from the brand and other
followers. These conversations are powerful influencers for shaping the
perception of the brand. Even when the discourse is initially negative,
such as when a customer complaints or expresses displeasure, the brand
has the opportunity to not only recover with that customer, but to impress
the entire community of followers with its desire to respond, its response
and the timeliness of the response.
What SCRM is as a strategy, in the simplest terms, is thoughtful,
intentional participation in a dialogue that the customer is essentially
in control of.

How-To Guide
THE BENEFITS
Social CRM benefits typically fall into these areas:
 Customer Interaction
 Facilitates efficient, convenient interaction with customers
in a way they prefer to communicate.
 Grow customer appreciation when customers feel the
brands they’re connected to are responding and listening to
them.
 Encouragement engagement through social media channels
through rewards and special offers to your brand’s
followers.
 Brand Reach
 Dialogue with and influence customers that were formerly
inaccessible or difficult to reach.
 Sharing mechanisms make it easy for brand loyalists to
promote your brand.
 Exposes your brand to new markets.
 Marketing Communications & Research
 Understand sentiment toward your brand.
 Listen for new product and/or service ideas.
 Gather primary research data through polls, surveys and
discussions.
 Inform customers of significant or interesting brand
developments: new products, locations, features, tips,
offers, partnerships, announcements, etc.
 Customer Service
 Promote self-help resources.

How-To Guide
 Identify and resolve complaints in a way that strengthens
customer bonds.
 Encourage discussions among followers that provide
advice, tips or other practical help with shared concerns,
issues or even product usage.
APPLICATIONS
New use cases for Social CRM are discovered almost every day, inspired
by the relationship and communications potential of being connected to a
large group of followers. What follows is a brief discussion on some of
the more common use cases for SCRM:
 Peer-to-peer customer support
 The social networks you build and curate are often the first
place customers go to ask product or service questions.
 Because these support issues are being posed in a social
forum, followers of the brand can and often will provide
responses to support questions.
 Brands that encourage and even reward customer
involvement in support delivery through social channels
enjoy higher levels of satisfaction and lower support costs.
 Market research
 Social media provides an excellent listening post to detect
trends, areas of opportunity or dissatisfaction and even
competitive threats. Followers of a brand will use their
connection to its social media channels to communicate
their expectations of the brand and how it needs to perform.
 Social media followers of a brand represent a sample
population or virtual focus group with whom you can
conduct primary research quickly and inexpensively.

How-To Guide
 Product launch
 The vast reach and immediacy of social media
communications make it the first choice for many
companies when it comes to new product announcements.
 Pre-announce new product features, terms or conditions to
get immediate feedback which is useful for making
program changes and enhancements prior to general
product availability.
 Identify excellent beta test or case study candidates by
monitoring social media posts.
 Brand reputation management
 Monitor social media posts to understand sentiment about
your brand. At regular intervals, take a social media
snapshot of brand sentiment and track the trend. Identify
causes for both upward and downward sentiment trends so
you can manage them.
 Engage directly with brand loyalists and detractors to
understand the reasons for their sentiments. Through social
media engagement, turn brand detractors into loyalists, and
brand loyalists into brand ambassadors.
ACTION PLAN
For most companies, Social CRM represents a new level of engagement
beyond the usual social media presence. Here’s a list of actions to take to
evolve from curating company social media channels to receiving the
benefits of SCRM:
1. Build your online community
 Identify the social media channels your customers frequent.
 Develop a presence on these channels.
 Monitor your social media channels frequently, both to
respond to followers who engage with you, and to post
practical information.

How-To Guide
 Publish a social media policy and train employees how to
engage customers through your social media channels.
2. Understand what your customers value
 Seek to deeply understand the audience and followers you
have through social media.
 Based on your understanding, post content that provides
value to them.
 Measure the response you get to the content you share
through social media by tracking “Likes” or other sharing
activity.
3. Think like a customer
 Before posting any content, objectively consider why a
follower of your brand would care. Avoid posting content
that can’t pass through this filter.
 In general, keep the tone of your content largely about
helping or entertaining, not selling.
 Avoid any content that risks damaging your brand’s
reputation.
 Follow the lead of customer posts, even when it doesn’t
relate directly to your product or value proposition. Join in
these conversations as a way to engage.
4. Motivate your customers
 Make it easy and obvious for customers to follow you on
social media.
 Recognize or otherwise reward customers who interact with
you through these channels.
 Be quick to respond to followers who post comments,
questions, complaints or criticisms.

How-To Guide
 Strive to avoid appearing defensive or demeaning in your
response to complaints.
5. Engage your audience
 Post a variety of content: videos, blogs, contests, daily
jokes, surveys and polls. Don’t be one-dimensional in the
content you post.
 Show some personality in your posts. Let followers see the
human side of your business.
 Never make fun of a follower, even as a joke. Do poke fun
at your brand in a light-hearted way.
 Thank or otherwise acknowledge customers for
participating in dialogue with your brand or the community.
BOTTOM LINE
Your business can benefit from culture of customer-centric social
media and CRM. By leveraging the power of online communities
and discussion forums, your business can extend its reach and build
brand equity by listening to what your customers are saying through
social media. Managing the online conversation is a catalyst to grow
the stature of a brand. An effective SCRM process provides
opportunities to gain new market insights, improve service quality and
deepen loyalty to the brand.

The Importance of Social CRM How-To Guide

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The Importance of Social CRM How-To Guide