Page 261 - Social Media Marketing

Taking the components shown in Table 9.2—or any of the others available in 239
the market that perform similar functions—you can create an overall Social CRM pro-
gram that matches the needs—and budget—of your business or organization. ■ BUILD A SOCIAL CRM PROGRAM

Many of the social technology and traditional CRM solution providers—includ-
ing those in Table 9.2—have already started creating linkages between their programs
that can make this somewhat easier. Radian6, for example, has an integration program
with Salesforce.com, while Scout Labs has been acquired by Lithium Technologies.
The end result is that you can pull the conversations and the people behind them into
a database and develop a contacts list that can be matched and integrated with your
own customer data. Remember too, that in addition to ready-to-implement solutions
you can always—and sometimes have to—build your own tools. As you evaluate Social
CRM solution providers, be sure to ask potential solution providers about their own
professional services: many offer these services or referrals to certified partners as a
way to make it simpler and quicker for you to implement an integrated program.

Social CRM Use Cases

Altimeter’s Ray Wang and Jeremiah Owyang have produced a useful summary and “next steps”
guide that is very helpful when sorting out your Social CRM strategy. The guide is useful as a both
a learning document for your team as well as a guide to choosing Social CRM solution paths.

You will find the guide here:

www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/social-crm-the-new-rules-of-
relationship-management

Hope Is Not a Strategy

As you begin to craft your Social CRM program, the guiding idea is this: An effective
Social CRM program begins not with hope but with a grounded, well-defined social
media strategy that extends across the organization.

This is not to say that there is no room for experimentation: there certainly is. It
is to say instead that the stakes are significantly higher with social business and invest-
ments in Social CRM than the similar entry costs (in time, dollars, and opportunity
cost) for social media marketing. Where social media marketing can be “trialed” in
places like Facebook or Twitter, or backed into via a discrete listening program using
a free tool like Google Alerts, a Social CRM program—even a “light duty” implemen-
tation—directly involves your customers and brings them into your business. By open-
ing up the formal listening/response/collaboration channels with customers—which is
what Social CRM does—you are making a significant commitment to the formal inclu-
sion of your customers as a component of your business.