Page 262 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 9: SOCIAL CRM ■ A solid social media marketing program begins with business objectives, an
understanding of the audience, and a thought-through measurement program or suc-
cess assessment methodology. Social CRM is no different, and adds the requirements
of creating a cross-functional team within your organization to deal with the feed-
back, ideas and suggestions when they start flowing. In Chapter 2, “The New Role of
the Customer,” I talked about workflow and the routing of critical information—at
scale—directly into the parts of your organization that need to see it. These kinds of
considerations and more are the added requirements in building a social business and
Social CRM program. Without the ability to effectively route and track potentially
large amounts of conversational data (workflow), your Social CRM efforts will quickly
bog down.

Integrate the Social Experience

BatchBlue provides BatchBook as an integration tool aimed specifically at small businesses using
240 Google applications. BatchBook connects social data with your in-house data and the Google

apps you are using now.

http://www.batchblue.com/google/

Gigya provides integration tools across registration, social activities, and measurement as a part
of its social business solution set.

http://www.gigya.com/public/solutions/overview.aspx

Create a Social CRM Plan

Creating a Social CRM program—organizational buy-in aside—is a straightforward
process. Like social media marketing, start your Social CRM business plan with your
business objectives. What do you want to achieve from your business or organizational
perspective? What do you want your customers to gain as a result of this program? Be
clear as well in identifying which of your customers or audience will be the focus of your
initial efforts. Plan accordingly, allow time to do this “prep work” correctly, and provide
plenty of opportunity for others in your organization who may be similarly interested to
join with you. Here’s why: One way or another, you will need the support of your entire
organization. What is talked about on the Social Web is the net result of the actions of
your entire organization, and there is no getting around that. If you charge into a Social
CRM plan alone, you risk alienating the very people you need to succeed.

Begin with a team and an initial plan based on your business objectives; com-
bine that with your listening program results. Use the conversations circulating now to
shape your early programs. If you have not undertaken a best-practices-driven listening