Scott D. NelsonI received several interesting pieces of feedback from my post of yesterday, so this is a bit of a continuation on the theme.
Many of the folks that contacted me seem to have a once and done mentality when it comes to social media and how it relates to CRM. By that I mean that they say things like “we have a Facebook page”, or “we have people monitoring Twitter”, or the ever popular IT view of life “is there a piece of software that I can buy that will do all this?”. In each case, they view social media as a project that they can finish, and then move on to the next project.
It is important for firms to realize that social media is dynamic, and is an ongoing strategic commitment, not a tactical project. This is important for a number of reasons, not the least of which each sub segment of the media has it’s own rules, and expectation, strengths and weaknesses. You cannot have a “one approach fits all” or a single project will put this to bed view of the area.
Firms need to ask themselves some basic questions:
1. What does the concept of a customer ecosystem (the bigger world that your firm is in the midst of along with your customers) look like?
2. Do I hope to use social media for revenue generation, brand support, or service (or some combination of all three)?
3. Do I have people on my team that understand this area, and use it in their daily life? If not, you should find some.
4. Are there things that we can apply from other areas such as mass media and direct marketing that might be useful in this arena? But at the same time, you should not view social media as just another form of either.
5. And finally, do I view social media as something disconnected from the rest of CRM? If so, time to rethink and restrategize, because it isn’t.
I am starting to realize that many firms come into this arena with the assumption that everyone out there is lying about their firm and the goal of this strategy is to set them straight. I believe that the successful firms will instead embrace the media as the best way yet to engage in meaningful dialogue with customers. Yes, some have issues that they want to air. But isn’t that part of having a relationship?
Category: CRM Strategy Tags: CRM Strategy, Social media
6 responses so far ↓
1 Twitter Trackbacks for Social Media is Not “Once and Done” [gartner.com] on Topsy.com September 18, 2009 at 9:22 am
[...] Social Media is Not “Once and Done” blogs.gartner.com/scott_nelson/2009/09/18/social-media-is-not-once-and-done – view page – cached I received several interesting pieces of feedback from my post of yesterday, so this is a bit of a continuation on the theme. — From the page [...]
2 Mike Boysen September 18, 2009 at 10:17 am
SCRM isn’t once and done just like CRM isn’t once and done….unless you believe CRM is software. Good post.
3 Rick Mans September 18, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Social Media is disconnected from CRM, since Social Media is about people. Not everybody you interact with is or will be your customer. However these people can help you to let other people become your customer. Off course it all depends on your interpretation of CRM and what you store in a CRM system (or how your CRM process is designed), but the C in CRM is just a bit too narrow for social media, since there are more not-customers out there than customers.
A small addition to 3: ensure not only you have that people, but you should also be aware some might have to do a full time job while participating in / monitoring social media. That is something that is often forgotten.
4 Valerie Kusler September 18, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Great post, Scott — and so true.
Many companies first of all, dive in without a strategy at all. They create a facebook page, add 1,000 people on Twitter, spew nothing but brand messages, and think they’re all set.
Like any CRM strategy, social media activities must constantly evolve to continue to be relevant to the consumers you’re trying to reach– and in social media, relevance has to involve interaction.
5 Social Media is Not “Once and Done” « Social Media September 18, 2009 at 8:17 pm
[...] See more here: Social Media is Not “Onc&#… [...]
6 Hank Marquis September 19, 2009 at 4:10 am
From a business perspective social media refers to a dramatic change in the relationship between suppliers and their marketplaces, and one in which consumers now have the upper hand. Don’t confuse social media with popular outlets for its expression. Managers need to stop discounting social media by associating it only with outlets for its expression like LinkedIn®, TripAdvisor® and MySpace®. Social media outlets like Facebook® or Twitter® allow businesses to converse with communities of customers and users, as opposed to talking at them. For most of the history of marketing the marketplace has been captive, communications largely one sided, and there have been few alternatives for consumers. The situation has accelerated and changed. To survive, marketers need to embrace the concepts of social media, not necessarily every outlet for its expression.