Why using Social Media for CRM is a priceless tool

I must start by emphasising that social media is by no means the only CRM (customer relationship management) tool a company should use and certainly in certain circumstances there are are other CRM tools that are more effective.

It has however become clearly obvious that with the implementation of social media as a grass roots CRM instrument by medium and large enterprises, the cost effectiveness of these tools and overall resulting customer experience of the engagement, interaction and when necessary also the intervention often provides an almost immediate ROI.

A number of examples immediately come to mind. The most recent was only yesterday when we were attending a conference at a venue that is part of one of the largest global hotel and hospitality chains. My other half was rather displeased with the service and sent a single tweet and hash tagged it.

The response was almost immediate and came from pretty high up. This company got it right in both of the most important ways this should be approached. Implementation of their actual CRM strategy using social media and their culture regarding how to approach the problem using the relevant instrument - in this case Twitter.

It is very clear that not only do they have an engaging monitoring policy, but they also go out of their way to ensure that when tweets are not directed at them personally they can pick up hash tagged and unhashtagged conversations, enabling quick intervention when required.

Brand and reputation development and protection should come hand in hand with any online engagement strategy and policy for any business regardless of its size. We all knows that rumours (even when untrue) can cause stocks to crash and can ruin a healthy corporate virtually overnight.

A company strengthens its armour when it's digital presence policies encompass brand protection and it has the strategy to be able to turn negative customer experience around so that the outside world watching this unfold, (and trust me it's a very big glass house out there) can witness a positive outcome - every time.

The online world leaves digital footprints that remain for years and even decades. If there has been a bad customer experience linking it to a positive outcome this, has enormous long term value. Consumer forums often discuss customer experience and the footprint they leave is enormous and lasting. When the forums actually show a positive outcome it can have a domino effect.

Customers will discover how others have reached satisfactory resolution, enhancing brand image and also driving new customers not only to the company's web presence be it interactive social media, e-commerce or the company website, but also their b&m (bricks and mortar) premises.

Happy and satisfied customers breed an air of confidence about certain brands which has the effect that the brand becomes the prevalent choice.

I remain astonished at how many large corporate enterprises still use social media for promotion only and do not have it integrated into customer service, logistics, sales and sales support, in fact any department that engages with customers at all. Those that use it for monitoring remain even fewer and yet the obvious advantage that offers over the competition isn't rocket science.

This is where analysis of ROI becomes tricky. If analysis is only going to include the financial return particularly when looking at CPA, a true picture can never be determined. True social media effectiveness is not only visible by growth in online sales, but also by the willingness of the customer to return to the B&M (bricks and mortar) presence on the street as a result of the social media strategy that enhances their spending experience.

In closing, I would recommend that any company recruiting or contracting a social media Strategist look beyond their technical knowledge of markup languages and GAIQ, but also investigate the candidates ability and outlook at directing and if necessary redirecting their digital strategy to the ever changing needs and demands of the customer. After all the needs of the client/company are irrevocably entwined with the needs of their customer base, and it would be a huge mistake not to recognise that as the customer base grows, so will the need to diversify the social media strategy.

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LinkedIn- why 100 million users can't be wrong..

A great blog post from Robert Clay about The power of LinkedIn

I've certainly found it useful, particularly in South Africa. Any thoughts?


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How to bag your first Tiger....

You know how it goes...you've set up on your own, survived the first year and struggled through half of the second. Small accounts, but nothing big. And then all of a sudden, that first big deal lands in your lap, the saviour of your fledgling business. How did it happen? Tempting though it is to think so, this big deal was not, repeat not down to luck. It was all down to your absolute focus on business strategy. Because you planned how you'd go about landing those big ones, didn't you? Like this, maybe..?

1. You made a list of all potential clients. Prospecting for gold. You researched these prospects, finding out as much as possible about them. How much their advertising spend is, how much they spend on the products or services you offer.

2. Think creatively, out of the box. Everyone and their auntie is going after the obvious, so try to identify the others who might be interested in doing business with you. Learn their corporate-speak, their jargon. Try to think like they do.

3. Look professional. Big businesses want to have confidence that you can deliver and this means looking the part. Your website needs to be all-singing-all-dancing, not something you bought off the peg on a CD-Rom. Make sure your business cards are high quality and your company stationary is top-notch.

4. Network. Try to use your contacts to meet folks who work for your prospects. Learn about the key people in the business and which buttons to press to engage with them. Introductions can go a long way towards cementing the deal, sometimes swinging the deal by overcoming slight uncertainty of unknowns.

5. Listen well. Believe it or not, the big companies want to do business with smaller ones. This is because they value the speed and flexibility which allow small firms to get things done more efficiently and timeously. So listen out for the opportunities and jump right in. Learn how to provide what they are looking for. They won't give you a second chance so listen well and give them what they want.

Of course, it doesn't end with the handshake. You have to feed and nurture your Tiger. And hunt down other Tigers because management changes may mean you're pitching from scratch all over again. Don't put all your eggs in one basket as they say and diversify your client list as broadly as possible.

Is this how you anded your big Tiger ? no, well, maybe its worth thinking about if you want to lead and grow your business through its formative years....

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Facebook-what they don't tell you but what you should know

With nearly one billion users, Facebook is a social media phenomenon which cannot be ignored by anyone seriously trying to market their particular brand or business. But just creating a Facebook page and thinking its going to do all the work for you would be a huge mistake! Successful Facebook marketing involves a lot more....advertising, refreshing content, finding new customers and clients, the list goes on because there's so much more to effective Facebooking than meets the casual eye. This is where an expert is an indispensable addition to every business and brand. And Facebook itself is mindful of this, as Sarah Smith, director of operations and small business unit manager at the social media behemoth explains...

Read a summary of what she has to say here

Now, whilst many of her ideas for small businesses involve costs, you'd perhaps expect this. After all, their brief is to maximise income for Facebook marketing and advertising tools. However, there are some good points in this interview. Page insights are a valuable tool to use in sharpening up your strategy, and Facebook classroom has some great webinars which explain their more intricate fixes in easy to understand detail.

Have a look, and have a think. Facebook is the third biggest search engine in use today. You can't afford not to be a presence there.

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Job hunting and social media

So 89%of companies will be using social media as a part of their recruitment processes by the end of this year...

Did you know that? No, me neither. But it's all here in a great article and info graphic I came across this morning.

Have a look for yourself.


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Quality not Quantity-How to grow your Twitter following

In business, Twitter is pretty ubiquitous nowadays. There aren't many new start-ups who don’t use social media to spread the word, and existing businesses and organisations are starting to cotton on to the power of the social web. And it is just that – power. The power to get your message out to a wide audience very quickly in a way in which traditional forms of media just can’t match. Twitter is particularly good for this. Quick, easy to understand, with short snappy 140 character messages needing lots of focus on the message they contain, with the added benefit of pretty instant feedback and a chance to engage with your followers in conversation. All good so far. But beware the common pitfalls. The main problem is caused by the “Scattergun” approach which results in lots of followers who turn out to be mainly spammers and those who aren’t.
If you want followers who will be receptive to your message and likely to engage with you, you need to qualify each and every one. As far as possible, anyway. Weed out the spammers,  unrealistic geographical locations, anyone else who you don’t think fits your follower/user profile. Here’s how we do it when setting up client accounts..
1. First of all, look for users in your area. Your town, county, state or country. They are usually good to follow. Use the Twitter search box to input your search terms.
2. Do the same with businesses in your chosen locations. They’ll be good for networking, referrals and opportunities. Even your competitors are good to follow. Keep an eye on what the competition is up to.
3. Use Twitter search tools. There are quite a few about. The Mashable website has a good article comparing a few of the more widely used sites. Enter your keywords into the search box  (for example, art, glass, London) and see who comes up. You can use quite specific search terms and keywords to qualify your prospective twitterers and follow those who fit your target profile.
4. Engage with those you follow. Join in their conversations, answer their questions. Make your tweets interesting, informative, humorous even. Give them a reason to follow you back. Thank them for their help/interest/answers etc. Whatever you do, don’t just broadcast your product or service. Nothing will get you unfollowed faster !
5. Go through the follower/following lists of those you follow for similar people. There may be many for you to get to know.
6. Use #ff (follow Friday) recommendations to gain additional tweeps to follow. If you follow this advice, they may well start to follow you back. Try to give your followers a reason to recommend you on #ff.
7. Your followers will compile sub-lists of their followers, with sub-list headings ( for example, Glasgow business, Rock Music, Social Media etc). These will be full of good, and more importantly, qualified tweeps to follow. So go explore !
8. Once a week, cull your followers list and those you follow. Weed out the spammers, pornographers, and MLM-ers. Unfollow those who do not tweet any more (look at the date of their last tweet to help you here). This will help to keep your lists up to date and more importantly, live to tweets and conversation.

There’s no cast-iron guaranteed way to get ahead on Twitter, and unless you use it sensibly, it won’t get you oodles more business. For making contacts and increasing your networks, its a great and highly effective tool to use. And of course, more contacts and a bigger professional network will pay dividends in the medium to long term. Follow these eight tips and see how well you can do…

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It's a scoop

With content curation being high on the social media agenda at the moment, a new platform for helping with this task has just been introduced. It's called Scoop.It and is a great big advance on other social bookmarking sites such as Delicious or Digg in my opinion, as it presents the saved or curated content as a picture/feature window rather than as a set of URL's. There is a tagging facility to aid searching, but the killer feature which puts Scoop.It ahead of it's rivals is the suggested content feeds. You select the search keywords and sites and Scoop.it trawls the web for you, suggesting content for your site. You can even put their Scoop.It button on your toolbar for ease of capture whilst you are working or browsing, and it can be set to post directly to Twitter, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn if you want this. Have a look at my Scoop.It site

What do you think?

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