Download the PDF: https://www.demandmetric.com/content/importance-social-crm 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 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.

1. THE
IMPORTANCE
OF SOCIAL
CRM
HOW-TO GUIDE

2. 2 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
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 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.
CRM blogger Paul Greenberg provides this definition of Social CRM:
HOW-TO GUIDE
“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
and transparent business environment. It's the company's
response to the customer's ownership of the conversation.”
Paul Greenberg
What Is Social CRM?
The Importance of Social CRM

3. 3 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
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 substan-
tially 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 complains or expresses displeasure,
the brand has the opportunity to not only recover with that customer, but also 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 Importance of Social CRM

4. 4 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
HOW-TO GUIDE
Customer Interaction
Brand Reach
Marketing Communications & Research
Customer Service
Facilitates efficient, convenient interaction with customers in a way they prefer to
communicate.
Grows customer appreciation when customers feel the brands they’re connected to
are responding and listening to them.
Encourages engagement through social-media channels through rewards and special
offers to your brand’s followers.
Enables dialogue with and influence customers that were formerly inaccessible or
difficult to reach.
Creates sharing mechanisms make it easy for brand loyalists to promote your brand.
Exposes your brand to new markets.
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.
Promote self-help resources.
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.
The Importance of Social CRM
The Benefits

5. 5 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
HOW-TO GUIDE
Peer-To-Peer Customer Support
Market Research
Product Launch
Brand Reputation Management
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.
Social media provides an excellent listening post to detect trends, areas of oppor-
tunity 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.
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
that 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.
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.
The Importance of Social CRM
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.

6. 6 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
HOW-TO GUIDE
The Importance of Social CRM
Bottom Line
Your business can benefit from culture of customer-centric social media and CRM. By lever-
aging the power of online 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.

7. 7 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
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3
4
5
Build Your
Online
Community
Understand Your
Customers Value
Motivate Your
Customers
Engage Your
Audience
Action Plan
STEP 1 - Build Your Online Community
Think Like a
Customer
Becoming Visible &
Staying Active On Social
Media
Identify the social-media chan-
nels your customers frequent.
Develop a presence on these
channels.
Monitor your social-media chan-
nels frequently, both to respond
to followers who engage with
you, and to post practical infor-
mation.
Publish a social-media policy
and train employees how to
engage customers through your
social-media channels.
Online Community Playbook
V I E W R E S O U R C E

8. 8 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Build Your Online
Community
Understand
Your Customers
Value
Action Plan
STEP 2 - Understand Your Customers Value
Think Like a
Customer
Motivate Your
Customers
Engage Your
Audience
Track Value with the
Customer Lifetime Value
Calculator
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.
Customer Lifetime Value Calculator
V I E W R E S O U R C E

9. 9 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
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2
3
4
5
Think Like a
Customer
Action Plan
STEP 3 - Think Like a Customer
Build Your Online
Community
Understand Your
Customers Value
Motivate Your
Customers
Engage Your
Audience
Know Your Customer &
Use the Content Quality
Checklist
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 conver-
sations as a way to engage.
Content Quality Checklist
V I E W R E S O U R C E

10. 10 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
1
2
3
4
5
Motivate Your
Customers
Action Plan
STEP 4 - Motivate Your Customers
Build Your Online
Community
Understand Your
Customers Value
Think Like a
Customer
Engage Your
Audience
Get to Know Your
Customers and Build
Loyalty & Advocacy
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.
Strive to avoid appearing
defensive or demeaning in your
response to complaints.
ADVOCACY AND
LOYALTY
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
Advocacy & Loyalty Technology Overview
V I E W R E S O U R C E

11. 11 The Importance of Social CRM How-to Guide
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2
3
4
5 Engage Your
Audience
Action Plan
STEP 5 - Engage Your Audience
Build Your Online
Community
Understand Your
Customers Value
Think Like a
Customer
Motivate Your
Customers
Be Engaging and Follow a
Social Media Policy
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 acknow-
ledge customers for partici-
pating in dialogue with your
brand or the community.
V I E W R E S O U R C E
Social Media Policy and Guidelines

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