Social CRM- Love It, Hate It, But Cannot Ignore It

The concept of the social CRM has arrived to say the least. Almost every brand, emerging or established is now on Facebook fishing for ‘likes’.  More personal than the mobile phone today, social media encompasses markets across hemispheres and is therefore one of the most effective tools for CRM today. Regardless of the giant leaps in social CRM and social media marketing and PR, the atypical customer still has a short attention span when it comes to social media. This makes social CRM a rather delicate and tricky matter on social media.

No brand can ever be sure what puts off or interests the customer. While established players leverage their position in the market and constantly make their presence felt through one or the other media, the smaller players always tread a dangerous path where a brand can quickly disappear into nothingness for a small mistake. Social media is no different and social CRM as a concept has consumer behaviour as its backbone.

Ads on Social Media

Facebook has begun to categorise ads so the user knows which one is a sponsored ad. Companies advertising on the popular social medium should be extra careful while choosing the image and designing the caption as it needs to make an instant impression and grab attention. A photo of a woman in lingerie cannot sell everything though it is sure to get clicks. Google ads are gradually moving towards becoming annoying rather than interesting. However the massive reach of these ads can be a great tool to make your brand visible.

Social media monitoring/tracking is a great tool in CRM for understanding customer sentiments. Product launches, name changes, new appointments, expansion plans and all other news of the company and the public’s reception to the same has the right platform for analysis through such research.

 

Efficient choice?

One of the biggest advantages of the CRM through social media is that the platform is relatively cheap and sometimes even free of cost. While some experts may feel that it is the ultimate way to gauge free public opinion, there is however a tendency of the Facebook users to support or oppose a cause or a brand without personal experience with the same. This tendency makes social CRM a rather complicated concept where authenticity of the opinions may often be a question.

In the present global economic scenario, brands need to find CRM solutions that are not just cost effective but can also drive sales to keep the top-line and bottom-line intact. To find a CRM solution that gives an edge over competitors at not only the social level but also from business prospective is thus a major challenge for firms big and small. With research firms venturing into sectors such as social media monitoring, tracking and marketing, the options have definitely gone up today.

Target audience

One definite advantage of a social CRM is that firms can target its customers in a far more narrowed down and segmented manner. This is not possible in any other form of CRM as none of them are as interactive. One can expect feedback in seconds and therefore it is a tremendous tool for emerging players to design and modify their products and services accordingly. In terms of decision making the CRM solutions can provide not only specific data but also allow a great deal of insight into the public sentiments towards the product or service.

Google Plus has already announced the expected launch of a business platform which will help the latter segregate information for each department through the Circle mechanism. It is a matter of time before other players in the market also come up with solutions that can boost CRM for firms. In spite of the Google Wave project failing to make it big, a similar concept is bound to find more success with social media and cloud computing assuming such mythic proportions.

Tias Chakraborty