Social CRM is an important aspect of so many corporate functions that it can not be overlooked or ignored. Just as Social Media and Online Community Networking have improved the way that a business can build relationships with their potential and current customers, Social CRM can improve the way that a business can manage accounts and funnel data into a streamlined process – improving their current processes, rather than replacing them.  As I draft this post up, I’m starting to become confused with what the difference is between Social CRM and Online Community Networking. So to that point, I would first like to post a definition that I found to be very helpful:

“Social CRM is the tools and processes that encourage better, more effective customer interaction and leverage the collective intelligence of the broader customer community with the intended result of increasing intimacy between an organization and its prospects and customers.” – Michael Fausscette, IDC 

I think the key that differentiates Social CRM from Online Social Networking is the “tools and processes” aspect of that definition. Communication points between your business and your consumers have generally happened with your support teams and your sales teams. Most communication has happened on the phone or via email, but times have changed. Your audience now has access to many different avenues to communicate to you and with others.

Social CRM puts a holistic vision around every touch-point that your business has with its clients and the individuals who are associated with each account. Whether it is an online community that you manage, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whether it is just downloading a Whitepaper or requesting additional information on your site, wouldn’t it be great to track that behavior and aggregate it within an easy to manage toolset, leveraging Salesforce or other management tools as the centralized “hub”?

So let’s talk about how this can be leveraged and integrated within current processes. The following screenshot displays the profile for a Sales manager here at Ektron. Within his profile on the site, he has a “dashboard area” that will update when his clients take any action on the site, from registering, to downloading a white paper, to searching for specific terms on the site, you can track any activity that you are looking to track. It will also update if that person uses Twitter and make a tweet specifically to his account. Other actions and external platforms can be tracked as well, so that is just 2 that I am outlining in this post.

Now, let’s see what happens on his Dashboard once someone whose account that he manages goes onto the Ektron Tech website and requests some information.

As you can see, Jane Member has visited the Ektron Tech website and searched for the term, “pricing information.” She has also submitted an “Ask a question form” with the above information being requested. This information is directly funneled to Joe’s activity stream, immediately informing him of what Jane is doing, and what she is looking for. You can also see that there are specific actions that Joe can take against those activities. He can create a discussion, send Jane a message, or create a Salesforce task around that specific piece of content. The following screenshot displays what the person will see once they click on the Salesforce and Message links in the highlighted area:

The Salesforce task link will automatically create a task in Salesforce where Joe can track this activity and reference it at a later date. The “Send Message” option is set up to send Jane a message within her community profile. This way she knows that Joe is watching after her account and following up with her in a timely fashion.

This is just one example of where Social CRM can really make a difference in delivering information to the right person at the right time, so that they can make the appropriate decisions and take the necessary steps in order to manage that account and build their relationship with that client.

Please make sure to follow my blog for more examples coming soon.

What do you think? Are you ready to integrate Social within your CRM processes?