Let me start off by saying that I’m not a fan of the term “social CRM” as I believe that adding social media as a channel to CRM platforms is no different then when we added online forms and chat.  It’s simply another channel of communication between you and your customers to handle any issues and it’s still CRM.

With that said, social CRM is a major game changer in two ways:

1. It makes your entire team publicly accountable
2. How your company handles issues and tickets via social media will be either the best or worst thing your marketing team could ever hope for

Public Accountability

Until now, all issues between a customer and your company have been one on one.  Whether it’s via call, email, fax, online form, or chat, only one person outside of your company was privy to that experience and when or how your company resolved it.  With social media and CRM, any complaint, experience, or promise is shared and accessible with everyone.  If your software has a major bug, you can’t downplay it with each customer separately because they now know how big the issue is by sharing information with each other without you being the gatekeeper.  If you promise that the bug will be fixed by the end of the week and you’re still working on it a month later, you’re not just losing credibility with one customer but with all customers and as well as prospects.

In addition, tickets and issues with customers are no longer just point-in-time.  Any issues brought up (and hopefully resolved) via social media are out there forever, searchable by anyone at any time.  Go to http://search.twitter.com and type in “Comcast Customer Service” and see what I mean.

This new reality makes product and service quality more important then ever before.  The better the experience, the better the word-of-mouth.  It also makes your company’s process for managing and resolving tickets/issues more critical then ever before.  In addition, how your company communicates and sets expectations on those issues and resolutions will be just as important.

Marketing Impact: Sweetest Dream or Worst Nightmare

Based on what I discussed above, it’s easy to see the impact your company’s quality, service and support will have on your brand.  For companies with a great product or service and a well organized support team, social media is a marketing dream come true as your own customers will promote your brand better then any advertising campaign could ever do.  However, for those companies that historically have gone with heavy marketing budgets to drown out their subpar products and services and disjointed support, this new channel could very well be their worst nightmare.

Don’t wait for your company to start using a CRM solution with social media capabilities to take action.  Start cleaning house now.  Is your product quality where it needs to be when you release it?  Is your support team educated and experienced with new products before they’re released?  Is your support team working with your Marketing team to share a consistent message before and after the sale?  Do you have the staff in place technically and otherwise to successfully resolve issues? Having these areas and others in order will be important factors in making sure you can rest at night without the nightmares.

As social media continues to make it easier for consumers to communicate with one another and share experiences and information, companies are changing their marketing priorities to line up with the trends and greatest impact.  We now see companies focusing on Owned Media, Earned Media, and Paid Media in that order.

Forrester defined these three types of media in this blog post last month and you’ll start to hear this more and more as you attend various marketing conferences and strategy sessions.

The first priority for companies with a strong strategy in place will be to build a consistent base with their owned media such as their web site, blog, Twitter account, Facebook account, and newsletter.  Consumers will choose how they want to interact with a company, if at all, and having a presence in these areas builds a solar system that allows your company to be engaged regardless of the channel.

As your company builds its presence and successfully interacts with customers and prospects, the goal is to build that positive word-of-mouth into earned media.  It’s important to note that while earned media is something that will likely be tracked by your Marketing team, it has less to do with marketing and much more to do with the quality of your service or product and the sales and support experience your customers and prospects have with your company and your web site.  Make sure that the task force responsible for earned media is made up of the right people from the groups that have the ability to impact it such as Product Management, Support, Sales, and your web site team.

Last but not least is advertising, i.e. paid media.  While advertising is on a drastic downturn as consumers and prospects train themselves and use technology to ignore it, it is not going away.  Paid media is still a powerful way to ignite a marketing campaign actually being carried out via your owned media.  Many companies have used paid media as a catalyst for a larger online or social media campaign to do things such as naming a new product or submitting a short video to be the next commercial or idea for the company with wild success.  That said, advertising is becoming more valuable as a catalyst and not a foundation as it once was.

As social media and technology continue to impact how we all interact, advertising and other interruptive forms of marketing will continue to move to the bottom of the marketing to-do list and play a more supportive role in a company’s marketing strategy.

If you’re like me, you’re working out and eating healthy this week in preparation for Thanksgiving Day.  It’s a day to enjoy with family and friends where the full focus of the day is the turkey dinner…and a little football.  If you ask people what they really look forward to about the dinner, there are normally two camps; the turkey, or the side dishes.  Some people really look forward to the turkey; white meat, dark meat, fried turkey, turkey legs, etc. Others can’t wait for the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, grandma’s special gravy and more.  While the focus is the turkey, the side dishes really make a difference in how fast they run to the table.

Taking a step back, the same can be said for your business social media strategy.  How so?  Think of the turkey as your product or service.  When it’s all said and done, that’s the focus of your business and why you’re there.  Where social media really helps is when you’ve got a product or service with many competitors and that prospects view as somewhat commoditized. To a lot of people, the turkey is pretty much the same.  Whether you have it at one person’s place or another, it’s basically still turkey.  There are some slight nuances and different sizes but nothing crazy.

That’s where social media (aka side dishes) comes into play.  Using social media to educate prospects and build your reputation as a thought leader really makes the difference.  What can help you get people running to the table?  Here are some great side dishes that can get people running to your table over the holidays and long thereafter.

Blogs

A great blog with helpful content makes a big difference.  Shift Communications helps themselves standout from the thousands of other PR firms out there with their PR Squared blog.

Videos

Fun and educational videos attract attention.  Check out Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos. Their iPhone video alone has almost 7.5 million views.  They’ve done a great job of making their blenders stand out.

Free Educational Content

Making your presentations, case studies, ebooks and other helpful content free and available for others to download and share online also brings in prospects.  The key thing here is not to hide them behind a registration.

Free Services

Free services can help attract people to your site and service as well as provide you with additional information in your area of expertise.  HubSpot does a great job offering free services such as Twitter grader and Website grader to help others out.  It also provides them with a ton of aggregate data that they can use to continue to improve their products.

There are many more but you can only digest so much at once.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Here are this week’s top five SM4B posts.  Enjoy!

Making Social Media a Tool, Not a Distraction by @benparr on the American Express OPEN Forum

Ben Parr provides tips that will help to make sure your company gets the most out of social media and prevents it from being a distraction.

Share this or save it to your FYIndOut folder.

Get Higher ROI from a B2B Email Marketing Campaign by @b2bcommunicate on Red On Marketing

Rebekah Donaldson provides tips on creating a great newsletter that will capture you customers’ interest and provides examples of topics to cover.

Share this or save it to your FYIndOut folder.

Blogging for Position – How to Set Up and Run a Keyword Blog by @kateheaden on Savvy B2B Marketing

Knowing that search engines love blogs, Kate Headen shares advice on how to set up a blog, create a schedule, and select topics that will help attract the people your company is looking for.

Share this or save it to your FYIndOut folder.

The Four Spheres Of Social Media Strategy by @jasonfalls on Social Media Explorer

Jason Falls shares his Four Spheres of Social Media Strategy, where they overlap, and the impact of each and solicits feedback on what he’s shared.

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5 Ways to Use Social Media Activity Offline by @ducttape on the American Express OPEN Forum

John Jantsch believes that small businesses will get the greatest bang for their social media buck when they think in terms of merging their online and offline networking and marketing and provides five ways to help make it happen.

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Millions of people are using social media today.  So when a study of social media users says that they feel more positive about brands that interact online, it’s worth noting.

It’s especially interesting to see that 68% of the respondents feel better served by a company when they can have a conversation via social media.  One of the major benefits of social media is that when you’re helping one person out, millions get to see and/or hear about it.  You’re not only helping out one customer, but attracting 100’s more.

Not only does it build goodwill with the majority of users but interacting with people via social media also makes them more likely to engage with your company and your brand.