“Demented and Sad…but Social” : Social CRM

It’s abundantly clear that the subject which has garnered the most attention recently is Social Media or it’s latest incarnation- Social CRM.  Let’s delve a little deeper into this area and explore the impact that it definitely will have on you, your professional role, and your organization.

I have always been a complete skeptic when it comes to the potential benefits of Social CRM for business.  As my favorite rapper used to say “don’t believe the Hype, it’s a sequel…” or in business vernacular- don’t waste your time looking at these new tools because something new always comes along!  Yet, there are a number of ways that a coordinated, planned, and executed Social CRM practice can benefit your organization in the year to come:

• Collaboration-Allowing various departments / teams within an organization to jointly monitor their performance and to literally adapt to changes in the market, their company, and their customers very rapidly.
• Sales-Social CRM not only provides additional areas to exploit for lead generation, but also helps the salesperson to track prospects through different organizations.  It also gives the salesperson additional insights into the prospect or company he is pursuing which can shorten the sales cycle and lead to better customer satisfaction.
• Marketing- Lead generation campaigns will never be the same now with real-time social media updates which can drive attendance to virtual (and real world) events.

New tools require new methods and there are a number of dangers from the expanded capabilities and reach presented by Social CRM:

• Control- Once you introduce social media and a Social CRM practice into your organization there is no going back people.  You are constantly accountable for branding and reputation management.  There is no longer the “illusion of control” over a company’s image, reputation, or future which many senior executives seem to cling to…
• ROI-It is often more difficult to measure the return on investment for Social CRM.  In fact it’s most likely that there will not be any immediate ROI!  Social media takes a lot of daily work!  It’s often worse to begin the process and abandon it, than never to attempt it at all…It will definitely require participation from all departments and levels in the organization to be successful.
• Revelations-Everyone mentions the dangers of the release of information outside the company, but few realize that there will be increased visibility into the company’s processes, procedures, and personnel!  Be aware of the implications of these new insights and embrace the change.

Change is never easy!  It always comes with a cost…the most painful of which are usually unexpected.  Who would ever have anticipated the enormous impact of Cloud CRM  or even that organizations / individuals would allow a third party to manage their most valuable data?

Disruptive…yes!  But that’s often a good thing!

Happy Hunting,

Paul Williams

COO