By M. Isi Eromosele

With the advent of Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM), s different way of thinking about customer relationship management has emerged which focuses on using social media to enhance customer engagement. In order to fully leverage the power of social media to connect with customers, organizations need to move beyond isolated projects to integrated programs and ultimately, a wholesome Social CRM program.

As the next generation of customer relationship management paradigm, Social CRM is gaining momentum. Traditional CRM strategy focuses on management solutions for channels such as corporate Web sites. Social CRM focuses on the dynamics of the community-based environment that defines social media. In this environment, power has shifted to the customer, who has the power to influence others within his or her social network.

Given prevailing customer attitudes, companies have work to do to provide the value customer seek and optimize the opportunities social media represents to their business. This requires a comprehensive strategy as well as an integrated operational structure that facilitates the implementation of the strategy.

Social media has quickly become a priority for business. Companies are struggling with managing the impact SM can have on their customer engagement models, operations, corporate culture and revenue. Social media is here to stay and using it to reinvent customer relationships will require companies to rethink their traditional linear CRM approach.

Clearly, social interaction has fundamentally changed expectations for customer communication and engagement. Companies are mirroring consumer stampede to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, businesses are less likely to use social media to capture customer insights, monitor the brand, conduct research or solicit ideas for new products or services, despite these being some of the most fruitful opportunities for this channel. With Social CRM, data about customer perspectives, desires and habits can be captured very quickly and for far less cost than traditional methods.

The Strategic Shift

Traditional CRM strategies are not equipped to address the new social medium. They are designed to manage the customer relationship via traditional channels, usually from the company’s perspective. A main goal of traditional CRM is to derive optimum value from the customer during the lifetime of the relationship.

In today’s environment, where the customer is in control, Social CRM strategy has emerged as the effective approach for managing the dialogue, not the customer. Social CRM is based on the ability of a company to met the personal agendas of its customers while, at the same time meeting the objectives of its business strategy. It is aimed at customer engagement, rather than customer management.

A social media strategy is not the same as a Social CRM strategy. An in-place social media strategy falls far short of composing a Social CRM strategy because there is no integrated , overarching strategic approach for engaging customers regardless of where they are in the value chain. Additionally, if a CRM strategy does not include a plan for governance, guidelines and shared insights, it will be extremely difficult to understand the holistic customer impact or fully optimize benefits to the business.

Once a Social CRM strategy is established, an organization will be in a much better position to determine the influence of their social activities within the context of the full lifecycle of customer touch points across traditional and nontraditional channels.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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