By M. Isi Eromosele

In order to fully exploit the potential of social media, companies must design experiences that deliver tangible value in return for customers’ time, attention, endorsement and personal data.

Today, the hub of customer activity and conversation is increasingly virtual, located inside social media and social networking sites. It is imperative that companies engage their customers where they congregate.

Using traditional CRM approach for customer engagement poses some serious challenges for companies. The traditional CRM strategy, which is enabled by processes and technologies, is primarily designed to manage customer relationships, concentrating on the operational responses required to manage the customer.

With the advent of social media, companies are no longer in control of the relationship. With their new-found communication power, customers are now driving the conversation with unprecedented immediacy and reach.

It is imperative that companies accept this shift by embracing a new strategy – Social CRM, which recognizes that instead of managing customers, the role of the business is to facilitate collaborative experiences and dialogue that customers value.

Connectivity With Social Media

Ultimately, Social Media is about people interacting with others in dialogue that they hope would result in value exchange. That value can be intangible, such as simply a feeling of connectedness. The challenge for businesses is to unlock what their customers care about, thus creating social media experience that delivers that customer value. However, companies first have to increase their understanding of the dynamics of consumer growth and activity on social sites and take note of consumer attitudes and the triggers that drive them to a company’s brand.

Emerging markets have embraced social media with relish. India and Brazil represent some of the most aggressive growth. The reasons for the rapid increase of social media usage in emerging markets vary from country to country. Generally, there are three overriding factors that have propelled this rise in social media usage in emerging countries. They are (1) the concentration of young people in these regions, (2) the cultural emphasis on maintaining regular contacts with friends and family and the influx of mobile technologies.

Perception vs. Reality

Consumers are willing to interact with businesses using social media, if they believe it is to their benefit and feel they can trust the company. Customer engagement with a company via social media may result in a feeling of connectedness for consumers, an important emotional and intangible gain.

The fact that consumers desire to use social sites to do transactions with businesses should please companies as they continue to make efforts to monetize social media. Most importantly, consumers are increasingly using social media to gain recommendations from their peers, reviews and opinions from friends, family, brand advocates and the collective community. Their openness to this informational advice certainly influences their purchasing decisions.

Companies can take advantage of the above dynamic by designing social media programs with the explicit goal of touching customers emotionally, motivating to share their experiences with others.

Social networking enables rapid, viral distribution of offers and content that reaches far beyond what could be achieved through traditional channels, all with endorsements from connected customers. Companies can also use social platforms to mine data for brand monitoring and valuable customer insight, which can result in improved products, services and customer experiences.

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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