Social Media

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The Rise of “Social CRM” or Developing Your Client Interaction Strategies

May 4, 2010 in Computer and Technology, Networking, Social Media | 2 comments

Planning for Campus-Wide Integration of Social...
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CRM or Customer/Client Relationship Management has been around a long time.  It’s a well known buzzword in terms of keeping track of your clients, networking and sales.  Typically managed by some type of software on your computer or in the clouds, CRM mainly began as a way to track contact names and addresses and help you follow up on sales leads.

Things have changed now…

I’ve been hearing a lot about “Social CRM” and how this is changing the face of what CRM means in today’s world of great technology advancements.  This short article highlights just a few points about “Social CRM” and how it changes our relationships with our customers/clients:

1.  By definition, “Social CRM” differentiates itself from the traditional forms of customer management in it’s core strategies.  Traditional models used to manage the customer.  Now the strategies involve engaging the customer where they live.  You can’t manage them anymore, you can only hope to plan your engagement with them.

2.  The customer is now in the driver’s seat when it comes to your relationship with them.  You don’t decide how the customer will be contacted – they decide when and how and if they will engage with you.

3.  The traditional model of CRM was transactionally driven, that is “how many sales will my efforts produce?”  Now, it is definitely relationally driven.  Thus, customer service is a pillar to all CRM strategy now.

4.  Companies must now be more transparent, “culturally ready to collaborate and innovate directly with the customers”.  Customers don’t have to wade through middle-men anymore – they now have direct access to you.

These are just a few points made in this excellent article, but they ring true with how things seem to be heading for online client interaction.  Ultimately I look to have a CRM software system resident in the clouds with Twitter, Facebook, blog, RSS, and other social feeds from my clients ported right into my CRM interface.  Wow… our interactions will be real-time then.

Download this white paper for a more in depth study of the subject.

Now, go interact with your clients!

Thanks, Jason M. Blumer

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Important Tweet Posts You Should Read (…If You’re Interested in Twitter)

August 25, 2009 in Business, Computer and Technology, Social Media | 2 comments

I found these two posts on Twitter very interesting.  They made me think about what I’m doing, Twitter’s future and how to do it better (tweeting, that is).

The first one is from Mike Campbell, CPA, my friend in Louisville.  He writes a blog at www.louisvillesoup.com and always makes me think.  This one is no exception.  Excerpt:

Keep a watch out for the next big thing. Better yet, be the next big thing. Early in my Twitter experience a lot of my followers went to Plurk. Most of them came back. Then there was Identic.ca. It proved to me that people are loyal to mircroblogging, but not a specific brand. Twitter is just a brand. Unfortunately it’s brand is tarnished from fail whale, lack of revenue, and being in kahoots with the CNN / Ashton Kutcher PR stunt. Furthermore, too many people have too much trouble answer the question, What is Twitter.

The second one is from Guy Kawasaki writing at American Express’ Open Forum blog.  He tells it to you straight forward and he doesn’t care what you think (sometimes he is a little too forward – but, hey, it’s his style).  Excerpt:

Based on these experiences, I encourage you to break all the “rules” that you’ve heard about social media and make your own. Like my friends from Alaska tell me, unless you’re the lead dogma, the view never changes.

Did this info help you?  Let me know in the comments.  Peace.

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