What are 4 essential social CRM strategies?
Social CRM continues to evolve, using additional social media channels and techniques such as social media mining, advertising and listening.
The evolution of the social CRM strategy moves faster than most other enterprise technologies because social media itself evolves rapidly. This means keeping up with trends on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the other digital forums where a brand's customers hang out and share their real-life moments, views and experiences.
1. Cross-channel is growing fast
The days of social CRM comprising an enterprise presence on Facebook and Twitter -- and leaving it at that -- are over. Companies, depending on customer preferences, may establish footholds on YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. Moreover, the percentage of marketers using LinkedIn has surpassed Twitter and almost matches Facebook.
The Social CRM market is growing so fast that it is poised to hit the $10 billion mark soon.
2. Extreme personalization is rising in prominence
Mining social media data offers valuable, very specific clues as to a customer's wants, needs, behaviors and preferences that are hard to find elsewhere. This is a great way to hyper-individualize a customer's experience.
3. Social triggers
Social media monitoring -- or social listening -- is now commonplace. But beyond implementing monitoring, some steps for optimizing it have not yet been standardized.
However, triggers for social listening are now filling this gap. They can create notifications that a new manager or executive has been hired -- or promoted -- in a target company, which is an opportunity to gain a new contact. Mergers, acquisitions, expansions and other shake-up events can also be triggers. All of these are opportunities to develop new leads.
4. Native social media advertising
It used to be customary to use banner ads on related webpages to draw the same demographics. That's now passé.
A current social CRM strategy involves posting ads that look like other posts -- an ad which, if it were a social media post, would draw the customer's attention. This is known as native advertising. The idea here is tapping into an impulsive behavior that has taken root in many users.
