Spinning, Spinning, Spinning - The Social Evolution of Customer Relationship Management

The world is spinning, or should that be the world is full of spin?

Traditional CRM has morphed into a far more interesting, and in many ways challenging, activity.

From a PR perspective, the brave new world of CRM looks like this:

Source: GetSatisfaction.com

This means that 77% of customers search on social media sites for coupons and incentives and 60% of users have regular interaction with companies through social media.

There is however one basic flaw in the above; it is the customer who initiates the conversation not the PR company. The above infographic is a very PR-centric perspective of the world -  a world that has rapidly moved on.

And as Mike Boysen explains:

"This is what PR people don’t seem to understand. Our CRM customers still have to do their jobs. CRM is not about PR – it will never be about PR. But, they do need to understand why customers may be making new demands of them. This social customer infographic clearly explains it. It needs no further explanation as far as I’m concerned. It’s simply time to move on. Some will be consulting, others will be flipping burgers."

Source: Mark Tamis

It is the collaborative action of customers that is the most important dynamic.  Company buzz is built by customers and PR attempts to influence this conversation can only go so far.

Often the best ideas for innovation come for the customer and not from within an enterprise. Similarly customers needs and support can be gauged by what is shared in social media conversations.

To put it bluntly, a company that does not engage through social media, is not nimble enough to quickly innovate and respond to the needs of the customer, or fails to monitor the Buzz,  is dead in the water.

Reference:

11 Search Trends for 2011
Social Media Marketing Trends for 2011 – Part 1   Part 2
Bing Social

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• Redefining Customer Experience: CRM, VRM and "Disruptive Technologies." (customerthink.com)
• Get Satisfaction's take on Evolution of Social CRM [infographic] (hardknoxlife.com)

Consider Social Media as Word Of Mouth Marketing

"I love the companies that have created a position called “Head of Social Media” or similar"
Antonio Batanero, Sr Director Distribution & Digital Marketing, Sol Meliá - The Americas.

In this interview with Ritesh Gupta, Batareno states that the establishment of a corporate social media committee might be the best way to release its full potential.

If as he suggests we view social media as a mix between "word of mouth, customer satisfaction, email marketing, CRM, and loyalty" then it is really no surprise that the responsibility for this important marketing tool is often poorly defined within an enterprise.

This is precisely why building, maintaining and monitoring online reputation are such important strategies and the corporate structure for managing this needs to be clearly thought through.

Friends telling friends reveals the good, the bad and the downright ugly about an enterprise.

BP who are currently battling with a growing ecological disaster are using social media as a key part of its PR strategy.

In this way they can counteract some of the negative and satirical PR that is being generated on the Net.  They are using the hashtag #oilspill on Twitter and judging from current trend mapping they seem to be maintaining the highest profile in the area most affected.

I suspect that there is a 'corporate committee' handling this and all of the emergency PR associated with the oil spill.

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