Defining Social CRM

There are many different parts of social CRM, which is a collection of strategies to engage current and prospective customers. The first strategy is using product components.  The product components include customer community pieces, such as the website ‘Get Satisfaction’  which increases the flow of communication between companies and their customers.  The site gets feedback from customers to help companies find out what they want and need.

Another social CRM strategy is to analyze social graphs to acquire followers, who essentially become unpaid promoters of the product that the company is trying to sell.  If companies develop a good reputation, more people will buy their product.

Ideation is another strategy where companies ask customers to submit ideas or vote on how the company can improve or create new products.  This feature is helpful because the whole point of social CRM is to understand your customers.

Finding new social data sources are essential to social CRM.  Review and ratings sites, such as Yelp, can be another productive way to engage customers because it finds out what the customers like, want, and need.  Something to consider is that all reviewers may not have the same taste or opinions.  On the other hand, these sites allow companies to identify what types of people like their product.  Another term for this identity based targeting is demographics.  Social CRM moves beyond demographics because it is more strategic than basic identity targeting.

Social CRM is an extension of two markets, the enterprise collaboration and content market and the CRM market.  Successful social CRM products will fulfill the demands of both markets.