Social CRM: What Is It and Why Should You Care?

Quick Overview

• Defining Social CRM (SCRM)
• Ways to Leverage SCRM and How It Can Help You
• How to Get Started

Best practices in Social CRM are beginning to emerge, but what is it and why should you care? Simply stated, Social CRM is the required evolution of traditional CRM to support engagement with social consumers. There has been an ongoing discussion among CRM and industry thought leaders regarding the definition of Social CRM for over two years now. Just take a quick look at the CRM 2.0 Wiki to get a sense for the dialogue surrounding the concept. And while the focus has tended to be on the need for organizations to join the conversation, what’s clear is the need to evolve current CRM processes and technologies that will enable organizations to leverage the plethora of social media channels to their advantage.

Defining Social CRM (SCRM)
Last year Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition, finally put a stake in the ground regarding how best to define SCRM because, while there wasn’t one point of view, there was general consensus. From his perspective, enough time was spent giving it a name and defining it, and the focus needed to turn to “start figuring out and documenting the business models, policies, practices, processes, social characteristics, applications, and the methodologies that we need to actually carry it out.”¹

Greenberg suggests, and we support, the following definition:
"Social CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. It's the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation."

Regardless of how you define it, forward-thinking organizations are actively using social media to engage consumers, fortify relationships, and drive revenue—and even fast followers can’t afford to be left behind. Consider that member communities reach more Internet users (66.8%) than e-mail (65.1%), and you begin to understand the importance of this evolving area.² And a recent Nielsen study found that channel surfing while surfing the Net is increasing as well (up 34.5% from December 2008 to December 2009) due to a great degree to people’s increased use of social networks while watching television.³ Clearly, marketing organizations are recognizing the importance of Social CRM, as eMarketer cites the percentage of the Fortune 500 not using social media has dropped dramatically from 43% to only 9%.