The Art of Social CRM

Have you ever stopped to consider the science behind the relationships you have made? If so, you may have realized that relationships can’t really be deciphered by a scientific law or mathematical algorithm. The same goes for the relationships we build with social media. There is, however, a clever art to building long-lasting social communities. Implementing Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) into your marketing strategy can reap great rewards. Not only will you be able to analyze data that is collected, you will be able to analyze the relationships that you forge with your fans; ultimately, inspiring them to become advocates of your brand.

Creating content without a social element is like writing a blog post about road trips for a reader who doesn’t have a vehicle. Social media will continue to be top-of-mind for any integrated digital communication strategy because, more than ever, it allows us to break through to our audiences on a personal level and understand their needs. The beauty of the social landscape is that marketers are starting to get more serious about connecting socially with customers. Understanding who your audience is and valuing their needs transforms good marketing efforts into outstanding content marketing. Social is the vehicle that is vital for a successful journey. Content marketing allows you to house your stories but social media is the fuel that drives people there.

I recently attended a digital marketing conference hosted by Scott Klososky, founder of Future Point of View. I gained some insightful information about Social CRM – taking information gathered from social tools and applying it to your CRM platform. Scott has a great sense of how Social CRM is transforming our ability to connect right in front of our eyes: “Combine a multifaceted scheme of communication with a sophisticated set of choices for forming communities, and bang! – you have a technologically enhanced social system.” Hear more of Scott’s take on Social CRM (among other things) at Confluence Conference in September.

There are tremendous amounts of data collecting tools available to help us build our brands, but they also bring challenges. Pinpointing the tools that will be appropriate for your business or agency is the first challenge. The second challenge is interpreting those analytics and using them to craft profound marketing messages that will be meaningful to your fans. And it doesn’t stop there. You must engage with your fans in conversations, allow them to share their thoughts and make them feel that their voice is important.

Because there is so much data to collect, companies can easily become overwhelmed with making sense of it all.  There are four tactics that I recommend.

The first is to establish connections. In order to garner trust with your audience and connect with them, be authentic in your voice and tone. Craft posts that are thoughtful and helpful to your audience. Give them a reason to want to follow your business and add you to their “See First” feature on Facebook. Augment your social media voice on a personal level to magnify your brand and sentiment toward your audience. Connecting with them can be as simple as asking questions. Write posts that aren’t too self-promotional, but rather offer useful information that will resonate with them.

Next, discover what people are saying about you. As part of your audience growth strategy, develop specific social media objectives and goals for the year. Investing in social media listening tools, like Sprout Social or Hootsuite, can create workflow efficiency and save time. Sprout Social has rich monitoring and listening capabilities. Work to identify specific keywords to listen for and then create real-time Twitter and Facebook streams to discover what people are saying at the local level about you and your product.  You can then reach out to them with appropriate and meaningful, or even humorous, messages and mentions. This cross-promotional tweet from two BigWing clients, Qdoba and the OKC Marathon, showcases an example of how social listening came into play for these brands.

Now take it one step further – you can even setup live streams to keep an eye on your competition and position yourself to influence prospective customers.

 

Creating custom audiences and look-alike audiences on Facebook is an easy way to reach specific customers and prospects with targeted ads. Simply upload email lists from your customers, from your MailChimp account, or from the people who have visited specific landing pages on your website using Facebook’s pixel. You can import these lists into your Facebook’s Power Editor and assign a name or category to each custom audience. Now you can target your custom audiences with specific Facebook ads crafted for them, keeping their privacy secure. Brands that serve ads to custom audiences have a conversion rate that is three times higher.

The third tactic is to implement a strategy that works to your advantage. Social CRM has different approaches for different business. How are you using free reports and tools to your advantage? You can refine yours ads to keep the conversion rate high and cost per click low if you analyze the data from your audience. Facebook’s Page Insights allows you to track user interaction and determines the best time of the day to post, as well as what type of content is most popular.

Google Analytics provides free analytics to demonstrate the impact of your social media campaigns. You can create advanced segments on your social media channels to view site traffic and visitor behavior; however, Social CRM is only as good as the data that is extracted, analyzed and used. By mining customer data from social profiles, you are able to identify trends and behaviors from your customers and further refine your targeted campaigns. Measuring your ROI through analytics is proof that your social marketing efforts are a working.

Finally, become an influencer. Social media has evolved into platforms oriented toward customer service. Monitoring every customer question or comment can seem daunting, which is why it’s important to have a dedicated social media person on your marketing team to engage with your audience, use the appropriate social listening tools to extract meaningful data and solve problems quickly. Proactively engaging with influencers will increase reputation and positive reviews. Find the right advocates that will represent your brand and build long-lasting relationships with them.

Your audience already exists. Let them know that they’re valued members of your social community and develop a rapport with them by inviting them to join the conversation. Are you going to build an ever-growing social community for your business, or will your audience remained unnoticed?

I’m looking forward to inviting you to join the live conversation on Twitter during Confluence @ConfluenceCon.