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Does CRM need Social Web 2.0 or real people?

Sep 16

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM, Social CRM | 1 Kommentar

It is a question of visibility. Highly visible people and companies will find Web 2.0 to be an important platform for image building and marketing. For this group attention to CRM will also mean attention to what is going on with Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn and other social sites.

However the vast majority of companies are not in this highly visible group but would like to get there. For these actors in the great commercial game, virtual contacts do not replace real live contacts until they have reached the tipping point. The tipping point is the point at which the company or product becomes “in”. The only way to reach this point is by having enough people recommending your company, product or services and if possible in having socially visible people doing this.

You will not get people to recommend you just be writing blogs like this one or by twittering as much as you can. You will need to create an emotional relationship and not just a link in XING or LinkedIn. Take a look at an organisation such as BNI – this could be your first step in the right direction.

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B2B CRM with twitter, facebook & Co.

Mrz 17

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Software, Marketing, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

Social networks as a platform for B2C sales and communication are well established, the drift from print to online marketing demonstrates this clearly. A recent study by Outsell shows that online marketing now accounts for over 30% of the total marketing budget. In facebook and youtube, companies selling to consumers (Coca Cola, BMW or apple for example) are well represented while suppliers of ingredients or parts are hard to find.

B2B customer relations differ from B2C in a number of ways.

  • Relations are built to individuals, but these individuals act as members of an organization, not as consumers.
  • Decisions to purchase involve a number of individuals, each with their own aims and motivation.
  • Requirements may be influenced by personal egos and emotions, but will largely depend on business demands.

This makes the use of social platforms for B2B CRM more of a challenge but is certainly a challenge which cannot be ignored. In the business as in the consumer world, people use the internet as a primary source of information and communication. For CRM applications, new installations tend to build social functionality into the company CRM application.  However, existing public platforms do have a place for some activities at least on the basis that individuals involved in a B2B purchase may base their opinion on consumer information. The following table may help.

  Marketing Sales Support
youtube Viral marketing. Product related spots. Image (example: Salesforce) Not suitable. Technical information (example: “torque converter”)
wikipedia Technical details where relevant (example: pharmaceuticals) Not suitable. Not suitable.
twitter Product information (example: Bosch) Indirectly by links Not suitable.
facebook Little used, potential customers will tend to search the web. Not suitable. Technical information and help (example: Intel)

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B2B CRM and Web 2.0

Mrz 15

Gepostet von David Duncan in Marketing, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

This week’s theme is the use of Web 2.0 features for CRM  for B2B sales and marketing. The following topics will be covered.

  1. The relevance of twitter, facebook, youtube and other platforms for communication between individuals
  2. The relevance of networking platforms such as linkedin and xing
  3. The advantages of a forums and discussion groups
  4. Guerilla Marketing

Watch this space!

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CRM in Twitter: Sense and Nonsense

Jan 18

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM | Keine Kommentare

Take a look at this tweet.

What’s on your mind this week? We’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can help.

Generally a friendly approach from the very large software supplier concerned, but what exactly is going on here? Is this major software manufacturer really interested in just “helping” the 3953 followers? Definitely not. Even if all the followers know that the question only refers to thoughts about (purchasing) ERP software, why should the followers use a tweet and not just go the web site? In this case the site concerned does provide for easy contact for customers and prospects.

This demonstrates the challenges involved in using social media, and is particularly interesting considering that the manufacturer involved offers a Social CRM solution. Much more useful are short informative tweets, which give interested followers a relevant link. Even better would be a link which connects to a the web site, recognizes the user and allows for a real dialogue. For Social CRM to be of real use, business marketing processes need to be re-engineered.

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The missing Business Case

Jan 15

Gepostet von David Duncan in CRM Software, ROI, Social CRM | Keine Kommentare

Most larger companies have been using CRM Software for some years and many are moving towards a second generation. It continues to surprise me that requests for proposals for new or replacement systems still contain lists of functions desired, but no clear statement regarding business aims. Questions concerning the business case are met with longer silence or at best statements such as “increasing sales” or “improving efficiency”. In general, CRM Systems will improve the flow of information within a company and enable companies to process customer requirements faster, but due to the lack of defined aims, the success of a system cannot really be measured.

This is particularly relevant in the case of social crm. It is possible to invest considerable amounts of time and money in the integration of social functions, but it is questionable if this will lead to any long-term advantage unless aims and cost/benefit factors are clearly defined. CRM Systems are usually concerned with long term business management while social sites are about short term interaction. Most solutions provide some kind of customer portal allowing for professional customer interaction, this makes sense. One company I just looked at on Twitter is following over 17oo others and being followed by 700+. Who in that company is going to look at all the tweets for 1700+ tweeters? That does not make sense. More on this topic will follow!

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