inPractice: inDepth
What is Social CRM?
Seems like social CRM is all the rage at the moment but what is it? Well, from inPractice.org's point of view it's really nothing more that using Social Networking within your usual CRM activity (What is CRM?)
In one of my Linkedin (http://uk.linkedin.com/in/danfbridge) groups an eminent Professor and local journalist, Dylan Jones-Evans (@dylanjonesevans) poised the question: "Twitter - Is it of any use to business?" .The resulting silence from lack of response was, as the cliché goes, deafening. I posted a response about Twitter in relation to CRM and it got me thinking that you might as well as the same question about CRM.
Twitter can be of massive help to a business but I think only if that business has a communication approach that's aligned to using an online messaging infrastructure. Specifically, Twitter can be used effectively for three communication objectives: customer service, sales & marketing.
The first being brand/image perception as a function of customer service: i.e. listening to and responding to negative or problems that originate in the 'twittersphere'. The second revolves around sales activity such as sourcing new clients/leads by listening to what people are searching/talking about. Lastly is the marketing function where the business is able to multicast updates regarding their product/service & industry in order to retain and grow an audience that can ultimately be pushed into the sales function.
We integrated Twitter into our free CRM app in order to simplify these three functions for businesses and its proving really effective. Drop me a line if you've any questions!
Aside from Facebook groups or pages I'm yet to be convinced that as a platform Facebook offers the business much more than an advertising platform - i.e. the same as Google
LinkedIn is potentially interesting but it's slow and cumbersome which sits it inbetween Twitter and Facebook. We will be integrating LinkedIn features into our app very soon so hopefully we can add some interesting features ;o)
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