Conversations as the centrepiece of Social CRM

In the last year we have been working in the CENIT Social Media project exploring the possible future scenarios for Social CRM in different industries. More recently we have started studying how the rise of social media has actually forced us to change the way we define communication channels in our CRM strategies.

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If the locus of attention for traditional CRM was to get an 360º understanding of the consumer traits and potential needs, aiming to offer a homogeneous interaction through multiple communication channels. The rise of social media and user generated content (UGC) has shifted the point of attention towards the “social conversation” (Hanna et al. 2011). The communication channel no longer constrains the content or structure of the messages, our current hypothesis is that the new constrain is our ability to monitor, understand and participate in conversations with our current or future customer base (see recent articles by Acker et al (2011) and Gallaugher (2010)).

As part of the CENIT Social Media project on October 30th we will be hosting a workshop at La Salle Innova Institute to discuss the opportunities and challenges that we face as organizations advance towards a more social CRM strategy.

References:

• Acker, O. et al., 2011. Social CRM: How companies can link into the social web of consumers. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 13(1), pp.3–10.
• Gallaugher, J., 2010. Social media and customer dialog management at Starbucks. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4), pp.1389–1404.
• Hanna, R., Rohm, A. & Crittenden, V.L., 2011. We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem. Business Horizons, 54(3), pp.265–273.