Rather than just using your CRM system as a sales machine, imagine how much more effective it could be if it was supported by your social media engagement? Unfortunately, whilst many businesses feel confident managing a CRM system; a lot struggle when it comes to social media. Many businesses don’t know where to start or what to expect when it comes to social media. So the usual response is to either ignore it altogether or play around with it for a bit without any clear strategy and then give up; or worse still carry on doing it without a clear way of defining its success.
If you want to power up your CRM system with social media the best place to start is with a strategy that sets out clear goals, aims and objectives for what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. By creating a social media strategy for your company, not only will you as business owner/manager be clear on how social media will benefit your organisation, it will be easier to communicate this to everyone else. When everyone is clear about the purpose of using social media it makes it less likely that rogue individuals will go off on their own and create havoc with your brand on social media, either by accident or design. The uncontrollable, viral nature of social media is often cited as a reason why organisations still shy away from it.
Like any strategy, a social media strategy starts with SMART objectives and targets. That is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time referenced. However to be really effective, a social media strategy should go beyond mere social media performance targets, such as increasing the number of followers on Twitter or the number of Facebook likes. Rather, it should be linked to broader business goals, for example reducing costs through marketing efficiencies or improving brand awareness. This is because followers or likes alone are pointless unless they translate into customer purchases or are evidence of increase brand awareness and reach.
Getting your social media strategy’s objectives SMART is the first step; the next is ensuring that everyone signs up to them and there is agreement on what success will look like when you have achieved your goals. Where targets and objectives are to be delivered by a group it is important that the group signs up to them from the start.
Once you are clear on what you want (i.e. objectives), your strategy needs to identify how you will measure your progress. If you are clear about what to look for you have a better chance of making corrections if it becomes apparent that you are missing the mark. It is also important to establish baselines where relevant. Social media, despite its new fancy name, is just another way of marketing and like good old-fashioned marketing there is no natural ceiling to how much you can spend; you have to determine it for yourself. Being clear on where you started from and how what you measure reflects your progress will help you gauge your return on investment more accurately.
It might seem obvious, but a surprising number of people launch themselves into social media in a bid to boost sales or extend their reach without first determining (i) who their audience is and (ii) what social media platforms their audience are using. Who you identify as your audience will depend on your goals. So, for example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, your audience will include top influencers as well as your customers. Similarly different social media platforms attract different people, e.g. Pinterest, the newest and fastest growing social media platform, has predominately more female than male users. For your social media strategy to be effective it is important that it is closely aligned with who your audience is and the platforms they use. As well as surveying your customers to get this information, it is definitely worth analysing what your competitors are doing. What social media platforms are they using and what conversations are taking place and with whom? In business you can learn a lot from your competitors and social media is no exception.
There are countless strategies that sit on shelves gathering dust because the authors left out the vital step of identifying resources and the individuals responsible for making it happen. There are a range of tasks required to make a social media strategy work and even if you have a dedicated marketing team/person or social media personnel, it is important to be clear with everyone what these task are and who they are assigned to. Here are some examples:
- Content creation
- Posting updates to social media profiles
- Community engagement
- Monitoring and analysing conversations
- Curating content from outside sources
- Guest blogging
By having a clear understanding of what is required. You can judge whether your organisation has the resources to implement your strategy or if you are going to need to source these externally. Fortunately, many of these operations can be automated and there are a lot of tools on the market that make monitoring and analysing conversations and engaging with your community easier and faster.
Hidden within social media is the information that can help your organisation meet its business targets. Your customers, supporters, influencers and competitors are all having conversations within social media. A well thought-out and implemented social media strategy will ensure that you are able to unlock this information. If you already use a CRM system to keep track of who you engage with, the added data that social media can provide will definitely “power it up”.
