Explainer: Social CRM

April 14, 2011 | By Carla Rover

What It Is: A classic social customer relationship management (CRM) platform has the ability to locate, collect, and track data generated through major and niche social networks that relate to a particular brand and generate reports, analysis and direct responses to consumers. It allows users to route data to various projects and flag data to trigger various actions, either manually or programatically.

Why It Matters: Social CRM does more than simply spill tallies of Facebook likes into a spreadsheet. Social CRMs permit users to integrate data findings into workflows and connect social network analysis to business process logic from a single dashboard. That helps eliminate disconnect between ad spending strategy and the analysis of public sentiment online by allowing decision-makers to see what people are saying about the brand and where they are saying it to the greatest effect.

Who Is Using It: Any large company that has a social media presence uses some form of a social CRM platform to manage the volume of responses and conversations occurring constantly. Although many data management platforms (DMPs) perform many of the same tasks as social CRM platforms, DMPs usually don’t offer the range of detailed management tasks for social network interactions that classic social CRM platforms provide. Some leading social CRM companies are Lithium, Jive Software’s Engage and Mzinga.

Assessment: Companies with a significant social media presence should use a social CRM to manage social media responses and keep tabs on brand and consumer interactions online, in addition to using other social listening products. Social CRM platforms provide a structure to social media management that saves time and resources when dealing with a large volume of customers. Social CRM platforms make social media management more user friendly, helping CMOs spend less time on understanding social and more time trying to generate ROI.

https://digiday.com/?p=5789

Digiday Top Stories

Audio Anywhere
Podcast ad buyers have yet to see a slowdown
Ad buyers have yet to see clients cut their podcast budgets – though the time of podcasts as the shiny new medium may be coming to an end.
Beyond Ads
The programmatic open marketplace is faltering, but publishers see a bright spot in private programmatic deals
Publishers are coming to terms with their open programmatic marketplace RPMs being 20-55% lower than they were this time last year, but the hope is that programmatic guaranteed deals will make up the deficit.
Marketing on Platforms
Marketers weigh the cons of working with Google Ad Manager amid Justice Department’s new lawsuit
When is it time to back away?
Sponsored
How Jounce Media and Teads are framing SPO’s role in driving business outcomes for brands
As supply chain concerns abound, marketers are increasingly focusing on the main motivators that drive efficiency in their operations, including financial considerations, supply chain transparency and, most recently, environmental concerns. Sustainability has not always been at the forefront of the digital video buying process for the ad industry, but brands like Teads are taking steps […]
Navigating Economic Instability
Atlas Obscura wants to be profitable before raising funds in a tricky media market
Atlas Obscura wants to turn a profit this year before it raises another funding round, at a time when publishers are facing lower valuations and pickier investors as deal activity slows.
WTF Series
WTF is cookie stuffing?
Fraud is a well-documented pox on digital advertising, but it’s also an issue for publishers and marketers working together on affiliate marketing deals, too. One of the more tried-and-true techniques is cookie stuffing.