Social CRM is a new frontier of digital marketing that has recently been getting a lot of attention.

To paraphrase Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light, social CRM is a business strategy designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment. Basically, it’s the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.

Consumers continue to adopt social technologies at a blinding speed – and often organizations are unable to keep up. Why? Rapid adoption of social networking enables users to connect with individuals and communities who share mutual interests, increasingly leaving organizations out of the conversation.

As digital PR practitioners, it’s our job to ensure that our clients are able to keep pace with the warp speed by which social media is evolving. Social CRM is a prime example.

If there is a reputational crisis, are we equipped to speak to our stakeholders on the platforms where they are engaging most? Can we help our clients increase the accuracy of their target marketing while at the same time slash their direct marketing costs? The answer is yes, and the reasons lie in Social CRM.

To help understand the importance of Social CRM, considering the following facts:

• According to a study conducted by the Society for New Communications Research, 59% of customers use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience.
• By far the most popular social media platform is Facebook. It’s hard to overestimate just how quickly it’s growing; from Jun 2009 to Jan 2010, the average number of hours spent on Facebook doubled from 3.5 to 7. The second most popular website (in terms of time spent) averages 2 hours per month. It’s popularity, combined with some key benefits described below, make it one of the most important Social CRM tools.

Leasing vs. Owning Data

For decades, marketing departments have spent untold time, money and energy in building and maintaining sets of complex customer databases. These databases were the engines of their direct marketing campaigns, smart management of the data was a distinct competitive advantage. In the past few years, this paradigm has been turned on its head. Rather than owning data – which includes mining, organizing, maintaining, etc., companies can now lease data directly from social media platforms, namely Facebook. This removes the onus and the responsibility of owning data that is continually becoming outdated, and provides companies with a new-found nimbleness. They can focus on building the relationship with their stakeholders, rather than running after their new contact details.

Micro-targeting

One of Facebook’s most significant benefits has always been its ability to micro-target messages directly to target audiences. For some time we’ve been able to target based on sex, geography, and interests. Now, Facebook also allows marketers to target based on user searches, what ads they click on, and keywords in their status updates. This is a Holy Grail for those of us in the healthcare industry – we can now send ads directly to users who we know, through their actions, have very strong ties to a condition such as diabetes, cancer, or chronic back pain.

Crisis

Every company must be ready to react in the face of a reputational crisis. Social CRM is a crucial tool when dealing in crisis management. By establishing a presence in social media, whether it be on Twitter, YouTube or Facebook, a company has a pre-existing two-way medium by which it can communicate its messages to the public. Ideally, it will have already developed a fan base of customers, shareholders, policy experts, etc. who will be able to pose questions and receive answers directly from company spokespeople. To not have an established presence online gives power to others to tell your story in their words, and can be a major liability.

Causes

Sponsoring a cause is an excellent way for a healthcare brand to gain traction in the Social CRM arena. This is especially true if the product is not very sexy. By attaching a brand to a larger movement, we attract a different, potentially very passionate following, and we can gain a great deal of positive exposure by supporting the cause. For example, Huggies (client) launched the Every Little Bottom program to help struggling families in need of diapers.

Mobile

Along with building on the loyalties of customers, social CRM programs can also have more direct cost saving affects. Kaiser Permanente launched a program that sent appointment reminders via mobile phone to its patients. The program resulted in a significant decrease in no-shows, and during the one-month pilot, Kaiser saved over $275,000 in no-show costs at a single clinic.

Privacy in Social CRM

Across all social media, and in particular in healthcare, privacy is a major issue and something we need to keep a very close eye on. A group of U.S. Senators recently sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, stating their concerns with micro-targeting and how it may infringe on the public’s privacy. Facebook has since increased the privacy of its default settings. Before launching any Social CRM programs, we must always consider the risks of the perception that our stakeholders’ privacy is being invaded, and be ready to manage these risks.

How do you think Social CRM can play a role in health engagement?