There is a growing buzz around the concept of Social CRM and with good cause. CRM and Loyalty Marketing Programs have long demonstrated the power of creating a currency and then segmenting, targeting and rewarding people on the basis of preference and needs. The rise of Social Influence Media has given even more meaning to the potential inherent in the concept of one to one marketing, but thus far it is rare to see real discipline applied to the scientific management of conversations or their integration into CRM initiatives let alone broader corporate marketing efforts.

Integrating Brand Conversations

Integrating Brand conversations into customer database profiles fundamentally enhances and changes the CRM proposition. Traditional measures of brand health such as equity, awareness or loyalty and broader business metrics such as consumption or sales may now be complemented by a measure of Brand Advocacy. In a world of Social CRM it is possible to both ask and answer whether somebody who may be a light user can actually be worth more to a marketer than a heavy user by virtue of his or her Advocacy and the impact this Advocacy may have on the consumption habits of others. This equation is game changing. By better understanding how Brand conversations impact core brand and business metrics, marketers will be able to dramatically rethink their creative and media mixes and to engage and reward the right individuals as never before.

Don't Just Listen: Tag, Integrate, Measure and Reward

Taking the monitoring of Brand conversations to the next level and integrating them into new or existing customer profiles requires an understanding of the power of the the Streamed and Unstreamed Tagging Process. Streamed Tagging occurs when a customer or prospect chooses to interact with brand content in the online space and shares some basic personal data such as that required to use Facebook Connect. These interactions and personal data are then captured and mapped against Brand conversations that this same individual may be having and integrated into the CRM database for mining and measurement. Unstreamed Tagging represents an enormous opportunity for marketers but is quite labour intensive. It occurs when a prospect or customer is overheard, usually via a Social Media monitoring tool such as Radian6 or trucast and is engaged by the Brand or Community spokesperson. After opening a direct, authentic and relevant conversation with a prospect or customer, the spokesperson can manually tag the individual for follow up or re-engagement later, offer to send them information on the product or service or, with permission, even add them to the database. Unstreamed Tagging is an enormously powerful and appealing tactic to marketer and consumer alike: just think how good you felt the last time someone responded to a comment you made online in a timely and sincere manner. (If you have not had the pleasure as yet, try it. Done well it is truly rewarding.)

Listening, measuring and rewarding the actions of your most valuable prospects and customers in a scientific yet authentic manner is a testament to the power of the coming revolution called Social CRM.

It is indeed an exciting time to be a marketer, a prospect or a customer.

Next week we will explore in greater depth the concept of rewarding prospects and customers and the relationship between Social CRM and the evolution of the the Loyalty program.

Republished with author's permission from original post .