What Will Social Relationship Marketing Look Like?

Once in awhile I sit back and try to envision what certain functional CRM pieces might look like in the social world. For instance, what will social relationship marketing look like in contrast to traditional relationship marketing?

I look at traditional relationship marketing, perhaps, differently than many. First, you have to have a relationship. Therefore, in many cases we are talking about customers, but we could also be talking about web prospects who have taken the time to provide some information (on a specific date / time). Obviously, customers have provided one or more transactions to analyze.

In a traditional world, if you were to analyze this information using RFM, you could determine many things. Most importantly, you would know exactly when someone was likely to stop being a customer (or visitor) and proactively do something about it – directly.

Assuming People Stop Listening thru Direct Channels

This is a huge leap in my opinion – if there is a relationship, they will listen. If it’s off target in some way, the relationship will end. But, there will (and is)  a certain portion of the consuming public, I guess, that are only receptive to community referrals and recommendations – and there are those that are receptive to both. Maybe you can convince me that it’s really larger than it is, but either way, I’m trying to understand how marketing is going to work in the social world. I really do not know the answer, so I’m looking for some input.

• What kind of data will marketers be looking at to inject topics for discussion to the correct community at the right time? They will have different types and timing of transactions.
• Are there really communities where every member is about to defect, or has exactly the same set of targetable attributes (not just demographics)? If not, why would you send a message to the community that you wouldn’t have sent in a direct marketing campaign. For instance, would you offer a discount to the entire community just because some of them were likely to defect and hope the community convinced them otherwise?

I may be dense on this topic, but I’d like to learn. I’m curious know how relationship marketers, not graphic designers and advertisers, are planning their foray into social marketing or are they simply going to continue to do what’s worked and leave this to the spammers?