While continuing my search for knowledge on the subject of social CRM (sCRM), I was able to attend a seminar this week in Atlanta on "Social CRM Strategies for Business" put on by BPT Partners.  During this seminar, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the presenters, Paul Greenberg, who is one of CRM's most influential authors and speakers on social CRM.   After hearing his definition and strategies behind sCRM, it gave me great insight into the industry and a better understanding of sCRM and the role it plays.  As a result of this new knowledge I've obtained, I am obligated to update my last post on sCRM and my definition as I now see it.

My 1st attempt on the sCRM definition only spoke of a CRM software and integrating socialytics. I did not differentiate between socialytics and the aggregator tool, which was a mistake due to my ignorance on the understanding of the product - as well as my lofty idea of a GRAND sCRM tool.  There are 2 main components to a sCRM product (CRM software and an aggregator), however, socialytics being the 3rd component takes sCRM to a whole new level of customer relationship management, and incorporates behavioral intelligence to better understand your customer and profile and interactive data to potentially identify new customers.  These of course are only examples of the most simplified socialytics intelligence data uses, as there can be many more.

2nd attempt on a sCRM definition:

social CRM (sCRM)

integration of a social media aggregator into a traditional and evolving CRM software product and at its most efficient use, incorporates and utilizes socialytics to create an optimized social media campaign

 

3 main components of an all-inclusive social CRM product:

 

1.) CRM software : based on traditional and evolving processes due to the new social components

2.) a social media aggregator : monitoring of identified users on social networks and interactive communication tools between CRM users and social media users

3.) socialytics : utilizing social media user intelligence (social analytics) such as user profile, behavioral and interactive data

When I started my research on sCRM products, I just assumed (bahahaha) that all major CRM software companies out there would be developing their own addition of a social CRM tool to work with their current CRM software.  BUT apparently that was an ignorant assumption.   After further research and attending the seminar this week, it appears that there are a handful of software companies that have created their own version of an aggregator tool that will work with certain CRM software products in order to create a "social CRM" software marriage.  The socialytics component that I speak of appears to still be in the beginnings of creation and I have yet to come across such inclusive tool that works with a sCRM product, even though I see many social analytics products on the market.  I'm sure a good socialytics tool for social CRM is just around the corner.

I would also like to include here Paul's definition on sCRM, as it, as well as his industry knowledge has led me to my better understanding of this new tool.  Note:  my definition is a more simplified translation of the basic components of sCRM and Paul's version is a more descriptive methodology based on the basic CRM processes.

Social CRM, by Paul Greenberg:

"Social CRM is a philosophy & a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes & social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted & transparent business environment.  It's the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation."

Although, as of today, I have yet to read Paul's book on social CRM, CRM at the Speed of Light, I do have it on order and have heard great things about it so I would like to mention it here as a resource on social CRM for all that are interested in the subject.  "This Fourth Edition was released in Q4 2009 and entirely focused on the evolving dynamics of the social customer and what companies need to know about social CRM." BPT Partners

Original Post by ideasfromlisa: http://post.ly/hk1B<!--EndFragment-->