Using Social Media to Supplement CRM

9/28/2010 at 2:00 pm by The Sage ERP Team

One of the most important things a business does is interact with customers. If a business isn’t doing that correctly, then it is failing on one of its most basic levels. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools at your disposal to make sure that your relationship with your customers is always at its best.

Perhaps the most famous of these tools is customer relationship management, or CRM, software. CRM is a system designed to integrate business practices and deliver a holistic view of each of a company’s customers. Hundreds of companies, both large and small, have invested in CRM and reaped the benefits of improved customer relations, such as better profit, more customers and a positive reputation that brings in new business.

There are some smaller things that you can do in addition to investing in CRM software that will help take your business’ customer relations to the next level. One of the least expensive and most effective of these is getting involved in social media. Nearly all of your customers spend at least some time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube – which makes these sites a great place to reach out to existing customers as well as potential new ones. Here are some tips.

1. To take advantage of everything Facebook has to offer, you should consider setting up a Facebook page for your business. Whether it’s a major corporation or just a business blog you run out of your own home, starting a Facebook page and inviting your fans and customers to sign up on it is an excellent way to get your name out there. Friends of friends will see your business’ name on Facebook pages and might be encouraged to check out what you have to offer. Plus, Facebook’s photos, status updates and information pages let you keep in touch with your customers without bombarding them with emails.

2. If you decide to use Twitter, you’ll be joining hundreds of other businesses that already use the microblogging site to communicate with their customers. Twitter is an excellent communication tool because it allows for direct back-and-forth conversations with customers. Through Twitter, you can answer customers’ questions, address their concerns and keep them updated about the latest services and products your company is developing.

3. Many companies have now created their own Youtube channels, where they can use videos to put a face to the business. Customers like talking to real people, and using Youtube to upload videos in which the CEO or other upper executive directly addresses the consumer is a great and inexpensive way to communicate and create intimacy and trust.

Social media is one of the best options that companies have to communicate directly with their customers, which is, quite simply, the best way to form lasting relationships that will keep your customers loyal even if another company releases a competing product.

Has your company used social media? What did you do, and how well did it work?