Social CRM

A while ago I wrote a post about twitter, and if it would actually take off, in the context of other already established popular social media platforms such as Facebook. The 'evolution' of twitter has created a space where companies, and brands in particular, can interact with their customers and respond to their online rants, raves and general discussions about brands and products, with far more immediacy than ever before. Twitter is a great platform to gauge perception of brands, and it forces brand managers to engage with customers. Subsequently companies have now begun 'mining' twitter for perceptions of their brands.

The evolution of this kind of communication between company and consumer on a social media platform has created a new genre called Social Customer Relationship Management (sCRM). It's basically the integration of social media with traditional Customer Relationship Management. sCRM encourages greater participation from both sides and increases brand involvement, builds relationships and brand loyalty. An example of this is Stephen Fry's tweets about his frustration with an HP printer. Soon thereafter he gets a response from HP offering to help.

The only negative aspect of this kind of communication, is that it could be hijacked by a marketing department and end up spamming consumers, as was the case with HabitatUK. If not used properly, there is a potential to damage a brand much faster (and more publicly) than if traditional channels were used.

Of course, sCRM provides opportunities for tech companies to create specialised applications to help companies keep track of their brand mentions. An example of this is Buddy Media's Twitter Management System which identifies and monitors topics around a brand, tracks performance and trends for a brand and its entire industry, as well as data on followers, mentions and re-Tweets. There are a number of similar tools such as Mr.Tweet and Twitter Alerts, for a more comprehensive list check out 99 Essential Twitter Tools and Applications.

Twitter has also introduced Twitter 101 for Business, which is a great resource in learning how to get the most out of Twitter for your business, such as how to engage with consumers and tracking sentiment about your brand.

Another good read is 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.

Twitter is still growing as a social aggregator, and, as so aptly stated in a TechCrunch article, 'it's where news gets broken, where celebrities get social, and where companies can do business'.