Social CRM intends to solve all problems currently addressed by Classic CRM tools, but it also leverage social technologies to better address certain use cases.

Sales and Marketing Insights

With traditional media, companies can broadcast their message (publish papers, post advertisement, etc) but listening is really difficult. Corporations have been using anecdotal face-to-face interactions and tools such as surveys, focus groups, customer advisory boards to collect market input.

Social CRM tools leverage social media to allow companies to listen to what their customers, prospects, partners, competitors are already publishing.

Most business people have a LinkedIn profile and that is the first place they announce any change in their job status. Many also post updates about their current activities and interests on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.

If, for example, you sell IT equipment and your contact at BigCompany announces a promotion to VP of  Data Center Infrastructure on LinkedIn, that is probably the time for you to call her both to congratulate on the job promotion and learn about her plans in the new role.

News about the your business customers are available both from their own social media presence, as well as from industry news sources.

You probably don’t need to follow every news item for every customer, but you do want to know about certain events (change in management, merges and acquisitions, opening of new offices, etc) that might trigger an action from you.  On the other hand, right before you pick up the phone, you want to know what are the most current announcements of any kind related to both the company and person you are calling.

Social CRM tools actively connect to Internet resources (be it LinkedIn, Google Maps, Twitter, company websites, news sources) to bring you sales and marketing insights when you need it and in the context of you business operation.

So it is not about spend all day watching Twitter or Facebook feeds, but having a system that brings that information at the right time, in context of the business task so that social information is an empowering tool, not a distraction.

Conclusion

The shift from Classic CRM to Social CRM will happen over the next several years. But the time to invest in research and select the right partners for the journey ahead is now.

As mentioned before, Social CRM is the evolution of CRM and no vendor has the perfect solution for everyone.  We believe the use cases above can serve as a good starting point for you to look at what your current CRM tool lacks and what each vendor can offer.