First of all we need to apologize for borrowing that famous “just do it” slogan from Nike and putting it completely out of context. Well, now that I’m thinking about it isn’t that what actually happens with Social Media, too? Social Media users talking about us, our products, brands, what they like or dislike about us? Is that all brought in context with our Social Media or general customer-facing activities?
Our Co-Innovation team has had a lot of discussions with cutting-edge Marketing departments of leading B2C and B2B companies, in which we observed this first hand. Companies are storming to where their customers are – on the Web – specifically Social Networks of course. Not surprisingly, there is tremendous buzz around Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter & Co. whose growth is truly astonishing.
In fact, most companies – especially in B2C – have experimented with or successfully established Social Media activities (e.g., campaigns on Facebook fan pages or YouTube, new twitter channels, etc.) by now.
However, from close engagements with customers on related initiatives our team has come to the conclusion that companies are now challenged to adopt new ways if they want to harness the opportunities while better managing the challenges and threats around Social Media. Basically, the old “just do it” approach is truly history and a more strategic Social CRM approach that is aligned with the holistic CRM strategy is clearly emerging.
Let’s stick to the “just do it” slogan. Nike has done a wonderful job around Social CRM reaching out to its customers with brand-relevant content via its own social network that addresses runners; and it certainly does not represent an “just do it” approach but a thought-through approach of how to build a legion of fans boosting customer loyalty, brand awareness and eventually Sales.
In fact, Social Media gives all companies such tremendous opportunities. As a result use cases are plentiful and vary by industry and segment, but there is a consistent element we are observing. Besides having genius ideas for content that engages and moves people, it certainly also takes Social CRM tactics which then help you to manage your customer relations and impact your organizational excellence.
SAP equips you with new IT-automated means that help you gain “social knowledge” and apply the right measures across your business operations:
On the one hand, SAP Social Media Analytics by NetBase provides you with advanced Social Media monitoring and analysis capabilities that not only help your company better understand how you or your brands are being perceived, but it will also help you to generate valuable input on emotions, demographics, influencers, and the like. The Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker is a good indication for applying “social voice” capabilities to core business areas in addition to leveraging related insights for organizational improvement.
Social CRM now represents the evolution of making Social Media scale across your business and harnessing social data in various departments influencing your relationship with your customers including Sales, Marketing, Service, but also HR and R&D for example. Our Social Media Success Cycle gives a good overview of how SAP applications support companies in managing the holistic nature of Social Media activities.
As shown in our previous blog, SAP very recently announced SAP Social Customer Engagement OnDemand (click link to see video) which helps companies to better manage incoming feedback and service requests from their “social channels” by routing Facebook comments or tweets to the right experts within your organization. With the help of CRM ticketing capabilities as well as embedded Analytics your company can now deploy a modern Social Media cockpit.
If interested, please contact us directly or please engage with our Co-Innovation program today and benefit from our exchange of ideas and requirements.
Looking forward to your feedback, Niclas Otte (@Ottenic) and Sven Denecken (@SDenecken)
- SAP Managed Tags:
