Social CRM includes social software for marketing, customer service and sales. It is the next big thing in regards to how we manage our customers. According to Gartner Research, social CRM for Business to Business (B2B) is on pace to be 30 percent of the market by 2015. Gartner also said that social software spend for marketing, customer service and sales increased by 40% in 2010, but social CRM remained less than 5% of the total CRM application market. This just shows that there’s a lot of room for growth in regard to Social CRM and I think we’re seeing just the beginning.
The explosion of social CRM is really no surprise considering the high number of adults who are active on social media sites. It’s a prime way to reach our customers and an effective way to engage with them on a personal level.
As its popularity grows, companies should look for key features in social CRM to make it an effective part of their software solution. . It should also have tracking capability so that you can see exactly how it’s working. This helps streamline overall business processes because you’ll know more about your customers and what they want as a whole.
According to the statistics above, I think it’s safe to say social CRM is here to stay…at least till the next big thing comes around. So my suggestion would be to start developing and adopting your social CRM strategy as well as establishing key metrics around it so you can see its effect on business results.
Specializing in the implementation of , Sikich is a . We work with over 4000 customers in 4 states: Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, in a variety of industries with a focus on manufacturing and distribution, professional services, education and not-for-profit.
By Jim Drumm with Sikich,
nice article, i always prefer social CRM for my business…thanks