• by Erika Brookes , May 10, 2013

Social is a transformational and revolutionary medium that has given consumers worldwide an empowered and renewed spirit. Consumers now have more channels than ever before to learn, share, engage and let their voices be heard—and all in real-time. It has made us view “word-of-mouth” and its persuasive power in a brand new and powerful light. Gartner noted in a recent presentation that today’s empowered consumer has put the nail in the coffin of the traditional marketing funnel. Today’s modern marketer puts the consumer at the center and creates ongoing relationships. Social media usage, fueled by mobile growth, has forever transformed the way consumers and businesses interact. Today’s empowered consumer is driving change across the enterprise, not just in marketing. 

Social holds tremendous power for customer relationship management and the customer experience. Just think about it: social is the world’s largest focus group. You can seize on those insights 24/7 to better understand your customers’ wants, needs and desires and respond in a more personalized manner. Today, only 20% of Fortune 500 companies are using Facebook for customer response, according to a recent Bluewolf infographic. Yet, according to eMarketer, one-fifth of consumer time spent online is on social networks, led by Facebook. Additionally, the Bluewolf data revealed that 58% of companies are not responding to tweets from customers about negative brand experiences. It’s a multichannel world out there. Why interact via email and phone only when social is where interaction is happening?

To fully succeed in this new reality, businesses must be willing to embrace and adapt to a completely new way of organizational thinking—across people, processes and technology. This new business reality requires more than just innovative technology; it requires organizational and cultural change. 

A 2012 IBM “State of Marketing Report” surveyed marketing professionals and found that a full 60% point to their lack of alignment with the IT department as the biggest obstacle to reaching today’s consumer. In the "State of Community Management 2011" report by Community Roundtable, 28% of survey respondents said organizational culture was the greatest barrier to social technology usage.  

Breaking old habits is hard, and making big changes across the enterprise can be akin to turning around an aircraft carrier in a bathtub. But it must happen. Here are three ways to start the process:

1:Get the Right Technology Partner: Select a comprehensive social media management platform with rich listening, monitoring and engagement capabilities. Your social platform should also integrate seamlessly with other key enterprise applications such as sales, marketing, service and commerce for a holistic approach that covers all customer touch points. It’s a customer-centric world, and your technologies should be connected with your customers at the center. No more one-off, point solutions that don’t communicate.

2: Embrace Organizational Change: Your organization must begin to embrace this new collaborative and connected way of communicating. This marks a shift in traditional organizational interactions and structure, but company executives must lead by example and adapt to new technologies and organizational changes to succeed in today’s customer-centric world. Executives must be willing to learn about skills and capabilities that their predecessors may have been able to avoid. As a “marketer,” you can’t simply leave technology decisions and investments to the “techies.” Similarly, senior management for technology has to consider how new investments can empower organizations to easily listen and respond to consumers. It requires traditionally stand-alone departments to begin to align and collaborate their efforts. Think of the reality of today’s CMO and CIO worlds converging closer every day. Change and collaboration will be key.

3: Social Data Management: Your CRM program must be social. A CRM profile is woefully incomplete without social. It must be woven throughout the customer experience to fully understand and anticipate your customer’s needs, influences and wants. Aggregate social with existing CRM data to get a 360-degree view of your customer. A vast wealth of data exists and is literally growing by the second. Be sure you are harnessing and leveraging it. 

Social is an essential part of every successful CRM program. It’s about listening and learning to develop two-way communications that can foster relationships with your customers. It’s about gathering that vast social data and making it part of the fabric of your CRM program. It’s about the right technology, and also the right executives to boldly lead their organization in embracing change to succeed. It’s about getting your enterprise to holistically integrate social across your people, processes and technology.