Just about every organization has a social media presence today. Not every business, however, utilizes these social media effectively. As part of our research for The Business Etiquette Bible, we had a chance to explore what it takes to better connect with and engage tomorrow’s customer. We recently spoke with Jamie Grenney, vice president of video and social media for Salesforce.com, to get some further expert advice and insight.
Information has the power to travel further and faster than ever before – and marketing dialogue suddenly works both ways. How can we truly make customers feel like their opinions are voices are being listened and responded to?
Every company should be thinking about rolling out a listening and engagement playbook. Using tools like the Marketing Cloud so you can track every one of your brand mentions across social channels and make sure you’re engaging in the right way is important. You might want to jump in to thank an advocate or help address the needs of someone who is frustrated. Salesforce.com also has a program called the IdeaExchange. If our customers have feedback about our products or services, we encourage them post their idea there. So far we’ve generated over 29,000 ideas. By tracking each one and showing which ones we’ve delivered on, it builds up a tremendous amount of goodwill. The important takeaway: You need to listen to your customers, engage where they are, and show that you have taken action on their ideas and feedback.
How can marketing, social media and PR professionals best work together as a team?
For starters, I think it’s valuable for campaigns for the social team and PR team to sit close together, because there is a lot of overlap and shared resources. We need to think about how we use traditional tactics, plus our social plays, to drive the incremental pipeline. And we need to think about how we use influencers and our social channels to amplify our reach.
What’s the ultimate goal: More likes, tweets, shares, stories? Or is there a better metric for gauging effectiveness of campaigns?
Our social media metrics include the number of subscribers, the number of blog visits, video views, and shares of conversation. But more and more, it is about tying social media to your pipeline. With the birth of the social customer profile, we can start to tie social media with campaign influenced-media. We also need to develop plays for driving the pipeline directly from social channels, the same way as we have a playbook for email marketing or search marketing.
Today, more and more of us – including businesses, brands and professionals – find ourselves in the relationship business, whether with buyers, the media, everyday fans, etc. How can we make sure we’re creating respectful and productive ones?
That’s the marriage of customer relationship management (CRM) and Social. We need to understand the conversations that are taking place, who is influential, who’s on top of it, and what the business impact of these exchanges are. That’ll allow us to provide outstanding customer service and grow relationships.
For more, be sure to grab your copy of The Business Etiquette Bible today!
