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Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction

From Marketing to Customer Service, get social or die!

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Your Challenge

  • Social media is where your customers are; organizations that don’t integrate social channels into their customer interaction framework will struggle to have their voices heard.
  • The number of options for interacting with the social cloud are immense, and organizations are unsure of how, when, and with what tools they should be using social media to achieve business goals.
  • Matching the tools with the right business objectives is only half the battle. Businesses often find reining in social media initiatives to be a significant challenge.

Our Advice

Critical Insight
  • Social media must be integrated with other channels as part of a cohesive multi-channel customer interaction strategy across sales, marketing, customer service, PR, and HR. It should not be viewed as a free alternative to other interaction channels. Expect to spend money and effort if you’re serious about successfully using social channels.
  • At the bare minimum, you should be listening to the Cloud to find out what your customers are saying about your organization. Tools exist that will fit your organization’s social media program needs, and the creation of a Social Media Steering Committee will help to unify and oversee the organization’s social media program.
  • IT has a pivotal role to play in social media. They must be prepared to advise the business, provide ongoing technology enablement (e.g. manage CRM and SMMP solutions), identify and close security risks, and provide social media governance best practices.
Impact and Result
  • Learn about the unique characteristics of social media channels, and how departments within your organization can use them effectively.
  • Build a business plan around using social media channels for business value.
  • Create a strategy to exploit social media opportunities that integrate with your current customer interaction framework and determine how best to govern your overall social media program.

Get to Action

  1. Understand how to best leverage social media for customer interaction

    Know where to begin and where to go when creating a social media strategy.

  2. Form a Social Media Steering Committee

    Bring order to chaos among different business units.

  3. Create a Social Media Business Plan

    Address the key opportunities and challenges of a social media business plan.

Related Solution Sets

Vendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms

Reign in social media by choosing a management platform that's right for you.

Implement a Social Media Program

Develop, execute, and govern a cohesive social media program across your entire organization to unlock the full potential of your social media strategy.

Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer

Drive customer satisfaction & retention with social channels.

Tags

LinkedIn, marketing, Facebook, YouTube, social media, Twitter, customer service, Google, Lithium, CRM, customer relationship management, SAS, sales, public relations, SMMP, Radian6, Sprout Social, Syncapse, Visible Technologies, social media management, social media monitoring, social listening, social media analytics, social media steering committee, social media acceptable use, social media governance, corporate communications, hootsuite, socialvolt, sysomos, tweetdeck, conversocial, viralheat, adobe social, pinterest

Related Content


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From Marketing to Customer Service, get social or die!

Companies Who Helped

  • 5 interviewees
  • 61 survey respondents

Solution Road Map

Other Solution Sets in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service Applications

  1. Vendor Landscape Plus: Lead Management Automation Platforms
    From lead, to qualified prospect, to customer.
  2. Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer
    Drive customer satisfaction & retention with social channels.
  3. Vendor Landscape: Customer Service Management Suites
    Mobile support is improving, but social continues to underwhelm.
  4. Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms
    Provide agents and customers with solutions, not search engines.
  5. Vendor Landscape: Retail Point of Sale (POS) Solutions
    Don’t sell yourself short. Invest in the right POS solution for your organization.
  6. Vendor Landscape Plus: E-mail Marketing Services
    Give Marketing the help it needs without getting dragged into the IT weeds.
  7. Vendor Landscape Plus: Marketing Automation Suites
    When lead management and email marketing aren’t enough.
  8. Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction
    From Marketing to Customer Service, get social or die!
  9. Vendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms
    Reign in social media by choosing a management platform that's right for you.
  10. Implement a Social Media Program
    Develop, execute, and govern a cohesive social media program across your entire organization to unlock the full potential of your social media strategy.
  11. Optimize Social Media Strategy by Service
    Don’t waste your time playing in the wrong neighborhood: choose the social media services that are right for your business and turbocharge them with service-specific best practices!
  12. Gain Real Insights with a Social Analytics Program
    Go beyond counting your likes: harness “the world’s largest focus group” for deep insights about your customers, competitors, and employees.
  13. Design a Field Service Automation Strategy
    Achieve field service success in the age of extreme mobility.
  14. Vendor Landscape: Field Service Automation
    Ensure proactive field service and collaboration in the age of extreme mobility.
View the full Solution Road Map