A new form of CRM, Social CRM often referred to as CRM 2.0, has grown from social networking and web 2.0.
Are you maximising the tools available to you to communicate with your customers?
S3 CRM is working with networking platforms such as twitter, linkedin and facebook to integrate its customer relationship management tools with social media offering a new branch of communications with your customers.
The Internet contains a wealth of information and millions of people use it as a resource to find out more on thousands of subjects. Different groups have seen just how useful the Internet is for community based learning and sharing information and are actively engaging in this each day. So how can the Internet be used for this type of information sharing?
1. Internet-based groups, these are like online mini communities that come together using websites on which comments and ideas can be posted. This type of group also tend to use chat rooms and instant messaging to speak to each other. Information can also be posted on to the group’s website and these tend to be updated regularly. Internet-Based groups are so popular that there is literally a group for every kind of topic on which people regular contribute and visit frequently.
2. Community-based learning sites, a slightly different and often involve actual learning. People are able to take online learning courses to further their knowledge on a particular subject. These are very useful for anyone who would like to get back into education but are reluctant, for whatever reason, to attend classroom-based activities. One of the advantages of learning online is that an individual can do as little or as much as they like each time they login and it can be done at any time of the day or night.
3. Social networking sites are also used as a place to share information between people. This could be in the form of messages are photographs and even videos. There are also social networking profiles which are related to businesses or other activities which people can also join and share further information on this topic. Using social networking sites is not an easy it is also a very fast way of communicating with many different people within minutes.
4. Educational institutions also use the Internet to help people to share information and learn. Many people benefit from these types of websites as they are able to access information quickly and easily and can further their learning this way.
5. Business websites are another way in which people can learn and share information although these do relate to particular businesses.
There are of course other ways online which relate to community-based learning and sharing information. If you want to use the Internet for this purpose it is quite easy to do so. Simply go online and do a little research on the subject you are interested in, soon you’ll be able to find Internet-based groups that you can join and information sharing sites. As the majority of these offer free membership you will not have to pay to join and you can start sharing information and start learning almost instantly. If you want to be involved in community-based learning and sharing information go online and see what is out there.
Customer engagement is a term that is given when customers engage with a brand or company and it is based on interactions that are repeated and enhance the psychological, physical and emotional investment on that brand or company. When a business gets it right customer engagement can work to create lifelong customers for that business and during a recession customer engagement is essential. Many companies traditionally believed that customer engagement stemmed from television-based advertising, but now thanks to the recession and the emergence of Web 2.0 technology companies are now seeing the usefulness of the Internet in increasing customer engagement.
For customer engagement to continue and survive the recession it is important that businesses realise they need to find cost-effective ways of engaging their customers with their brand. There are several different ways in which this can be done with massive success such as:
- Blogging - today most businesses which have their own website will also have a business blog through which it can inform its customers of any news relating to their products and services or are just fun for customers to read. Adding to this every few days means that the customer will return to a website time and time again and become further engaged with the brand or company.
- User generated content is also a great way to increase customer engagement as people like to have their views on their opinions up on websites for other customers to read and comment on. This method is customer engagement at its best and it encourages more customers to become engaged with the brand by creating their own content on websites.
- Social networking sites are also helping to increase customer engagement during the recession as millions of people all over the world are members of such sites. By joining these sites a business can engage frequently with their customers and at a fraction of the cost that advertising previously used. The use of social networking sites can also help a business to attract more investment from its backers as its potential is so huge.
- Customer feedback on websites is also a very useful form of customer engagement which helps customers to feel valued and as though their opinions are welcomed by a brand.
- Many companies also using smaller blog sites such as Twitter to increase customer engagement and for many this is a yet to be explored avenue which can help to increase customer engagement even further.
As shown, customer engagement during the recession is possible and it can even provide savings for any business who chooses to use the Internet to their advantage. Businesses that have not developed an Internet-based strategy for customer engagement during the recession (and to continue after it) will find that their customer engagement plummets. So any business that wants to raise customer engagement and help to increase their profits even ensuring a recession needs to get Internet savvy and start to utilise the potential of this huge marketplace.
Today the amount of business that is solely conducted via the internet is staggering, for some consumers it is the first place that they will look if they want to buy certain goods or obtain certain services. Due to this it is essential that if you own a business you have an online presence as this will not only boost your profits but it will also make more people aware of your business and brand. If you are unsure how to do this here are the top 10 things that you should do to maximise your online presence:-
1. Create a website for your business – this is one of the most obvious ways to get an online presence, yet some businesses do not have their own website, so make sure that you have one for your business.
2. Create a blog for your business – once again this is another way of raising your online presence and is also an excellent way of communicating information with potential customers.
3. Create a profile on a social networking site for your business – many businesses now do this and they have their customers listed as their friends, once again this is a fantastic way of communicating with customers.
4. Generate an email marketing campaign – this will help to raise awareness of your online profile and can reach thousands of people for very little effort and even less cost.
5. Submit articles relating to your site to directories and submission sites – these are another way of promoting your business and should have links that go directly to your website.
6. Create good SEO for your website – SEO is the term given for Search Engine Optimisation which is the process of tailoring your website content so that certain keywords that relate to your business are included in certain percentages. Doing this will help to get you on the first page of search engine results pages.
7. Submit your website to as many search engines as you can – this might take some time but can pay off large dividends in the long run. Aim for the largest search engines first and work your way down to lesser engines.
8. Invest in pay per click advertisements – if you feel that your business can afford such a form of advertising use PPC as this is a great way of driving traffic to your website and maximising profits.
9. Have a customer referral program – these are very useful if you want more people to know about you, offer your existing customers an incentive via a referral program for every new customer they refer to you.
10. Take advantage of forums – join as many forums that are related to your business as possible and comment on them, placing links back to your website. For example if you pet products join a site for pet lovers and watch your online presence grow.
Remember the more your business is mentioned on various websites the greater your online presence will be, so get out there and do so promotion!
RSS explained in the commoncraft animation format.
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Regards
Dean
Social networking is now big business and social networking sites are growing and growing – Facebook for example has around 90 million users who are classed as active and this gets larger by the day. There are other social networking sites and this list too is growing daily, more and more people want to be able to communicate with friends and family using the internet as it is easy and free to do this.
Businesses are now tuning into this fact and are now using social networking sites as a way in which to bring in extra customers which in turn generates increased profits. So how can a business go about using these social networking sites to bring in more customers?
1. Create a profile for your business – this is one of the methods that is getting popular right now. Create a profile based on your business and put information about your website and business in general on a social networking sites and start to send friend requests first of all to everyone you know that is one the networking site and then use tools to send friend requests to as many people as possible. Many businesses find that this generates custom and as it is free there is no loss to your business.
2. Find out which social networking sites are relevant to your business, join them and begin to place links in comments on different conversation threads. This can generate quite a bit of interest in your business and generate more visitors to your website which can be converted into profits.
3. Take the time out to join as many social networking sites as possible, this may take some time but it can eventually pay off in big ways, especially when you see your friend list grow which will create more customers. Remember the bigger your presence is online the more potential customers you are reaching, on the internet less is not more in this case!
4. If it seems worthwhile you should think about paying for ads on social networking sites. You will be surprised at the sheer number of people these ads will reach and your well placed ads will soon start to pay off when you start to have more customers. Check your ads every month and see which ones are bringing in the most customers and place more ads in this area, discontinue the ones that are not doing as well as you hoped.
If you use these few tips you will soon find that your business has more customers than ever before. You must make sure that once you have directed visitors towards your businesses website that you can then convert these into customers and this can only be done by having a website that showcases your business and makes visitors want to buy your product or service. Generating customers through social networking sites is only one part of the chain, make sure that your website is not the weak link of the chain or all your hard work will have gone to waste.