HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

BE PREPARED BEFORE YOU LEAP!!!

Nowadays everybody is hype about the social media. Technology has evolved the way we communicate. But are we ready for this much talk about hype?

I have been working rigorously with a client recently. The client has invested heavily in the social media and internet marketing but nothing seems to go as planned. What they got are only non financial impacts (such as website visitors, click-throughs, facebook friends) but they have not got the financial impact that is needed which is the ROI and sales do not seem to increase. In addition, social media does not act like a genie who will just grant your wishes. Social media is not FREE!! It takes people, technology and time and all this are limited resources.

What I realized is that this client does not even have a proper CRM in his organization. The fundamental of a business is to know your customers well. What I am trying to say here is that by setting a proper CRM, you will be able to identify your customers and your customer needs. By identifying this, it will be easier to use social media in targeting and engaging your customers.

In this challenging business environment, the way you engage your customers will differentiate yourself from your competitors but the more critical issues are who and how do you want to engage your customers? We all know that the internet is a powerful tool and WOM is the most effective way to communicate but many of us just forgot about the fundamentals and just wanted to jump ahead of our competitors. But isn’t it important for us to build a solid base before we leap?

I have attached an article on what happened if you are not ready to engage your customers. You are able to view the whole article by clicking the link.

“In 2006, McDonald's launched its first blog, Open For Discussion, signaling a desire to engage with customers. Less than a year later, the blog was flooded with customer complaints about the company's decision to include toy Hummers in Happy Meals — and McDonald's was slow to respond. When your company decides to venture into social media — by starting a group on Facebook, launching a blog, or Twittering — be prepared to truly hear what your customers have to say, and act on it. Providing a forum for people to share opinions about your products and services is a great way to build customer relationships, but only if you're ready to engage.”

In my opinion, the traditional CRM (CRM1.0) is crucial and it should work together with CRM2.0. Try building up a solid base first by using the traditional CRM before we just jump into social media. If we are not careful enough, news that will go against us will spread much faster than news that is positive to us. I have attached the functionality of CRM1.0 as in the diagram and it should be the core/ pre-requisite before you start with CRM2.0.

It seems like this is my last blog for the year. Hopefully we are well prepared for the social media wave in 2010. See you all guys next year!!