Three weeks ago I tore down the bunk beds from my girls bedroom.  The beds were attached to one side of the wall and suspended from the attic.  In order to remove them, I had to crawl through the attic and remove the bolts to loosen the tension.  The attic must have been 130 degrees with 80 percent less oxygen.  Taking them apart was a board by board process.  The girls know what they want; they want a white twin sized bed with a pull out trundle.  I have been looking online and haven’t found the right solution.  My job is to find something that meets their needs and that falls in our family budget.

Talking with business owners, I find this story parallels the current process of finding a Social Media monitoring and measuring tool that can be integrated with current CRM data systems.  The problem is finding a solution that is flexible to accommodate both technologies and that doesn’t break the bank to convert or deploy.

If your business has a CRM system in place and is looking for a free Social Media monitoring and tracking tool, take a look at PeopleBrowsr and HootSuite.  Make sure you create a new lead category in your CRM system for Twitter and for Facebook (assuming you already view those as a lead generation sources).  Both of these tools are free and available online for download.  Using these free tools can give your team a better idea of what is important when engaging the public through Social Media channels.

PeopleBrowsr will allow you to mark profiles with various tasks and statuses like VIP, To Do, Favorites and manage multiple Twitter accounts.  Scheduling tweets at a later time is also a nice feature from PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite is also a great tool to use for multiple Twitter accounts and is less complicated than PeopleBrowsr.  HootSuite uses their Owly URL short system for updates to Twitter and Facebook which provides tracking of links by number of times viewed by day, month or by individual tweets.  These tracking tools provide HootSuite an advantage over PeopleBrowsr in that respect.

If you are considering a move from your current CRM system to something new, Radian6 just announced their integration with Salesforce.com.  This combination offers the complex functions like PeopleBrowsr and the tracking and monitoring functions like Hootsuite within a 2010 CRM platform.  Salesforce.com clients are Starbucks, Dell and SunTrust.

Another CRM solution that is moving forward in combining CRM and Social Media functionality is SugarCRM.  SugarCRM is an open source scalable and customizable CRM system.  New modules are being added, such as GetSocial, which allows Twitter updates to be integrated within the tool.  SugarCRM clients include Avis, H&R Block and Coca-Cola Enterprise. Sugar CRM and Salesforce.com both have extensive community forums to provide technical support and discussions about future product enhancements.

Deconstructing the old methods of communicating with your clients can lead to opening new channels of communication with new prospects and enhance relationships with existing clients.  The painful process of tearing down the rigid and static system can be a healthy process for building a more flexible and fluid CRM system.  Welcome to SocialCRM.

Update on the girls bed:  This weekend I took the boards from the old bunk beds and began to form a new day bed with space for a trundle.  I hope my girls like the new bed.  It’s white and it was custom built to meet their needs.   There’s nothing better for a Dad than to see a smile of surprise and excitement on his daughters’ faces.

The traditional business to customer model has been altered dramatically over the last 18 months due to emerging social technologies (Video).  One-way communicating and shotgun media blasts are being ignored and blocked by audiences in every market segment.  From XM Radio, iTunes, Hulu, TiVo, RSS Readers and On-Demand Programming, the consumer has taken over the channels and the remote control.  Businesses are faced with the challenge of how to reach their target audience.  It is the “reach” perspective that is blinding their ability to adapt to the evolution of the new customer demands.

Corporate brainstorming sessions centered on the question, how we “reach” new customers is a complete waste of time, energy and resources.  The new question is:  How can we “meet” our consumers in their environment to learn how they think, feel and use our products or services?  The new business strategy of “social customer engagement” is the core of SocialCRM.

Over the last couple of decades, focus groups were the cutting edge method of learning how customers think and feel about a company’s products or services.  The setup of focus groups was wrong from the start.  With two-way mirrors and a third party facilitator, organizations sat on the other side in a dimly lit room hiding from their customers.  Under the guise of wanting honest comments, were they simply afraid to face the good, the bad and the ugly about how people felt about their product?  Corporate culture had handicapped companies abilities to have an honest conversation with people.

Regardless of the corporate culture impairment, the public is talking about their experiences with a company or their products.  They talk through text messages, 140 character status updates and tweets.  Companies like BestBuy, Comcast and JetBlue are just a few companies who are braving the Social Media waters and finding a sea of information.  Not only are they listening to what is being said by using social technology, but they are responding and acting on those status updates and tweets.  These progressive organizations are learning the new rules of SocialCRM.

Rcently there was a SocialCRM conference in Boston attended by several hundred people while an even larger group attended the event through streaming video and instant chat.  Representatives from large companies and social technologies formed a panel to discuss the impacts of Social Media and social customer engagement strategies. CLICK HERE to view a thread of the comments from that event.

So how does your business get started with SocialCRM through customer engagement strategies?

Search – Do a Google search on your company or product name.  Look for forums, groups or blogs where community participation is already being used by your customers.

Listen – Don’t jump into the conversation and try to defend your product. Don’t try to explain why you are right and they are wrong.

Respond – Ask questions to gain further clarity of comments or complaints.

Act – Make contact with those who are positive influencers of your brand and find out how to empower them to continue their advocacy of your brand.

Repeat – Search, Listen, Respond, Act

Is your business leveraging the information contained in social media sites relevant to your current clients and future prospects?  Most business have an internal data management system that records client transactions.  More sophisticated databases combine transactions and client interactions such as inbound and outbound emails or associated historical document  and merges them into a client profile.

These information rich databases are the digital assets of a business. SugarCRM is just one example of a web-based or on-demand customer relationship management tool used by successful businesses.

Many businesses use these CRM databases to forecast future business growth, to obtain client comments related to service experiences, or to market new products or services.  However, this information exchange is limited in scope due to natural barriers within internal communications.

Do people really say what they feel when a customer service representative calls?  Would they speak freely as they would with a friend or coworker about how they were treated?  For some reason, people have no problem saying exactly how they feel on their Facebook page.

Businesses are beginning to understand that their best and worst clients are speaking about their experiences everyday through digital voices.  Relying on postage paid comment cards isn’t going to get the job done anymore.  Whether it is a status update on Facebook, a tweet on Twitter, or through a comment on a blog post, people like to talk about their experience.  SocialCRM and customer service are two sides of the same coin.  Try a Google search with the name of your company and add the word sucks or great. You might be surprised at the results.  Proactive business may use Google Alerts to stay informed in regards to positive or negative digital feedback indexed on Google.

In addition to Google Alerts, some progressive companies are listening to comments made on Twitter.  Whether by using the Twitter search tool or by using Tweetdeck, companies are tracking keywords directly or indirectly about their business.

All of the tracking in the world doesn’t make any difference unless you do something about it.  Some companies simply try to have negative comments or posts removed from sites, which is almost impossible if it goes viral.

Within minutes, one post or video can spread through hundreds of websites.  Many company policy and procedure manuals are being rewritten as a result of these new channels of communication.  Not only is it comments from clients, but it is also comments from employees surfacing on the web.

Evidently, a lot of people are really bored out of their minds at work.  People are being fired over tweets and status updates.

It is evident that companies are afraid of what they can’t control.  The reaction of many companies is to block social media sites altogether, but at what expense?

What if there was a way to encourage the use of social media in the work place?

What if the channels were built in to the way business did business day to day?

Yes, it would require additional training and responsibility.  The way society interacts is changing. Why wouldn’t our business communication models change too?

Who is the catalyst for change in your organization?

Is the Marketing Manger the one to initiate the change?

Is it the Customer Service Manager?

Is it the Chief Executive Officer?

Whoever is the person to bring about fundamental change in your organization, they need to have access to the information and tools in order to make change happen.

If you need help convincing senior management that SocialCRM is essential, here is a great video.

Imagine combining the information from Facebook profiles and Twitter updates and merging that data into your CRM tool.

How might that information be helpful in maintaining the best relationship with your clients? How might that information be used to provide relevant product or service recommendations to your future clients? How might your customer service agents benefit from knowing in advance the concerns of your less than satisfied customers?

The information contained in a LinkedIn profile reads like an online resume.  Current and previous employer, level of education, hobbies, plus business contacts are included.  Think about the possibilities of leveraging that information to make personalized portfolio suggestions to your clients.

Imagine the possibilities of developing marketing plans that deliver custom content based on social media profiles.  The effectiveness of a campaign built around a client’s preferences, this is the goal of every marketing manager.

Few campaigns are successful because they lack the raw data to really understand how the client feels about your products.  Those feelings are now being expressed in 140 characters and can be indexed to better understand the true client to business relationship.

It’s time to set aside the fear of the unknown and put away all the excuses.  It’s time to fully engage your clients.  It’s time to empower your staff to listen, communicate, and energize your client relationships.

Creating your own SocialCRM Development Team:

• Begin by making a list of people you trust to speak on behalf of your organization.
• Select a small group of employees with great communication skills.
• Be ready to identify your biggest fans and find ways to build equity in their personal branding.
• Develop a process or workflow based on company name, products, or services mentioned in social media sites.
• Create your company branded Twitter account
• Create your company branded Facebook Page (Difference between Fan Pages and Group Pages)
• Set up Listening Dashboard – Tweetmeme , TweetGrid , Twitscoop
• Set up SocialCRM plugin – GetSocial
• Select other Social Media tools (35 Social Media Tools)

Research shows that companies who have a company branded social media site have greater client interaction than those who do not.  This requires a shift in marketing philosophy altogether.  The shift is from talking to people about your company to people talking about your company to others.

Building a 3D client view with SocialCRM is not limited to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles.  Imagine what happens when you turn the SocialCRM cube 90 degrees.  I’ll save that for another post.  I hope this article has sparked your thoughts about the future of CRM and Social Media.  I would love to hear your comments or feedback on what’s working for you or where the SocialCRM processes are breaking down.  Is it technology? Is it policy? Is it people?

With the talks of cutbacks and budget reductions, now more than ever is the time to invest in the people and businesses that have been your loyal clients from the start. Even with the latest edition of Microsoft Outlook, it is very challenging to maintain quality ongoing relationships with your clients on an enterprise level. If you or your sales, service or support staff is tied down to working out of a shared database on a network in a PC environment, you are missing huge opportunities.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools have made fantastic leaps in scalability and have become significantly more user friendly. Without having to sacrifice the comfort of working in a Microsoft environment, many CRMs have the functionality to integrate with Outlook and Word. Software CRMs that are installed on local machines are now being challenged by on-demand web-based CRMs making mobility affordable. Open source CRMs are gaining fast ground to rival “In the Box” vendors because of flexibility and complete customization to fit the way you do business.

4 Mistakes When Considering a CRM System:

• Wrong End of the Binoculars – The goal of your CRM system should be to raise the profitability of revenues: Lowering the cost of customer acquisition, increasing customer lifetime value, and reducing waste in sales, marketing, support and service delivery. Focusing primarily on the cost, rather than the business impact can leave you paralyzed in indecision.

• Goal Overloads – Better to have a very small number of goals for the system, each with a clear owner, metric of success and deadline. Every CRM goal should be prioritized with no ties. After you’ve registered some quick wins that demonstrate results and get users committed to the CRM system, add the next one or two goals as you build the system out incrementally.

• Using NASA Measurements – What proportion of your current business is represented in the CRM database, and how often are users accessing the customer relationship information? The first order of business is user adoption: How quickly and deeply are they using the system? The second order of business is the value of the orders flowing through the system per month.

• Roman World Domination – The warning signs of Caesar/Nero Expectations include: Infrequent project milestones; large, complex, monolithic project deliverables; little consideration of political or change-management issues; or overstated requirements, particularly for scope of system integration or historical data.

Here is a simple quiz to help you have the best perspective going into finding the right CRM:

What would be the net effect to the bottom line if your sales staff could close one percent of the deals they lost last year?

Who would benefit the most if you could reduce the prospect to client funnel by seven days?

What result would you see if your business reallocated 10 percent of its advertising dollars to speak directly to clients who have already bought from you and have confidence in your business, compared to trying to convince total strangers to buy from you?

Would your customer support cost increase or decrease if you could handle each customer issue with one less phone call?

If you are looking for more information on CRMs, here is a list of bloggers who are passionate about CRM:

• Between the Lines
• CRM Advocate
• CRM Guru
• Enterprise Anti-Matter
• Inside CRM
• Jonathan’s Blog
• Negative Approach
• Open Source Pragmatist
• Open Source Unleashed
• Open Sources
• PGreenblog
• Software as Services