Social media can play a strong role in accelerating sales effectiveness in the B2B world – with internal microblogging, communities, knowledge sharing, etc. But, above all, we know that social media has significant impact in the B2C space, mainly for services and marketing.

 

The social channel for business to consumer is becoming increasingly more important. I’ve found that it is no longer enough just to wait for consumers to call into the contact center or email with questions. Consumers are posting their experiences with businesses on Facebook, tweeting about service issues – and expecting companies to listen. We’re hearing that more and more companies are now hiring resources to help monitor these channels and build a social brand. Social is a solid extension of established Web and telephony channels. Check out this interesting research from Frost  & Sullivan about how social is impacting today’s contact centers.

 

From a technology perspective, it is all about combining your CRM system and social media channels to improve the quality of your customer interactions. Plugging social media activities into your CRM is necessary to help bring you closer to your customers, to listen to them, to meaningfully engage with them and ultimately bolster your customer service, brand and sales.