Companies that are more strategic in nature, meaning they look at how their actions affect the whole organization and how they can bring it together for a common good, are more likely to be integrating social at the application level. They’re bringing social into CRM, marketing automation, and customer service, said Brent Leary, Partner with CRM Essentials, in an interview at the CRM Evolution 2012 conference in New York City.
What’s more important is those that are integrating social into their applications are 2 to 3 times more likely to see benefit from social tools. That’s because a strategic organization is, by its nature, working more collaboratively, said Brent Leary, referencing a social business study he conducted in partnership with the SMB Group about companies’ integration of service applications and use of mobile technologies.
Leary’s analysis tried to see if there was a dividing line between those companies that were using social and mobile strategically versus those that were far more informal and not integrating the services into their existing systems.
The strategic integrators are 40 percent more likely to predict increased revenues in the upcoming year as opposed to those that are more adhoc in nature. The ones who aren’t even using social from a business perspective are even further behind, said Leary.
Strategic players are also leveraging mobile. Not just from a productivity standpoint but also from a marketing and brand building perspective. They know they have to create content that looks good on a mobile device. If they want to build relationships and sell things they have to include mobility in their strategy, Leary said.
Integration and mobile are both costly endeavors. So I asked Leary if he only had a little money to spend, where would he place his dollars?
“If you really want to build relationships and get the customers eating out of your hand you really have to get into the palm of their hand first. So you have to come up with a mobile strategy, engage them where they are, and build from there,” said Leary.
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