Hitting the Right Note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Users Seek Better Engagement from Social CRM Efforts

Today thanks to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, customers have more ways than ever to connect with companies. But that means businesses that don't engage in social channels - or who don't crack the code of effective social interaction - will be left in the dust by their forward-thinking competitors.

"The advent of social media and the info explosion on the web has created a new breed of customer-the social customer, who has unprecedented access to information," according to Paula Mahlberg, Microsoft Channel Alliance Manager at InsideView Inc. Mahlberg was the presenter at a recent online meeting of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM User Group's Social CRM Special Interest Group.

For the user group members in attendance, the vision of a social media strategy with an engaged and responsive audience, including integration of social channels into Dynamics CRM, is still a work in progress.

One CRMUG member in attendance said that although his company is also using a variety of social media to interact with customers, the challenge is figuring out how to get those customers to engage to sign up to follow the company.

"We've tried quite a few things but have had very limited success to drive a lot of new subscribers to follow us," he said.

According to Mahlberg, a social CRM strategy needs to be interactive.  "We need to interact with customers and not just reach out when we have something to say," Mahlberg said. "So it's not a one-way street anymore."

One of the challenges for businesses is cutting through the social media "noise" to determine what will help drive the business and help ...