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ROI and the Impact of Social CRM 12 forward-looking use cases for associations By Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant, CAE

CONTENTS 2 4 7 8 15

Redefining Social CRM Building a Social CRM Practice Focused on ROI Discovery Questions 12 Use Cases of Social CRM for Associations A Final Thought About Progress

CAN SO CIAL MEDIA H E L P YO U WO R K S M A RT E R ?

his is the second white paper in a series on Social Customer Relationship Management (Social CRM) for Associations. The first white paper, Social CRM for Associations: What association executives should know about applying social media to membership management defined the concept of Social CRM and outlined the basic work and the basic technology behind the philosophical shift. In this second paper, we will take the explanation a step further and share a dozen of the many, many use cases described to us by association colleagues who read the first paper and shared how they would apply these new capabilities to their own situations. We have chosen these particular examples because they all address, in varying ways, the question of ROI. We hope that reading these use cases will inspire you to apply social media strategy in new, meaningful ways. Maybe you’ll improve on the ideas here, or think of something completely new that we can all learn from. Ultimately, use cases like the ones we present here are the key to proving the return on your social media investment. And ROI makes everyone happy, right?

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REDEFINING SOCIAL C R M

hat is Social CRM, again? The first white paper delved extensively into the definition of Social CRM, and yet, it’s still a difficult question. So let’s simplify. Here is the definition from Paul Greenberg, author of CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century:

BALANCING BUSINES S STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY There are two points from that original definition that are critical to bring out again, because we have a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg problem.

Full Definition of Social CRM A philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules, workflow, processes, and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It’s the company’s [programmatic] response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation. 1

1.) Social CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy. It’s HOW you work, and how you use social media to solve problems, more than anything else. 2.) Social CRM is supported by technology. Without the technology to help us work differently, the philosophy and business strategy are impossible to apply. So which comes first? The philosophy and the business strategy or the technology? In our experience many of the tools are already available, or will be soon. In fact, if you Google the term “Social CRM,” you’ll find links to hundreds of different tools and platforms. They all have different features and they all do different things. But if you haven’t figured out a Technology way to apply the tools to the work of membership management, then no tool will ever fulfill its Philosophy promise.

And here is the new, super-simple definition. Simple Definition of Social CRM for Associations The discipline of applying social media to membership management. Discipline means practicing social media work strategically so that you’re actually solving problems and achieving ROI. 1. Paul Greenberg, “Time to Put A Stake in The Ground on Social CRM,” ZDNet, July 6, 2009 (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/crm/time-to-put-astake- in-the-ground-on-social-crm/829). 2

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REDEFINING SOCIAL C R M Social media is more than just Facebook and Twitter. In this definition, when we use the term social media, we’re talking about:

Membership management is also more than it seems. In this definition, when we use the term membership management, we’re talking about:

1.) Social data—data we collect about members lives, their interactions, and their connections on our own website, as well as public social data that’s available from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google, to name a few.

1.) managing association members—both long-time, and first-year members who are most at risk of dropping their membership. 2.) maintaining contact with community members—former members, prospective members, students, and other stakeholders who care about the work of the organization.

2.) Social concepts—advanced thinking around ideas like online influence and online engagement that can be applied to our member data to impact online behavior.

What is Social CRM?

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT SOCIAL CRM A lot of organizations are using social media. Very few are practicing Social CRM. So what’s the difference? Strategy and discipline. In the words of Jay Baer, “The goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business because of social media.” 1

Member management

Social CRM Social media

1. Jay Baer, “Clowns, Charlatans, and Social Media Name Calling,” Convince & Convert, June 6, 2011 (http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-mediamarketing/clowns-charlatans-and-social-medianame-calling/).

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BUILDING A SOCIAL CRM PRACTICE FOCUSED ON ROI

that is appropriately formatted for social media sites, and distributing timely content to the sites and groups where members are most active.

1.) Monitoring and responding— tracking what members are discussing and sharing online, and knowing when and how to respond to members who are talking about the organization.

Except for number 5, which is new for this paper, we described many of the activities that could fall under each of these areas in the first white paper. We also speculated about which departments might contribute, and how. There are opportunities for associations to see ROI in any of these four areas, depending on the challenges you’re trying to solve. The use cases in this white paper will show how.

ost associations are already doing some of the work of Social CRM, and using many of the technologies. The discipline of Social CRM requires associations to figure out how to organize the work of social media into an ongoing practice that covers five basic practice areas:

2.) Social profile mapping—recording a contact’s social media data—their Twitter account, blog feed, Facebook profile, and LinkedIn account, for example—in the database so you can find any member online when you need to. Eventually this work could enable associations to analyze how members are connecting to one another anywhere online.

The ROI Conundrum At some point, everyone involved in doing the work of social media will be faced with the question, “what’s the return on our investment in social media?” As your social media work matures into a Social CRM practice, you’ll be able to answer that question. There are many other solid, mission-driven reasons to pursue social media and Social CRM, but ROI is about money, pure and simple. In order to show a return on investment, you need to show that your efforts helped you either spend less, or make more money for the association. When you hold yourself to that standard, you are forced to refocus on the current business practices of the organization, and find places where social media can solve problems.

3.) Outreach and lead generation— the marketing and public relations branch of Social CRM, this is the work of building lists, adding followers, and converting engagement to leads for membership, registration, and other sales. 4.) Community management— deepening relationships with members, motivating members to take action, and managing member groups and member work efficiently using social tools.

Costs of Social Media Social media is not free. Time is money, and the cost of applying staff time to social media work is significant. It’s important for

5.) Content creation and curation— remixing association content into content 4

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BUILDING A SOCIAL CRM PRACTICE FOCUSED ON ROI outgrow them, and wait as long as you can to invest in more advanced tools, because the longer you wait, the better (and cheaper!) the tools will be. You may even find that vendors you are already working with might be rolling out just the solution you need in new releases.

associations to do some up-front work on social media policies and work flows so that much of the social media work can be handled at lower levels in the association, where the staff time is less costly. It’s a myth that social media should be handled only by very senior PR staff who can speak for the organization. So much of the work is simply sifting through posts and keeping an eye on activity. A junior staff person with the right skill set can take on that responsibility so long as they can pull in senior staff when necessary.

Benefits of Social Media To prove ROI, you need to be able to balance the costs with some type of financial benefit. That means first digging in to budgets and work flows to learn more about how the organization spends and makes money.

Another cost of social media is the cost of social media management tools. As an association’s social media work matures, investing in technology that can help staff manage social media more efficiently on a larger scale is essential. But this is not a case where it pays to buy a system you can “grow into.” Use free tools until you

Example Budget Analysis In the beginning, you might set goals against one or two line items in the budget. Take membership revenue, for example. You might focus your Social CRM practice on outreach and lead generation to build

Expenses Social CRM could reduce or replace

Revenue Social CRM could increase

Direct Expenses • Online and print advertising • Listserv licensing fees • Email marketing fees • Direct mail for membership and conference promotion • List purchasing for direct mail

Direct Revenue • Membership revenue • Registration revenue • Advertising, exhibit, and sponsorhip revenue Revenue Influencers • Member engagement • Word of mouth around membership, conferences, and products

Staff Time • Staff time for managing member groups • Staff time for managing customer service 5

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BUILDING A SOCIAL CRM PRACTICE FOCUSED ON ROI a list of potential members that you identify through social connections. You might also focus your Social CRM practice on community management for first-year members to make sure that they connect as quickly as possible with other association members in social spaces.

THE OTHER RETURN-ONS Return on engagement, return on community, return on relationships, and other return-ons pop up pretty regularly to help executives understand the importance of social media. While these concepts are exciting (dare we say sexy?), they should not be confused with ROI.

As your Social CRM practice matures, you will systematically capture social data in order to find correlations between that data and membership recruitment, retention, and other revenue streams. To achieve that, you’ll need a number of people with varying skills—community managers, content creators, and data analysts to name a few—working together on your social media projects.

You might set a goal to improve those metrics. (Lifetime value is another membership metric you might set a goal to improve.) And social media might help you meet that goal—but so might a lot of other activities. To prove that you are getting a positive ROI out of social media, you need to prove that the time and money you put into it is producing results you can’t match with other, less timeconsuming activities.

Is Calculating ROI Worthwhile? ROI is based on historical data. If you don’t have much of a history of using social media, you’re going to have a hard time calculating ROI. To quote an association colleague, “if you haven’t gone forward, you can’t look backward.”

We recommend reading Social Media ROI by Olivier Blanchard. It’s a great guide for how to measure and connect social media activity to sales activity.

If you’re spending more time calculating ROI than practicing Social CRM, you are probably caught in a philosophical battle against the fear of change. Put away the calculator and go back to the beginning. Talk to your leadership and your teams about how social media could solve a very specific problem, and then focus your social media efforts on that solution. Measure your progress. Show off your results. Rinse. Repeat. 6

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DI S C OV E RY Q U E S T I O N S Is Your Technology Ready? 6. How much of the Social CRM work you are considering can be accomplished with the tools you already have in place? 7. Are the tools you have in place flexible enough to work with Social CRM tools as they become available? a. If not, how much will you need to invest to update the outdated tools? 8. What additional tools might you need to automate and streamline your Social CRM practice? a. How much will you need to invest to add those tools?

The tools to turn your Social CRM practice into a realistic undertaking are either already available, or will be soon. To prepare yourself for the future of membership management, consider these questions. Can Social Media Solve Membership Management Challenges? 1. Are there any weaknesses in our renewal process that social data could address? 2. Are there any weaknesses in our acquisition process that social data could address? 3. Are there any weaknesses in our member services and communications that social data could address?

Can You Prove ROI? 9. Do Social CRM practices have the potential to save money? How much? 10. Do Social CRM practices have the potential to save man hours? How much? 11. Do Social CRM practices have the potential to create more revenue? How much? 12. Are there other quantifiable benefits that Social CRM practices will create? Are they worth the expense?

Are Staff and Members Ready? 4. Who will need to change the way they work to accommodate Social CRM practices? a. Do they have the mindset? b. Do they have the skill set? c. Do they have the tools they need? 5. Is there enough social data on our members out there to justify an immediate change? a. If not, how long before there is enough data? b. If not, should the association be working proactively to gather social data?

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ÂŠ2011 SocialFish

1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S

Each use case draws from one or several practice areas and technologies that can help. You read about the practice areas on page 4. For a refresher on Social CRM technologies, see the glossary at the end of this white paper for definitions.

here to start? We must pinpoint holes in our membership management processes, and use Social CRM to fill those holes. When we can do that, we will start to solve problems and prove ROI. In this section, we’ll delve into 12 use cases—concrete examples of membership management challenges that Social CRM can (and will!) help solve.

Solving Recruitment Challenges The first three use cases relate to membership recruitment. How might your association apply Social CRM to identify qualified membership prospects and convert them to new members?

Why 12, you ask? There are many more, of course. It was very difficult to whittle it down to just these 12. We chose these based on what we’re seeing in the industry right now. Our hope is that you will recognize your association in a few of these scenarios, and that seeing examples will help you think of more possibilities. As we go forward, we’ll be working with you, our association colleagues, to add your ideas and the pain points we may have missed into a never-ending stream of Social CRM use cases.

Use Case 1 [Possible now] An association has a members-only group on LinkedIn. Each time a member joins the LinkedIn group, the community manager updates the LinkedIn Group field in the members’ AMS record, and adds their LinkedIn profile URL. 5-10 times each month, a person who has never been a member of the association requests to join the group. The community manager adds their name and information to the LinkedIn membership prospects list, and sends them a private message with information for how and why to join the association. A year later, the LinkedIn membership prospects list proves to be converting at three times the rate of lists the association purchased.

These use cases are not case studies. They are not real examples. They are hypothetical, based on hundreds of hours of formal and informal research talking to association executives, vendors, and social media experts, and reading case studies from corporations who are already incorporating similar practices. These use cases are forward-looking, but not out of reach. All of these examples simply take the work organizations are already doing to the next logical step.

Practice area: Community management Technologies that can help: AMS

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1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S Use Case 2 [Possible now] An association has a group of members who are very active on social media sites. The Social CRM team puts together a digital member-get-a-member campaign app, powered by social sign on. When a member comes to the page, they have the option to sign in with their LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter credentials. Once they sign in, the app shows them their contacts who are not currently members. They select the contacts they think should be members, write them a personal message, and send them the special promotion. Then they have the option to share their recruitment activity on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Since the Social CRM team has been busy with their social profile mapping, they know the members who have the most connections, and send them personal emails encouraging them to take part in the campaign. The campaign yields 15% more new members compared to the previous year’s campaign that did not include social sign on.

and/or tweet using industry keywords. The community manager adds each of these users to a growing list of prospects, and follows them. The content team has created a series of free white papers that capture contact information for anyone who downloads them. The community manager uses the association’s social media management system to easily send a personal message to each prospect sharing the link to the white papers. White paper downloads spike, and 50 qualified membership leads add themselves to the AMS. Practice area: Social discovery; Outreach and lead generation, content creation and curation Technologies that can help: Social media management system, AMS

Practice area: Social profile mapping Technologies that can help: Social sign on, email, AMS Use Case 3 [Not so distant future, with the help of new technology] An association follows members on Twitter. A social discovery analysis identifies 750 Twitter users who are non-members connected to multiple current members,

APMA is using social discovery and outreach to recruit students to podiatric medicine through their Today’s Podiatrist campaign.

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1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S Use Case 5 [Not so distant future, with the help of new technology] An association is creating an on-boarding program for first-year members. The Social CRM team runs a social discovery analysis on first-year members and finds that members who are connected to at least three other members on either Facebook or LinkedIn are twice as likely to renew. 1 The association decides to build social sign on into their website to make it easier for first-year members to connect to other members on those sites. New members are able to sign on using their Facebook or LinkedIn credentials. As soon as they do, they receive a connection request from the Membership Director on their chosen platform. Also, the website suggests 10 people they should connect with on their chosen platform from a welcome committee pool of volunteers who have agreed to help mentor first-year members. Without leaving the site, the new member can check one or check all of the suggested connections and send a friend or connection request to the welcome committee volunteers.

Solving Retention Challenges The next three use cases relate to membership retention and engagement. How might your association apply Social CRM to engage members and provide more value, with the ultimate goal of increasing retention rates?

Use Case 4 [Possible now] A trade association has had fairly steady retention rates for years, but the association is reaching only two to three contacts from each organization, and many of the primary contacts for member organizations are reaching retirement age. The membership director of the organization turns to LinkedIn, following the top 25 companies who are members of the organization to watch for staff changes. She also sends connection requests, using the associations’ social media mangement system which works with the AMS, to executive level employees of the association, reminding them of their membership and linking to the association’s LinkedIn group, in case they are interested in joining. By the end of this process, she has connected with 50 additional contacts who are now in the AMS.

Practice area: Social profile mapping, community management Technologies that can help: Social discovery, social sign on

Practice area: Outreach and lead generation, social profile mapping Technologies that can help: Social media management system, AMS, social discovery

1. Correlation may not exist. You’ll need to test this hypothesis.

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1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S Use Case 6 [Not so distant future, with the help of new technology] A trade association had been hosting 45 webinars per year using a well-known webinar platform that is not integrated with any other systems. The archives were seldom accessed, but the webinars were viewed as one of the top membership benefits, and many organizations use them to train their staff teams. The Social CRM team decides to implement a community platform, integrated with the AMS, which will serve as the new hub for webinar content. Members must log in to the community platform to participate in the webinar, and afterwards, they can access (and share and review!) the webinar archive in the same place. They can also have ongoing, asynchronous discussions about the topic in the community site. Since the change, the association has updated content that was receiving lower ratings and fewer views, and identified new subject matter experts and case studies from members who are commenting and discussing certain topics. Webinar satisfaction has gone up, more member companies are accessing the webinars, and the trade association has engaged several hundred new member contacts who accessed the content asynchronously after a “strong suggestion” from their boss.

Solving Member Services Challenges The next three use cases relate to marketing. How might your association apply Social CRM to be more responsive to member questions and feedback? Use Case 7 [Possible now] Two full-time junior staff people man an association’s member services center. They spend the majority of their time answering the phones and directing calls to other staff members. Turn over in the position is quite high–it’s not the most fulfilling job–and one of the staffers is set to leave to attend grad school in the fall. The Social CRM team turns to the new community platform to create a dynamic, online member services center. Working with the two junior staffers, the team builds a comprehensive, searchable question and answer list, plus

Practice area: Content creation and curation, community management Technologies that can help: Community platform

Members of the Global Business Travel Association can access their online community platform to find formal and informal learning opportunities. 11

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1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S a way for members to easily ask new questions or use live chat to interact with the member services staff. They also begin working with staff who are monitoring Facebook, Twitter, and Google Alerts– whenever a customer service complaint comes up anywhere online, they jump in to resolve the issue, often linking to answers posted in the online member services center. Since the online member services center has gone live, the team has also seen members answering other members’ questions. The Social CRM team changes the job descriptions for the junior staffers. The new goal is to keep the database upto-date and accurate, plus handle 50% more inquiries without assistance from other staff, saving time for everyone.

ASCE raises the profile of their career center by frequently promoting jobs on the ASCE LinkedIn group.

new hires. The Social CRM team creates a campaign for distributing this content on LinkedIn, where job seekers are spending most of their time. They upload new featured jobs to the LinkedIn group, with a link back to the full list of new jobs on the association’s job board. They run ads on LinkedIn for the association’s job board and career resources. The also promote free webinars to help build the new job skills members will need to get rehired. They create an online job fair event using the association’s community platform, to connect employers with member job seekers. Finally, they get alerts from LinkedIn whenever a member’s job changes, and they send a quick congratulatory message—right before they update the AMS.

Practice area: Community management, monitoring and responding Technologies that can help: Community platform, social media management system Use Case 8 [Not so distant future, with the help of new technology] The industry an association serves is facing major consolidation and downsizing. More than 10% of members have lost their jobs and are turning to the association for help and guidance. Membership in the association’s LinkedIn group has exploded as more and more people turn to LinkedIn to search for jobs. The association puts together a comprehensive career development package that includes job search, plus critical education that member companies have deemed important for Share

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Practice area: Community management, content creation and curation, social profile mapping Technologies that can help: Community platform, AMS 12

1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S Use Case 9 [Possible now] An association is due for changes to the governance structure. The board is divided on how to handle the changes. Two proposals are on the table, and there is a lively debate between board members. The Social CRM team proposes an online focus group to get more feedback on the governance proposals. Using the community platform, they set up a private group and invite 150 members from many different segments of the association to come comment on the two proposals. 63 people respond and have a lively debate of their own. Several of the respondents propose small modifications to the two proposals that the board hadn’t considered. That spurs more discussion and gets a lot of agreement from the participants. The board creates a final proposal that incorporates the focus group feedback. They then post the final proposal to the private group on the community platform, and open the group up to broader comment from the membership at large. By the time the governing body votes, the membership is already well aware and supportive of the changes.

Solving Outreach Challenges The next three use cases reach beyond the purview of membership to extend the influence of the association to community members who also have a stake in the association’s work. How might your association apply Social CRM to build relationships with people who are not yet members, and might never be?

Use Case 10 [Possible now] Members in Wisconsin are facing a legislative change that will adversely impact them. At first, only a few members are even aware of the issue, but it’s critical to get members in the state to write and call their representatives in the state legislature. There are a few state leaders who are poised and ready to do the usual outreach by email and phone tree. In addition, the Social CRM team does an analysis of the database that includes social media data from members, and finds a list of 150 members in Wisconsin who have large followings on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They reach out with personal emails and phone calls to those 150 members and get all 150 to join an open group on the association’s community platform. State leaders are using the group to post updates about the legislation and how it will impact members, and the 150 connected members begin sharing those updates with their followers. Within a

Practice area: Community management Technologies that can help: Community platform

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1 2 USE CASES OF SOC I A L C R M F O R A S S O C I AT I O N S week, the group grows to more than 1,200 members and non-members—including several thought leaders from outside Wisconsin who recognize the potential for similar legislation in other states. The state leaders have a meeting with two representatives who are opposing the bill in question. They show the group of 1,200 to the representatives and share stories of the people who will be impacted to help them build their case.

call for proposals for the next conference is closed, but there are a few open slots that the association always holds, just in case. Using the association’s social media management system, the director of education tweets the three people who are most engaged in the conversation on Twitter, and asks them to design a session covering the topic for attendees at the conference. Practice area: Outreach and lead generation, content creation and curation Technologies that can help: Social media monitoring, social media management system

Practice area: Community management, social profile mapping Technologies that can help: AMS, community platform, email

Use Case 12 [Possible now] The early bird registration for an association’s annual meeting just ended. Registration numbers are lower than expected, even accounting for the trend for people to register later. The Social CRM team works with the conferences department to create a Tweety Bird Registration promotion. The promotion extends the early bird rate by giving a discount code to anyone who sends an email reminder to register to one of their colleagues. Their colleague also receives the discount code, so everyone wins. By the end of the promotion, which runs on the association’s Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages, an additional 238 registrants have registered using the discount code. Nearly half of the additional registrants have never attended the conference before.

NEA member champions using grassroots social media have made a positive impact on recent advocacy efforts.

Use Case 11 [Possible now] An association’s Social CRM team has been monitoring member conversations on Twitter for about a year. Recently, several conversation threads have popped up that imply an intersection between member thought leaders and thought leaders from another industry. The topic of their discussion is a new, emerging trend that members should be aware of. The

Practice area: Outreach and lead generation Technologies that can help: Social media management system 14

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A FINAL THOUGHT AB O U T P RO G R E S S

hink about membership management a century ago—after all, many of our associations have been around that long or more. What tools did our predecessors have to reach their members? There was the telephone (although, the first coast-to-coast long distance call didn’t happen until 1915.) There was the postal service, though the automobile was a pretty recent phenomenon, and air mail was handled by the army’s brand new fixed-wing aircraft, so mail was a little slower than it is today. And if you wanted to reach the general public, there were newspapers and roadside billboards, as well as this great new experimental medium called the radio, (though you had to wait several more years before broadcast advertising would be invented.)

We challenge you to look at your social media work and social strategies from a fresh perspective. Stop doing things that aren’t working, or have nebulous results. No more meaningless work. When you apply that time, energy, and passion to solving problems—and you just happen to be using social tools as the solution—now you’re making a meaningful contribution that will result in a lasting return on investment.

http://www.socialfish.org 202-713-5343 Lindy Dreyer

lindy@socialfish.org http://twitter.com/lindydreyer

Maddie Grant, CAE

We’ve come a very long way. And we’ve seen more technology innovation in our careers than any generation before us. It’s exhausting, and frustrating, and...dare we say exhilarating? We, without a doubt, have the most sophisticated tools in the history of membership management. And this is just the beginning. We’ve had a sneak peek at what Avectra is developing in their Social CRM for Associations, and we’ve been keeping an eye on a lot of other great companies who are at the forefront of the Social CRM movement. The sky is the limit. Which will be great, once we figure out what to do with all these tools. By far, the most challenging part of all of this change is finding it within ourselves to do things differently. That, and having the patience and the passion to work as a team to complete the work that needs to be done.

Thank you to Avectra for their support of this white paper. www.avectra.com http://twitter.com/avectra The costs of writing, designing and producing this white paper were shared between SocialFish and Avectra, in order to be able to provide this as a free resource to the association community. After all, there is no charge for awesomesauce. 15

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GLOSSARY OF SOCIAL C R M T E C H N O L O G Y Email Marketing Services Tools in this category help you connect with members and customers through email.This category could be broken into two pieces— email marketing services, and enterprise email add-ons (meaning extensions to your staff ’s work email). On the email marketing side, our wish would be to make it easy for your marketing team to segment lists based on social discovery data. On the enterprise email side, we’d like all staff to be able to see social discovery data in context as they send an email.

For more about the technology of Social CRM, see 6 Key Social CRM Technologies in our first white paper. Social Media Monitoring Tools in this category are designed to filter the web. Depending on the tool, you can filter by brand mentions, keywords, specific websites, and even sentiment in some cases. Social Media Management Systems (SMMS) Sometimes referred to as social media marketing tools, or campaign management tools, social media management systems are designed to streamline the process of posting and responding through social media channels. These tools often have monitoring capabilities as well. But the real value of an SMMS is the ability to enable multiple users for official association accounts, assign follow up duties, manage posting work flows and schedule posts according to an editorial calendar.

Community Platforms An alternative to the typical member-only section, these platforms are developed to enable peer- to-peer communication, group forming, document sharing and more. Social Sign On A technology that enables a website to connect to social platforms like Facebook,Twitter, Google, or LinkedIn among others. The idea is that when a member (or potential member) comes to your site, they use their login from one of these other platforms, and authorize an exchange of information.

Social Discovery Tools in this category make it easy to find members’ social media profiles and map relationships between members. Most of these services take the email address in your database and compare it against public social media profile data associated with that email address.

Association Management Systems The AMS is a powerful member database tool that tracks transactions and more. It’s similar to CRM tools like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with a membership management twist.

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