Best CRM For Social Media Marketing For Marketers, Sales, & CS
In today’s fast-paced digital world, social media has become an integral part of customer relationship management (CRM).
As a leading provider of social media strategy and analytics, Social Think understands the importance of using the right tools to maximize your online presence and drive business results.
A social CRM seamlessly integrates social media data with traditional CRM functionality, empowering businesses to better understand and engage with their customers across various social platforms.
What is Social CRM?
Social CRM, or social customer relationship management, is a powerful approach that combines social media and CRM to build stronger relationships with customers. Integrating social data into a CRM system helps businesses gain valuable insights into customer sentiment, preferences, and behavior, allowing them to provide personalized experiences and exceptional customer service.
Benefits of Social CRM For Marketing
- Gain a 360-degree view of customers by combining social data with traditional CRM data
- Monitor brand mentions and customer sentiment in real-time
- Identify and engage with influencers and brand advocates
- Improve lead generation and nurturing through social interactions
- Deliver timely and personalized customer support across social channels
How Social CRM Differs From Traditional CRM?
While traditional CRM focuses on managing customer interactions through channels like email and phone calls, social CRM expands this scope to include social media conversations.
Social CRM tools enable businesses to listen, analyze, and engage with customers across social platforms, providing a more comprehensive understanding of customer needs and preferences.
List of Top 10 Social Media CRM
Here is a list of the top 10 social media CRM platforms. They are known for their strong features and help improve your social media marketing efforts:
Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a powerful social media management and CRM tool that helps businesses build stronger relationships with their customers.
It offers a unified inbox where you can manage all your social media interactions in one place, making it easier to respond to customer inquiries and comments.
Sprout Social’s social listening features allow you to monitor brand mentions and track customer sentiment across various social platforms. Its robust analytics and reporting tools provide valuable insights into your social media performance, helping you make data-driven decisions.
With Sprout Social, you can schedule posts, collaborate with team members, and even integrate with other CRM systems to create a comprehensive customer relationship management solution.
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM that integrates social media data to enhance your customer relationships.
While primarily known for its intuitive pipeline management, Pipedrive offers social media integration that allows you to track customer interactions across platforms.
This integration helps sales teams gain a more complete picture of their prospects and customers, enabling more personalized outreach.
Pipedrive’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage contacts, track deals, and automate repetitive tasks.
Its mobile app ensures you can access customer information and update deals on the go, making it an excellent choice for sales teams that need to stay connected while out in the field.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a comprehensive customer relationship management platform that includes robust social media integration. It allows you to monitor social conversations, engage with customers, and capture leads directly from social platforms.
Zoho CRM’s social CRM features help you build a 360-degree view of your customers by combining traditional CRM data with social insights. You can track customer interactions across multiple channels, including social media, email, and phone calls.
Zoho CRM also offers powerful automation tools to streamline your workflow and improve team productivity. Its customizable dashboards and reporting features provide valuable insights into your sales and marketing performance.
Base CRM
Base CRM, now known as Zendesk Sell, is a sales-oriented CRM that includes social media data to enhance customer relationships. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that makes it easy for sales teams to manage their pipelines and track customer interactions.
Base CRM’s social media integration allows you to gather valuable insights about your contacts from their social profiles, helping you personalize your outreach.
The platform also offers robust mobile apps for both iOS and Android, ensuring that your sales team can access critical customer information anytime, anywhere.
With features like email tracking, task management, and customizable reports, Base CRM helps sales teams work more efficiently and close deals faster.
Salesforce CRM
Salesforce is a market leader in CRM solutions, offering a powerful platform that includes social media integration. Its Social Studio feature allows businesses to listen to social conversations, engage with customers, and analyze social media performance.
Salesforce CRM provides a complete view of your customers by combining data from various sources, including social media, email, and phone interactions. The platform’s customizable dashboards and reports help you track key metrics and make informed decisions.
Salesforce also offers a wide range of integrations and apps through its AppExchange, allowing you to extend its functionality to meet your specific business needs.
HubSpot Smart CRM
HubSpot’s Smart CRM is part of its comprehensive inbound marketing and sales platform. It offers robust social media tools that help you manage your social presence, engage with customers, and track the performance of your social media campaigns.
HubSpot’s CRM automatically captures and organizes customer data from various sources, including social media, making it easier to build comprehensive customer profiles.
The platform’s intuitive interface and powerful automation features help streamline your sales and marketing processes. With HubSpot, you can create personalized email campaigns, track website visitor behavior, and manage your entire sales pipeline in one place.
ProsperWorks
ProsperWorks, now known as Copper, is a CRM designed specifically for G Suite users. It offers seamless integration with Google’s productivity tools, making it easy to manage customer relationships within your existing workflow.
While not primarily focused on social media, ProsperWorks does allow you to capture social data and integrate it into your customer profiles.
The platform’s clean, user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage contacts, track deals, and collaborate with team members. ProsperWorks also offers automation features to help streamline repetitive tasks and improve productivity.
Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management tool that offers robust CRM features. It provides a unified inbox for managing all your social media interactions, making it easy to respond to customer inquiries and comments across multiple platforms.
Agorapulse’s social listening tools help you monitor brand mentions and track customer sentiment. The platform also offers powerful publishing and scheduling features, allowing you to plan and automate your social media content.
With its built-in CRM functionality, Agorapulse helps you track customer interactions and build stronger relationships over time. Its detailed analytics and reporting features provide valuable insights into your social media performance and ROI.
Nimble
Nimble is a social CRM that focuses on relationship intelligence. It automatically enriches your contacts with data from social media profiles, providing valuable insights into your customers and prospects.
Nimble’s unique “Today Page” gives you a daily agenda of important tasks, deals, and social interactions, helping you stay on top of your relationships. The platform integrates with various email and productivity tools, making it easy to manage your communications in one place.
Nimble’s mobile app ensures you have access to critical customer information on the go. With features like smart contact management, deal tracking, and social listening, Nimble helps businesses build stronger, more meaningful relationships with their customers.
Freshsales
Freshsales is a CRM solution that offers social media integration to enhance your customer relationships. While primarily focused on sales, Freshsales allows you to capture social data and incorporate it into your customer profiles.
The platform offers AI-powered lead scoring, helping you identify and prioritize the most promising leads. Freshsales provides a 360-degree view of your customers, combining data from various sources, including social media, email, and phone interactions.
Its intuitive interface and customizable pipeline management make it easy for sales teams to track deals and manage their workflow. Freshsales also offers powerful reporting and analytics features to help you measure your sales performance and make data-driven decisions.
Key Features to Look For in a Social CRM
When evaluating social CRM tools, consider the following essential features:
- Social Media Integration: A social CRM should seamlessly integrate with the social media platforms your business uses, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This integration enables you to monitor brand mentions, track customer conversations, and engage with your audience without leaving the CRM interface.
- Social Listening and Monitoring: Social listening and monitoring capabilities are important for staying on top of customer sentiment and identifying opportunities for engagement. Look for a social CRM that offers real-time monitoring, sentiment analysis, and the ability to track specific keywords and hashtags.
- Social Media Engagement Tools: Engaging with customers across social platforms is key to building strong relationships. A social CRM should provide tools for responding to comments, messages, and mentions, as well as the ability to create and publish social media content directly from the CRM.
- Social Media Analytics and Reporting: To measure the impact of your social media efforts, choose a social CRM with robust analytics and reporting features. Look for tools that provide insights into audience demographics, engagement rates, and the performance of your social media campaigns.
- Automation and Workflow Management: Automation and workflow management features can streamline your social media marketing efforts and save time. Look for a social CRM that offers automated lead capture, lead nurturing, and the ability to set up custom workflows based on specific triggers or actions.
How to Choose the Best Social CRM For Your Business?
Selecting the right social CRM for your business involves careful consideration of your specific needs and goals.
Follow these steps to make an informed decision:
- Assess Your Social Media Marketing Needs: Evaluate your current social media marketing strategy and identify areas where a social CRM can provide the most value. Consider factors such as the social platforms you use, the size of your audience, and your engagement goals.
- Consider Ease of Use and User Adoption: Choose a social CRM with an intuitive interface and user-friendly features to ensure high adoption rates among your team. Look for tools that offer training resources and customer support to help your team get up to speed quickly.
- Evaluate Integration Capabilities: Assess how well the social CRM integrates with your existing marketing and sales tools, such as email marketing platforms, customer service software, and analytics tools. Seamless integration ensures a cohesive workflow and eliminates data silos.
- Compare Pricing and Value: Consider your budget and compare the pricing plans of different social CRM providers. Look for a tool that offers the features and capabilities you need at a price point that aligns with your budget. Don’t forget to factor in the potential ROI of using a social CRM, such as increased customer engagement and revenue growth.
Social Media CRM Examples
Here are a few examples of how businesses can use social CRM to improve customer relationships and drive results:
- Customer Service: A telecommunications company uses a social CRM to monitor brand mentions and customer complaints on social media. Quickly responding to and resolving issues helps improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn.
- Lead Generation: A B2B software company uses a social CRM to identify and engage with potential customers on LinkedIn. Nurturing these leads through personalized outreach and content can help increase conversion rates and revenue.
- Influencer Marketing: A fashion retailer uses a social CRM to identify and collaborate with influencers in their niche. Tracking influencer mentions and engagement helps marketers measure the impact of their influencer marketing campaigns and optimize their strategy.
FAQ’s:
What Social Media Platforms Do CRMs Typically Integrate With?
Most social CRMs integrate with popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Some tools also offer integration with additional networks, such as YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok.
What Makes a CRM Tool Ideal For Social Media Marketing?
An ideal social CRM for marketing should offer seamless social media integration, robust social listening and monitoring capabilities, engagement tools, analytics and reporting features, and automation capabilities. It should also be user-friendly and offer good customer support.
Can Small Businesses Benefit From Social Media CRM?
Absolutely! Small businesses can use social CRM to better understand their customers, engage with them across social channels, and deliver personalized experiences. Many social CRM tools offer affordable pricing plans tailored to the needs of small businesses.
Can Social CRMs Help With Social Media Advertising?
Yes, some social CRMs offer features that support social media advertising efforts. These may include audience targeting, ad creation and management, and performance tracking. However, the extent of advertising capabilities varies between different CRM tools.
How Do Social CRMs Handle Data Privacy and Security?
Reputable social CRM providers prioritize data privacy and security. They typically comply with regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, and implement measures like data encryption, secure data centers, and regular security audits. It’s important to review a provider’s privacy policy and security practices before choosing a social CRM.
What is the Learning Curve For Implementing a Social CRM?
The learning curve for implementing a social CRM depends on the complexity of the tool and the technical expertise of your team. Many social CRMs offer user-friendly interfaces, tutorials, and customer support to help users get up to speed quickly. Choosing a tool with good usability and training resources can minimize the learning curve.
How Can a Social CRM Improve Customer Service?
A social CRM enables businesses to monitor customer inquiries, complaints, and feedback across social channels in real time.
Quickly responding to and resolving customer issues can help businesses improve customer satisfaction, build trust, and foster loyalty. Social CRMs also provide valuable insights into common customer pain points, allowing businesses to proactively address them.
How Does Social Media Integration Enhance CRM Functionality?
Social media integration enhances CRM functionality by providing a more comprehensive view of customers.
Combining social data with traditional CRM data helps businesses gain insights into customer preferences, behavior, and sentiment.
This enables personalized interactions, targeted marketing campaigns, and improved customer service. Social media integration also allows businesses to engage with customers on their preferred channels, fostering stronger relationships.
Conclusion
In today’s digital age, social media has become an important component of customer relationship management.
Using the power of social CRM tools, businesses can better understand their customers, engage with them across social channels, and deliver exceptional experiences.
When choosing a social CRM, consider your specific needs, budget, and the key features that align with your social media marketing goals.
At Social Think, we specialize in providing actionable social media insights and analytics to help businesses drive results. Our expertise in social media strategy and customer relationship management enables us to guide you in selecting the best social CRM for your business.
To learn more about how Social Think can help you use social CRM to achieve your marketing objectives, visit our website or contact us today.
