Social, meet CRM. CRM, meet Social.

Good seminar at #DD10 Session 110 though Jeff Wyler’s message wasn’t the “destroyer of social media” as expected for a seminar entitled “Likes or Links, Which One Stinks and Why Social Media is BS.”  His  presentation title however, did  result in the packing of the floor at his presentation.  Though it was sort of a “bait and switch” message since many in the audience (perhaps all)  anticipated a  message that would forever end social media as a piece of the automotive digital strategy pie. In fact Jeff supports Social.  Just not for direct sales and ROI.  Guess what.  He’s right.

Social as we know it isn’t about direct sales and ROI but branding, visibility and customer relations – even SEO and content strategy.  Rewarding non-prospects and non-customers with gimmicky prizes makes no sense for a long term holistic social strategy when focusing on ROI.

Small but practical incentives that engage customers and reward customer loyalty can help keep the dealership brand “top of mind” beyond the dealership, between businesses at little cost in light of customer lifetime value (CLV).   You just have to do it right.

To do it right, I recommend dealers try to use CRM to drive existing customers to a dealership branded social spaces like Facebook to increase audience customer density there before getting into promotions.  Think about it. CRM and Social can be used in concert to reach and reward customers with a meaningful CLV over Facebook.  Incentives can be part of the mix as long as they are of some perceived value and usefulness (think relevance and quality) to the audience, and that audience has a relationship with your brand.    Any dollar spend should reach and reward your more valuable customers having higher Social Reach and Clout, as these customers are more likely to advocate your brand across their networks in addition to having reinforced your relationship with these customers.  And if you are giving away prizes, always measure campaign attrition to keep yourself honest. People will do what you want to get free stuff.  Just make sure they are customers with a high CLV.  If you’re not measuring attribution when incentives are used then you cannot effectively manage Social.  After all, you may be engaging the wrong segment.   Don’t fall in love with your own invention. Keep yourself honest by measuring attrition.

So there is no argument for making a direct ROI attribution back to Social.  A healthy dealer social media strategy puts branding and customer relations ahead of ROI.  And if honestly positioned as such to upper management, Social won’t raise false expectations and can win buy-in on the basis of its own merits, and the merits of a competent team.   Small but practical incentives that engage customers and reward customer loyalty can help keep the dealership brand “top of mind” beyond the dealership, between businesses at little cost in light of customer lifetime value (CLV).   You just have to do it right.

Social is emerging as a Search driver. To what extent a Search driver we do not know.  Google still requires a user’s to setup and be logged into a Google Profile account. This account must be integrated with the users other social accounts like Facebook and Twitter.  So the caveat with Social as a Search driver in an era where most search engine users still prefer surfing anonymously is this.  It’s coming but it’s not quite there.

John Cisar @socialevisible