Companies implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM software to track consumer preferences, opinions and demands online. As social media becomes a predominant source for Internet data, businesses need to find ways to turn comments and actions on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube into actionable insight.
This can prove problematic for some organizations when they don’t have CRM solutions and strategies to turn informal conversations into consistent data. Here are the typical obstacles presented by social listening and how the Microsoft Dynamics CRM spring release can help:
Investing in social media
Social media is a major communication channel. Fortune shared data from a variety of industry studies and professional organizations that found more than three-fourths of internet users subscribe to at least one social site. That number increases for younger audiences. Businesses respond by prioritizing social platforms, with 90 percent of U.S. companies using social marketing campaigns and other new media-backed initiatives.
Looking at specific channels, a Social Media Examiner study focused on the problems and opportunities innovative platforms present. As of 2015, 93 percent of business marketing departments used Facebook and 62 percent expect to increase investments in the channel. Unfortunately, fewer than half of marketers think their Facebook content is successful and 68 percent want to learn more before moving forward.
The report offered similar findings for other platforms. Businesses want to tweet more and share more online videos, but they also need a better understanding of social media audiences and technology.
Challenges of social listening
The problems with social media initiatives usually stem from the same mistake that sinks a variety of new strategies: a lack of planning. The My Customer blog said businesses often feel pressured to join social media by recent trends, but don’t know what they’re looking for and don’t start with defined objectives.
Sometimes companies don’t have the right goals. For example, a business may want to achieve a certain number of connections on a channel, but won’t know what to do with followers when they have them. Either they won’t employ social listening tactics to capture and record public opinion and user questions, or marketers and sales teams won’t know what to make of the information.
The use of informal language like slang on social channels makes it difficult to automate data collection procedures. Employees either have to pour through records to measure each interaction or overlook a wealth of data.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM spring release
Updates available to Microsoft Dynamics CRM users in spring 2016 help businesses begin social media marketing campaigns and other activities with solutions for social listening. Microsoft’s announcement of their innovative Social Engagement features include automatic triage and adaptive learning. Users can customize sentiment scoring models, so repeated use of slang teaches the automated data collection software how to rate individual comments and create charts of public opinion.
The machine learning offered by the latest Microsoft Dynamics CRM technology provides easy solutions for companies that want to make the most of modern communication channels. By working with the right business software solutions and CRM consultant, organizations can tailor features and automated routines to yield the results they need from new marketing, sales and consumer research campaigns.