The strength of social media marketing: integration in function of people

Social media marketing is about relevance and people People use social media. Companies as well. Increasingly. Those are facts. Despite discussions concerning the ROI of social media marketing and many questions regarding the how, what and when, it remains a fact that social media marketing exists and work, whether we debate it or not. However, social media marketing is an extremely broad concept. For example, there is an enormous difference between the using social bookmarking for SEO purposes, customer service via social media and social CRM, to name just a few. Time to look at it in another way!

Social media marketing is an umbrella concept, something that entails many forms of interaction, media and marketing. However it is not an isolated island in itself. If people today combine various channels to inform themselves and interact, it is logical that we as companies and marketers should also do this.

Cross-channel marketing is a matter of customer-centricity and requires a very fundamental knowledge of customers, prospects, fans, etc. which is amongst other reasons what we strive for with social media monitoring.

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André Lejeune, CEO Selligent: CRM is increasingly marketing-oriented

Andre Lejeune - CEO Selligent
Andre Lejeune – CEO Selligent

Pan-European Conversion Marketing and Interactive CRM software vendor Selligent (disclaimer: I worked for the company as a consultant a few years) is actively marketing its revamped marketing suite. I interviewed CEO André Lejeune concerning the company’s strategy and the market developments surrounding marketing automation and CRM.

I started by asking Lejeune what he thinks about the “hot topic” of the moment in marketing, social media, and how it’s connected with email marketing and CRM from a customer-centric perspective.

André Lejeune: “Social media marketing has so far mainly been used for branding. Integration into cross-channel interactive marketing however, offers interesting possibilities, and is becoming increasingly important. The integrations that I have so far encountered between CRM or marketing solutions and social networks are still not strong enough. At Selligent, we are intensifying this integration further and also leverage social media in our own cross-channel and customer-centric marketing strategy.”

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