Top Social Buzz from Merkle’s 2012 Digital CRM Executive Exchange

Merkle kicked off 2012 with the inaugural Digital CRM Executive Exchange.  We brought together marketing executives from various industries to exchange practical, industry-tested methods of how they each use information, analytics and technology to inform digital media and customer interactions.  Merkle Connect was a key presenter as part of the day’s activities sharing how our site socialization solution drives value for clients by connecting social and CRM data.

Merkle Connect team members joined the round table discussions with executives and found the same two social media questions were coming up again and again.  Here’s a quick snapshot of those and how Merkle Connect helps clients solve these issues:

How can I bring accountability to my social media budget?

Executives discussed how their social media budgets are often aligned with a single corporate goal – get more Fans.  What was concerning to most was the acknowledgement that this goal is not connected to business results.  Many felt they had spent a good deal of money driving to this goal and didn’t have the revenue data to support it.

Merkle Connect works with our clients to always think through how social media spend  supports the strategy of connecting social data with customer data.  By tying these data sets together, marketers can understand how much a fan is worth as well as drive more sophisticated insights that can be leveraged across all digital activities.

How can I bring a social experience to my site to help drive engagement and conversion?

There was plenty of conversation regarding how to leverage the value of a social network to support the engagement and conversion goals of a company’s site.

As consumers rely more and more on their social networks to make decisions, having the ability to see and access this network on-site becomes invaluable.  Placing the power of a consumer’s social network within the onsite decision process drives customer satisfaction and increased conversion.

Merkle Connect accomplishes this on-site connection via our technology – Social Amp.  This technology platform lets consumers to connect with Facebook on a brand’s site and enables one of many different socially-supported modules to enhance site engagement.  For example, Levi’s created a Friends Store that once users connect, allows them to see which of their friends like the brand, what products they’ve liked and even upcoming friends birthdays for gift considerations.

For more information, check out our presentation from the Exchange or read more about our social POV.