Social CRM: The Center of Your CRM Strategy — Or A Complete Strategy Itself?

I just got done reading through Altimeter’s new paper entitled Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management. While there is little to argue with regarding Altimeter’s report on the 18 use cases of Social CRM, there are some statements that I feel could have been worded differently — or simply left out. I also feel it could have buit a 5M chart that includes more traditional uses cases (even ones most business don’t do well), and how the two aspects of customer engagement relate to each other (traditional and social). The bottom line is…

Social CRM is not an all encompassing strategy

Sure, the Social Customer is different than customers of the past. A Social Business is one that recognizes this. However, Social CRM is a channel — another means of communication and engagement; regardless of the dimensionality of it. Do you really know your customer by monitoring social channels? If the answer is no (and it must be in my opinion), then the strategy must incorporate all listening an…