Case study: Social media as CRM

With the Norwegian artist Åge Aleksandersen’s Facebook usage as a case study, this paper discuss how artists may use social media in order to build healthy relationships with fans, as well as improving their business intelligence through strategic usage of social media as eCRM (electronic Customer Relationship Management). My knowledge of how Åge Aleksandersen use Facebook to communicate with fans has been gained through two in depth interviews: one with Åge Alkesandersen and one with a fan in regards to a specific episode where a talk back incident lead to an act of customer relation. To understand the amount of inbound versus outbound communication on Åge Aleksandersen’s Facebook page, I have also observed and analyzed how fans actually use the page and how they respond to Åge Aleksandersen’s status updates. My main argument is that Facebook may function as a proficient eCRM tool as long as the marketer knows how to analyze and use the statistics provided by the social network service. This as fans provides great amounts of data when liking the page.

Åge Aleksandersen photo: www.levvalivet.no

My analysis gives a very good example of how strategic usage of social media makes it possible to communicate with fans in real time based on who they are and where they are located. This way it illustrates how people show particular interest based on their level of closeness to the specific communication. Looking at concert pictures is more interesting if you were at the actual concert. At the same time it will be way more relevant to receive invites to concerts located either nearby to where you live or to where you might be heading. Taking statistics provided by Facebook serious might therefore improve your business intelligence, and help build strong relationships with fans.

One of the greatest advantages by looking at Facebook as eCRM, is the fact that fans already served as data providers when signing up. By using traditional tools such as email opt in forms; the value of the data given by the fan depends on the total amount of data provided. Optional fields are very often skipped when signing up, yet optional fields are necessary in order to encourage people to register (best practice in email marketing is that it needs to be few mandatory sign up fields in order to receive the most registrants). When using social media as eCRM, there is no such thing as optional fields. The only way to “register” is to click the “like” button. Yet the value of the data provided by liking an artist page on Facebook is comparable to filling out personal details such as gender, age and nationality.

It is also important to underline how the reduction of social distance may generate great value for artists. A community of pleased fans simply has the potential of leading to an economic engagement between the fan and the artist. A combination of social media strategy and traditional advertising might therefore be a very powerful tool. First off all it is easier to encourage fans to like a Facebook page in newspaper advertisements and TV commercials, compared to telling them to sign up to a newsletter. Second by doing this, your advertisement will not only promote sales of the actual product, it will promote the community and that way generate a great deal of value as more fans contribute as data providers by liking the page.

Artists both should and will communicate to their fans based on who they are (as artists) and who their fans are. That way, what works for one artist, might not necessarily work for another artist. One thing is how your fans will act through the way you handle fan communication on social media platforms. Another thing is how fans expect you, as an artist, to handle their requests based on other artists social media usage. On this matter it is not only important to understand social media as a communication platform. It is also important to value user generated customer service. You should not only encourage fans to communicate and interact with you as an artist, but you should very well encourage them to interact with each other. However, as my analysis shows it is important to understand that your community would require frequent updates in order to grow. A well thought out strategy and activity plan will therefore help grow your fan base. And as fans provide data material the minute they become members of the community, the increased number of likes will also improve your business intelligence. This way you will not only build relationships with even more fans. With the ability to analyze data provided by your fans, you will also become a smarter artist.

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