Direct
contact social business forums are quickly proving to be the most
effective method astute business leaders have to connect with their
customers. As social media consumes an ever larger share of the
public’s attention, with 75% of all U.S. households plugged into one
social network or another, it only makes sense that customer-focused
organizations engage using channels their clients increasingly
prefer. 

While
Facebook, Twitter and the pervasive blog continue to be included in
far too many CRM discussions, the fact remains these channels rely
more on “push” messaging than the infinitely more valuable
practice of collaborative engagement. Further, Facebook and Twitter
are typically presented as business-centric venues that diminish the
proactive involvement of customers looking to advance their own
agendas.

Collaborative
Engagement

While
“traditional” social media channels have their uses, the most
productive interaction with your customers requires an environment
where customers have freedom to dictate the terms of engagement.
Customers are generally willing to comment, often voluminously, on
their experiences as consumers but they must be allowed to do so on
their terms, with their own voice.

Enter
the “social business network”.
According to Forrester Research, the “Enterprise Social Software”
market is expected to grow 860% over the next 4 years. Why? Because
collaborative social-business forums have proven to foster win-win
engagement where all participants can be rewarded for their
participation.

For
customers, social business forums can become a trusted source of
product recommendations, unvarnished product reviews, helpful product
insights, solutions to problems, etc. Social business forums also
offer customers a tremendous opportunity to collectively leverage
requests for product or policy changes. Moreover, support
communities, the fastest growing segment of all online social
platforms, often provide information that’s otherwise difficult to
find or too new to be properly documented by vendors.

Leverage
Your Customers

By
soliciting your most engaged customers for their input, opinion, and
yes, even their criticisms, stakeholders can access priceless,
real-time business intelligence that might be too difficult or costly
to obtain by other means. Such forthright and unencumbered
communication can often produce valuable revenue generating
opportunities and/or cost savings solutions.

Further,
by opening direct, informal lines of communication with your most
valued customers, you give them a venue to freely express themselves
and increase their value to you as a customer. Social
business forums are also an excellent place for customers
to seek and offer solutions to each others problems which can result
in higher customer support satisfaction and lowered operational
costs.

For
business managers, collaborative social environments have proven to
generate sales, deepen customer loyalty, provide invaluable customer
insights, increase employee autonomy, improve internal company
communications, and much more.

Leverage
Your Employees

Regardless
of economic conditions, most employers work continuously to reduce
operational costs and increase employee efficacy. Ironically, these
same employees are often overlooked as primary sources of innovation
and improvement. The truth is, employees typically have much greater
knowledge and insight than employers utilize. Smart employers will
work to make that wealth of information readily available.

By
tapping into, centralizing and publishing the collective body of
knowledge possessed by a company’s workforce, myriad improvements
become more achievable;

The
ProBoards Solution

Whether
you’re considering social business forums to cultivate customer
engagement or to enhance employee collaboration, ProBoards’ unlimited
scalability, award winning feature set and proven reliability
provides the secure environment necessary to support your enterprise
networking effort. 

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