Retail surgery: How can I combine a customer database and social media?

The first step is to recognise that data derived from social media activity should be linked to your existing customer database to create a single customer view.

But this is easier said than done. To create integrated social media campaigns, encourage your customers to sign up to email communication or update their customer profiles using a social platform such as Facebook. This will enable you to capture both the email address as well as the customer’s social media profile.

An easy way to ensure such a campaign is successful is to offer incentives for customers to part with their personal information, such as discounts on their next purchase or entry into a prize draw. By linking social media activity to behavioural and transactional data, you can begin to build very detailed customer profiles, which can be used to drive highly personalised and targeted marketing campaigns.

Social media content can in itself be very powerful. Incorporating user-generated content, such as product reviews or Twitter comments, into the body of your communications, gives customers that much valued third-party endorsement and demonstrates confidence in your own offering.

Susanne Schmid, client services director at eCircle, says: “Your customers are your most influential asset.” She advises making it easy for branded communications to spread by making it possible for users to share content they see in marketing emails.

“Clearly visible ‘share to Facebook’ tabs, or tabs that share to other social platforms, encourages your customers to amplify content and advocate your brand,” she says.