Hootsuite, the most widely used social media management platform, has announced its choice to launch a series of tight integrations into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Office 365, Yammer and SharePoint, allowing users to leverage social media content and information in a meaningful way throughout the Microsoft suite.
Increasingly, enterprise organisations and small businesses alike are tuning into the powerful potential of social marketing, social selling and social customer service.
Commercial businesses and not-for-profits need to be listening to and participating in online conversations about the service they provide and hot topics in their field, as well as maintaining an awareness of competitor positioning. Once the relevant networks are identified, it is easy to see that these conversations in forums and on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are the voice of your target audience, which can offer insights and provide another opportunity for engaged dialogue.
A social media strategy can make use of these platforms to identify and pursue sales opportunities and is also a useful means of communicating marketing content and driving brand awareness. The real-time nature of these interactions also means it is an important arena for responding to customer issues and questions.
"Integrating Microsoft software enables Hootsuite customers to get the most out of social, from external customer interactions to internal collaboration. We're pleased to expand our relationship with Microsoft to offer solutions that will empower our customers' success with social," said Steve Johnson, Chief Revenue Officer at Hootsuite.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration will allow Hootsuite users to create leads, opportunities, or cases from the Hootsuite dashboard which will populate Dynamics CRM via an online portal. Social information will then be accessible within the customer or prospect record.
SharePoint integration will enable the publishing of content identified on individual employees' social networks to their public and team SharePoint sites. Conversely, users will also be able to publish content from SharePoint sites into the Hootsuite dashboard to be viewed alongside the social data within.
Integration with Yammer, Microsoft's private social network piece, connects employees for real-time collaboration with any department within the business, to solve customer queries and issues instantly.
Hootsuite is one of a litany of companies developing integrations into the ubiquitous and flexible Microsoft suite, highlighting its importance in the marketplace. Microsoft also offers its own social media management platform, Microsoft Social Engagement, which can be used to listen to keywords, analyse sentiment of individual or aggregated posts for reporting and respond in real-time in a monitored and structured way.
On a related note, Core will be exhibiting at the Professional Associations Research Network conference on 26 November, the theme of which is 'Social Media: Finding Your Voice', specifically for membership professionals.