At NTC I sat in on two panels discussing Social CRMs with very different views in both.

While the first social CRM panel (#11ntcsocialcrm) (moderated by Steve Backman (Database Designs) and featuring Debra Askanase (FirstGiving), Laura Quinn (Idealware), and Judi Sohn (C3)) focused mostly on what monitoring tools would be useful in building the perfect SocialCRM, the emphasis was being places on the tools and technologies above anything else. The panelists discussed the reasons why a supporters social media activities are important to use alongside their donation and standard CRM activities. 

Opening slides featured a terrific visualization of how a unified CRM saves an organization time and resources.  Debra Askanase discussed the use of social media plugins from Facebook and Twitter and how the analytics from these plugins can be used to help determine how active your supporters are on social networks.  The session's highlight was the discussion of what the perfect Social CRM would look like and how it would need to include engagement and monitoring activities to merge the two into one interaction with the supporter.

In contrast, the other Social CRM panel entitled "Let's Go Stalking: Fun with Social CRMs!" (#11ntcsoccrm) focused on the concepts behind a Social CRM - the processes an org puts in place and how you become a part of this.  It was almost as if the first panel was talking about Social CRMs as technical tools we use (like Spredfast and SmallAct) and the other panel looked at Social CRM as an evolving concept of monitoring and conversing with your supporters.

The second Social CRM panel featured nonprofit leaders in the social media space: Carie Lewis (Humane Society of the United States), Danielle Brigida (National Wildlife Federation) and Alan Rosenblatt (Internet Advocacy Center) all of whom offered several great takeaways for organizations struggling to manage their identities online. 

Carie Lewis spoke of her experiences as the initial social media hire at HSUS and how she used free services like Google Alerts and Tweetbeep to monitor the organization's brand online.  She recommended that organizations make sure to setup alerts for the following:
    •    Your organization's name
    •    The acronym
    •    Prominent Staff names

As Danielle Brigida pointed out, a social CRM is part of the interconnecting of the social monitoring and engagement process across departments at an organization.  This is a concept that makes a lot of sense to nonprofits that have a staff of one or two managing their social media operations.  Key measurements like knowing how often you are mentioned online, how often your content is shared and by whom, are ways to create your own social CRM within the organization. 

The panelists at the second panel stressed the importance of using listening and monitoring concepts to go where the conversation is happening.  As Alan Rosenblatt said "you may not have time for social media, but social media already has time for you".  By that he obviously meant that regardless of whether or not you are engaging people online, they're out there talking about you.  Best to find them and make sure they're involved.

A social CRM is an evolving concept that will become more and more important in online organizing and engagement in the near future.  Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aren't going anywhere. People will perform traditional activities like email blast and fundraising more and more through social networks, and organizations need to do whatever they can to make sure they're prepared for the conversation by taking the first steps and listening.