The tremendous reach of social media (Facebook alone claims 1.35 billion monthly users, and there are 880 million social media users in the Asia Pacific region alone) has seen brands jump enthusiastically on the social bandwagon in the happy expectation that huge numbers will automatically equate to huge returns. But with engagement rates averaging lower than 1%, they don’t. And they won’t as long as brands continue to treat social media in the same way they treat mass media channels.

At OgilvyOne, we believe that social media is an essential asset that should be used as a live platform to extract every drop of customer value – both sales and advocacy value. Too many brands treat it as an on-off campaign medium, a promotional channel, a competition forum, or a generic company news feed, and many are struggling to justify the ROI.

It’s essential to recognise that a key difference in the social world is that relationships can start earlier in the customer lifecycle, and even be built with people who haven’t actually bought the product yet, as well as existing customers.

To get maximum value it’s essential to build an ongoing relationship; a relationship that can be genuinely two-way and that creates brand trust and loyalty. We believe that only by delivering a transparent value exchange between brands and customers via continuous value platforms can this be achieved. And last but not least, we recognise that the more a brand lets go of its desire to control the message, the more they will be able to shape it pro-actively with their customers.

In short, combining the best practices of CRM with the collaborative possibilities of social media gives us Social CRM: