It Takes Two to Tango | Brand Republic Feature

With the predicted onset of Social Commerce, aptly named sCommerce by the principals at IBM, we are about to witness the next technological revolution. Goodbye CRM, goodbye traditional direct marketing and hello social commerce.

Social Commerce can be defined as any transaction, monetary or otherwise that takes place on a social platform in the digital space. The methodology behind Social Commerce is simple. For organisations today it’s like having access to an open air database of potential customers. But with social commerce comes a bigger twist, and that lies in who has control.

On the social platforms, Jo Public has the upper hand. Subject matter is their own and conversation is on their terms. From a corporate perspective it’s probably best to adopt their native ways. Enter the newly re-branded niche of Inbound Marketing, previously known as Sales Desk, Press Office or in some cases Complaints Department.

So why the rapid structural change?

Because for social commerce to actually take place, a customer has to make the first move. It’s very different from the traditional methods of mass mailings, group profiling and customer data targeting. The “R” in Customer “Relationship” Management is perhaps one that never truly existed.

Social commerce is perhaps the first eye widening moment when marketers will be forced to acknowledge that individual people don’t currently have relationships with organisations, but they may have a dialogue. Grouping customers by tribes are days gone past. The future for social commerce success lies in recognising the individual, understanding what it is they expect, and delivering it.