For years, I’ve been saying that the real value of enterprise social media will be realized when we develop a business unit focus. Many companies are using social media for PR or marketing or customer service. We’re not seeing complete integration across the enterprise yet, and that must be the goal. Eventually social media will just be another layer, like the web or e-mail. We’re on our way there.

For social media to be more than a novelty, and provide real enterprise-wide value, it needs to be on everyone’s desktop. I am by no means the first person to say, “Customer service is the new PR,” but it is increasingly true. No one will care about the glowing words you put in your press release if they had a terrible experience with your product and no one paid any attention. No one will want to come to work for your company if your public face is grumpy and disgruntled.

Social media is vital for all parts of the organization, and that’s why I’m excited about the launch of the Salesforce Social Hub™. Obviously I’m not an unbiased party, but this is what I’ve been envisioning for years as an enterprise social media practitioner. The Salesforce Social Hub™ will enable teams to collaborate better. It will allow organizations to seamlessly share social media data and response. And it is a giant step toward making social CRM a reality.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to convince reluctant executives that social media can support bottom line business objectives. But now I can show them how a tweet about their company can instantly become part of their customer relationship management system and be turned into a lead. No one can argue with the value of that, especially when it’s integrated across the enterprise.

See the Salesforce Social Hub™ in action with this video.

Tags: CRM, Customer service, salesforce social hub