Salesforce Chatter: Bringing Social to Sales

By Miranda Weigler and Erin Frager

(This is the fifth post in our series on sales organizations’ emerging use of social media as a channel for shaping demand.)

Anyone in a company that uses Salesforce is acquainted with ‘Chatter’, the social function enabled by the CRM software. Although the feature has existed for two years, the adoption rate is slow and much of the initial excitement has fizzled to rumors of “just another social media outlet.”

Chatter offers a wealth of possibilities. The software includes a monstrosity of “apps”, real-time updates, and networking capabilities. It has the ability to form communities of internal and external stakeholders, allowing collaboration with privacy and security. Chatter use also reduces reliance on email; good for overloaded inboxes. In theory, it sounds perfect—but how do we get users to feel the same way?

The difficulty is predicated on one thing: buy in. In most cases it is a well communicated commitment from the top. In speaking to our members, we’ve discovered that a stakeholder or multi-disciplinary team that understands the value of Chatter and can communicate this around the organization makes all the difference.

We’ve also heard feedback equating Chatter to a “Facebook for the workplace”, implying that no work is actually getting done. What people don’t need is another channel to talk about their weekend plans or to share a picture of their kid. It may be difficult to get acceptance on Chatter if employees are seeing it as a haphazard social forum.  Make sure that the management is expressing and demonstrating the benefits and value of Chatter as a company or department collaboration tool.

Using “groups” within Chatter can be beneficial. Users can subscribe to updates and posts they’d like to continually receive while avoiding internal spam. We are certainly not strangers to a cluttered inbox, so being able to filter topics will ease the minds of those hesitant to conform. Similarly, group messages only reach those who are members, further decreasing the volume of batch emails.

The embracing of #hashtags and @mentions is also key for posts on Chatter so that responses and comments are easily categorized. As Chatter carries the same robust security as its owning CRM system, it provides a safe platform for sharing without worries around organization privacy.

If you’ve got a strategy or story of CRM or Salesforce Chatter specific adoption, we’d love to hear it. Alternatively, what other tools do you use to drive collaboration in your organization?

SEC Members, see tips for successful tool adoption, next-gen CRM strategy, and our new Playbook for Social Media. Also, register for our upcoming webinar to see how IBM is Revolutionizing Social Selling.