Consona Corporation, a major player in providing customer relationship management, knowledge management software, and enterprise resource planning software and services for companies of all sizes, has come out with a new white paper, “Making Support Social: Turning Customer Engagement into Customer Success,” which examines a social media trend.

Jointly produced with David Kay, principal, DB Kay & Associates, the white paper dives into the current social media trend and reveals the many inherent benefits it offers to service and support groups.

The paper says that whether blogging, rating, commenting, debating or collaborating, society has embraced social media as a critical communication tool – and one that is quickly proving to be valuable to businesses.

In most organizations, the marketing department has taken ownership of the social media presence. 

The white paper however reveals that the business impact of social media is stronger and more beneficial in service and support.

“The social media revolution is turning the entire Internet into a virtual suggestion box,” said Tim Hines, vice president of product management, Consona (News - Alert), in a statement.

Hines said that by ignoring the goldmine of information held within it, companies are essentially ignoring valuable customer feedback and an opportunity to deliver support better, faster and more cost-effectively.

Officials with Consona said that there, customers may help each other, while at the same time providing businesses with insight into the customer experience and opportunities to improve.

Company officials said that smart companies are taking note, monitoring blogs and forums, and they like to immediately act on customer tips, complaints and kudos.

They are also engaging the online society through social media to gather solicited feedback on services and products. Nowhere else can a company obtain this scale of brainpower so quickly.

According to company officials, in the paper, support-centric CRM solution vendor Consona partners with industry thought leader David Kay to offer an overview of the current, broad social media trends and critical advice to advance your business’ service and support using social media.

The white paper concludes with a “Social Support Action Plan” -- five suggestions for engaging social media sources and moving forward with a social media plan.