This article explores some of the most useful aspects of social media for a brand or product. I’ve used Australian based organisations to demonstrate some of the principles both what I consider to be successful or well implemented strategies and those I consider could have been done better.
There are two aspects to social media, in my opinion they are engagement and word-of-mouth.
Social media is a conversation, not a broadcast. Imagine yourself running into someone on the street, they start a conversation and you respond by semi-regularly blurting out some information, completely unrelated to what they’re saying – this is the situation when an organisation adopts social media as purely a marketing tool. You’ll very quickly lose the attention of your customers and they’ll tune out just as you would lose the attention of the person on the street.
If you have a need to broadcast this kind of information on social media, mark it as such – try to avoid mixing your conversation and your “broadcast stream”. Allow your customers to opt in to your broadcast stream if they want to, but don’t make them put up with it just to engage with you.
Coles Supermarkets has done this successfully, by providing no illusions that customers will have any feedback from their twitter efforts. The account name speaks for itself: @ColesSpecials.
Social media is a continual effort. If you have made a strategic decision to discontinue engaging on a platform, ensure the users of that platform are aware of that decision and where they can continue to receive the same service (even if it’s telephone, email or letter writing).
Coles got this wrong with their efforts on Facebook. They have a Facebook page, but it has one update, dated August 2009. It reads “Good Day Customers! Please invite your mates & spread the word around…ThankYou”, they got over 700 fans, but haven’t done anything with it since.
Woolworths Supermarkets also got this wrong with their twitter presence. The @Woolworths account contains one tweet dated 25th July 2008. It simply contains the URL to their website. I’m guessing Woolworths is just name squatting their twitter account.
Australia’s largest two telcos (Telstra and Optus) have implemented very successful twitter strategies, with their twitter accounts @Telstra and @Optus respectively. Both don’t provide any marketing material, but use these twitter accounts to engage with their customers, even if it’s as simple as answering with a “Fill in your details here, and we’ll get back to you” with a link to a web form. Optus’ replies are always personalised, individually typed and signed by a staff members name (I don’t personally follow Telstra).
The next example I want to take a look at is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). They seem fantastic at replying to tweets like this one:
@whatiris: Holy balls ABC2 has an outstanding collection of shows! @whatiris tweet
@ABCTV_australia: @whatiris why thank you – we try to please @abctv_australia tweet
But a recent tweet from me asking them why a scheduled program wasn’t shown and if they would re-schedule it went un-answered. As a consumer that sends me a strong signal that the ABC aren’t willing to engage with me unless I’m telling them something they want to hear.
Pro-actively monitor social media. It is important to monitor what the market is saying about you. This allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of how people are reacting to your organisation. Are most people seeing your service and product as favorable? Do most of your customers have negative things to say about you.
It’s important here to remember we’re looking for things that people are saying about you, not to you. But even more importantly are you prepared to listen? Monitoring social media gives you the ability to see into the minds of your customers, happy or not. If they’re not – be prepared to do something about it, even if that is as little as engaging with them, constructively. If they are happy, you can simply let them know you appreciate them, their sentiments and are there if they have questions or need your support.
Utilize tools to notify you when you’re organisation or product is mentioned on twitter or on any web page (Google Alerts is good for this).
The Commonwealth Bank in Australia do this, and have demonstrated it to perfection. One single tweet from a customer, out of frustration about the loan approval process, including the word f@#!ing. In less than two hours a representative from the CBA contacted them and resolved the issue.
This customer would have potentially for the foreseeable future mentioned their bad experience with the CBA every time somebody mentioned home loans to them. Turning it around the CBA ended up with a happy customer who will instead recount their positive experiences with the CBA in those same situations.
I encourage any organisation to message back every mention of your brand, publicly. But ensure the conversation is taken privately (telephone, email, Direct Message) when details and personal information needs to be shared.
I’m personally prepared to be a walking (or tweeting) billboard for any company who does right by me, it costs them nothing more than the above average ability to service my needs at a price I’m willing to pay. If a company exceeds my expectations I will tell my friends about it, publicly. However I’m more than happy to voice my concerns or issues with an organisation in the same way.
