Customers in both B2B and B2C markets use social media to learn about new products and to follow the brands they are loyal to. In turn, marketers are building their Social presence and attempting to connect with customers and prospects on social networks.
The first rule of social engagement is to listen and learn. Many companies use social monitoring tools such as Radian 6 to capture and analyze what is being said about their products, services and brand. Marketers can discover hot topics and learn about their audience, as well as their own company. That’s all part of the listening and learning.
But listening is only one-half of a conversation. When it’s your turn to speak you don’t want to mess up or alienate your customer and prospects. You need to respond appropriately in a way that helps you not only be in the conversation, but to shape the conversation, without coming off as overly aggressive or promotional. Shaping social conversations is as much art as science, but even with the arty part, you can apply some best practices to help master the required skills.
- Respond to everything. When something is said about your company, brand or products on social media, you should respond. This shows you are listening and that you care. That’s how you build trust. If you get a compliment, say thank you. If you are criticized, apologize. If a question is posed, answer it. Use the context of the conversation to provide additional information—if you think the information is useful and relevant to the situation and your audience’s needs.
- Respond in a timely fashion. Everyone’s on Internet time, which means high expectations when it comes to speed of response. If you’re using automated tools and rules-based routing to monitor social networks, then someone in your company should be able to respond quickly to social comments.
- Ask questions. Your customers want to be heard. Asking questions on interesting and relevant topics not only helps you shape conversations, it gets your customers involved and lets you collect important feedback and opinions. Keep your questions focused on your audience, not on your company.
- Never be negative. You’re bound to get some negative comments (it is the Internet, after all). You will have to exercise judgment in determining whether a complaint is for real or just steam getting blown, but when real complaints come in, the best thing to do is start with an apology. Don’t make excuses. Don’t point the finger. Apply the golden rule and respond the way you would want someone to respond if you had a legitimate complaint. Keep a positive attitude and you might end up building trust and retaining a customer that was at risk.
- Create mini-communities. If your company offers a broad portfolio of products and services, or markets and sells to a widely varied audience, you can create specific social communities for different brands, products, or customer types. Establish separate Facebook destinations or Twitter feeds. Or create a customer-only online discussion forum. This gives you the opportunity to be more relevant to your followers and to engage in deeper and more meaningful social interactions.
- Collaborate internally. Social collaboration tools such as Chatter are a great way to apply a team approach to your social marketing strategy. Chatter allows you to reach out to colleagues for their expertise when you need help in solving a customer issue that pops up on social networks.
- Master the playbook. Every company serious about social marketing should have guidelines outlining your company’s principles and policies for communicating on social networks. All employees who post socially under your brand should follow the playbook and know how to be appropriate and relevant in shaping social conversations.
Is your company ready to mature as a Social Enterprise?
