I preach to my clients that the first foray they need to make into social media is blogging. It is the surest, most effective way to drive traffic to a website, which eventually leads to increased business. There is also another important aspect to blogging – you can listen and respond to your clients/customer/potential clients or customer.
That’s true for almost every social media platform – from Twitter to Google+. Everyone one of those allows a company to know what’s going on in their space.
It Means Being Social
Another thing I always preach about social media is that the first word is Social. Wikipedia defines social media as referring “to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.” The emphasis is mine.
The key word in that phrase is interactions. That means paying attention and responding to things people say about your business.
Turning A Deaf Ear
Yet, I find that many companies neither listen nor respond. That’s a really bad idea. As I always tell clients, there is likely a conversation going on right now about your business. Whether you are part of it or not, it is going on. If you are part of it, you can monitor it and respond to criticisms and complaints. If you aren’t, you will be scratching your head as to why your products aren’t selling.
Responding to a comment is a very good way to bond a customer or client to your company. It shows you care and are responsive to customer’s needs. If it’s a good comment, you can thank your customer for taking the time. If it’s a complaint, you have a unique chance to respond to the issue. Solving a problem a customer’s problem is one of the surest ways to convert a complainer into an evangelist for your company.
People Want To Be Heard
When people write a blog comment or tweet something or make a remark on Yelp or Foursquare, they are doing it to be heard. They expect a response. Often complainers will end up creating a community of people who have the same beef. That’s how things go viral.
I will use myself as an example. I have approximately 8,500 Twitter followers and somewhere north of 22,500 LinkedIn contacts. LinkedIn says that means I can reach over 25 million professionals. On Facebook I have approximately 2,300 friends. Doing the math, I can reach over 33,000 direct contacts.
So if I am angry or upset about something, I can reach a lot of people. Alright so not everyone is going to join in. Lets say only 10 percent of my contacts spread my complaint. That’s 3,300 people echoing me. They each have contacts some of whom will spread my complaint. See how things go viral.
Time Is Short
As importantly, you have very little response time anymore. In my early days of crisis communications we assumed we had about 12 hours to respond. That was the time between news cycles.
Now, a company is lucky if it has an hour to respond. There are no boundaries on the Internet. Someone who complains in Cleveland, Ohio will be heard in Mumbai, India at the same time the subject of the complaint does. A grass fire turns into a forest fire very quickly. Whole brands have been destroyed because of their failure to respond quickly.
So keep your ear to the Internet. It’s the only thing to do.
