Mindjumpers » Blog Archive » Guest Blog: Why Businesses Can’t Say No to Social Media

Posted by admin Feb 23rd, 2010

Written by Jan B. Olsen, who is passionate about online cooperation and blogs about inbound marketing from a corporate perspective on www.janbolsen.dk (in Danish).
He works for Danske Bank as Head of International Trade Promotion, a department that assists clients with their international expansions.

The number of companies using social media today is limited, and even less companies communicate directly with their customers through the channels that their customers are using.

There is a lot of discussion on whether companies should use social media or not these days. Actually there is not really a lot to discuss in this matter, as your customers have already made the decision for you by sharing good and bad experiences with your company online – so it is time to listen to what they are saying.

Social media is actually nothing new. Computer game companies have been using communities for years to create hype around an upcoming game long before it’s release. This is done partly to show investors that people want to buy the game, as computer games need a lot of investments before they start making money.

There are also a lot of people that choose to ask their network for help before calling customer service, because they associate customer service with queuing and with students that don’t have any authority or real knowledge about the problem at hand.

The very important change in social media is the fact that costumers are starting to understand that power is moved to them, and at the same time the numbers of channels where the messages can travel continually grows.

So if you’re not already signed up for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, it’s about time you do so now. Don’t jump in with both feet if you don’t feel comfortable about it, but follow these three simple steps:

LISTEN - this makes it possible to participate in social media passively to begin with; you learn the ropes of social media and can start looking at what is said about your company and your industry.

INVOLVE – and when you feel fairly comfortable with social media you can begin answering questions and comment on comments. Just start with things regarding your industry – it’s going to be easy, you’re an expert on your industry aren’t you? When you have build a network of people online and feel ready for it, start engaging in conversations about your company.

ENGAGE – Communicate about your business and provide support to customers and potential customers. Focus primarily on the social media channels where you know your target group is mainly located.

As a social media user, you should remember to do the exact opposite of what these three steps spell out, namely LIE. When engaging in social media you should always be truthful and transparent. If needed, just tell people that you and your company are new to social media, but that you want to be where your customers are, and therefore use social media. Most people would probably even like to help you and why not let them?

When engaging in social media you don’t have to engage in all conversations, and you should most definitely not intervene in all negative conversations about your company; there will always be some negative people and if there aren’t, you’re probably not aggressive enough in your industry. Anyway if somebody speaks ill about your company without any reason, other social media users will normally punish them.

If negativity about your company doesn’t stop automatically or other users don’t, then you should intervene. Personally, I caught a tendency of negative publicity towards a company I was monitoring on Twitter two months ago, but it died out slowly. Whether or not the company was aware of it, I don’t know, but they did the right thing and just let it be. Then there was silence for a month or so, but then it took off like a rocket. Even though, they managed to close the case with a good answer, they let it run for two days with approximately one tweet every ten-minute and thousands of emails sent to the company. The main thing was that they closed the case, but they could have done it much faster. The power of social media is also seen in this case – traditional media didn’t run the story until after the case was closed.

Twitter makes it particularly easy to spread a message very fast, but it is also easy to monitor messages related to your company. This is possible because people making complaints about a company of course will include the name of your company they complain about. It is really easy just go to http://search.twitter.com when you have finished reading this post and search for your company’s name.

You can also ask your customers directly how they like your product by giving them the possibility to rate your product directly on your website.

There might be a fault in the product that your customers know about, so why don’t use their input to fix the product so you can sell even more? On top of it all, you will get some really good ambassadors because your customers will be bragging about having ‘designed’ a product for you.

Sooner or later you should of course make a strategy for the use of social media in your company. When the time comes, I can only recommend that you contact an agency who has a proven track record. Do not create a Facebook fan page or something else before you know what you really want it for. It can quickly become a complaint center only on negative negative comments.

Personally, I would not outsource the responsibility of the daily communication with customers in social media. It would be rude not to listen sincerely when a customer opens up to you and you. An outside person does not know where to find the answer for customer questions in your company and any proposals for changes are best handed by someone well-informed in your company. Use the agency for changes, that don’t directly involves one-to-one customer contact.

Social media will change your business forever. Companies with premium products and openness will win. Everyone else will come in short when they are revealed as what they really are.