Cyber Talk: Interacting with fans, clients on social media
Having meaningful conversations with your connections on social media should be your utmost priority. The success of the business is largely dependent on how well the brand manages its interactions with customers on social media. Sales and, to a significant extent, brand loyalty and connection can also benefit from social media. Here are a few […]
Having meaningful conversations with your connections on social media should be your utmost priority. The success of the business is largely dependent on how well the brand manages its interactions with customers on social media. Sales and, to a significant extent, brand loyalty and connection can also benefit from social media.
Here are a few important things for better connecting with customers and fans on social media.
* Objective: Have a focused objective for every task that you perform on social media. Some of the objectives are (a) brand awareness (b) reach (c) application installs (d) messages (e) traffic-generating leads (f) video views and (g) likes/shares.
* Audience’s opinions: Collecting information about the opinions of your customers or fans is not an easy task. Social media is a great platform for expression and voices, and you need to be in touch with them constantly and seek their opinions. You could create a poll or ask a question about your brand, product or service.
* Feedback: It’s important to listen to your customers or fans to find out how you can improve your brand, product or service. Collecting feedback is crucial to a successful business. Take all feedback in a professional manner and implement all useful suggestions in your future business strategies.
* Appreciation: Showing appreciation to your social media audience should be a regular activity. It can be as simple as replying to their messages or re-sharing their positive messages online.
* Solve Issues: You should constantly monitor social media in order to answer any grievances that have been addressed and resolve them quickly and promptly.
* Inside Look: Have your customers/fans know what’s happening behind the scenes at your business i.e., share videos or pictures of your team working. It makes your brand/product/service seem more interconnected and allows your customers/fans to learn more about you.
* Keep it original: Instead of bombarding them with catalogues or reposting memes, create fresh content that commands their attention, which means posting brand content that adds value to your customer/fan.
* Discounts and incentives: Share exclusive product deals on social media (i.e., discount coupons) with your customers or fans to generate interest in your products.
An approach to social media risks
Because of the inappropriate usage of social media, we see many challenges related to privacy, security, data management, accessibility, social inclusion, governance and other information security issues.
Here are a few risks in the use of social media
* Identify the risk: Identifying threats that may impede the achievement of a goal (a) harm to online reputation (b) disclosure of confidential information (c) legal violations (d) social engineering crimes and (e) intellectual property infringement.
* Risk: Assessing the risk entails determining the risk’s consequences and how it may affect the organisation or individual (a) economically (b) socially (c) politically and (d) technically.
* Risk reduction: Develop a plan for managing social media risks. (a) Have the right listening tools (b) train and empower those in charge of social media monitoring (c) identify and engage the appropriate point of contact (d) Decide what to look for and which channels to watch (e) be aware of the legal and ethical requirements (f) develop a severity and priority framework (g) put in place an efficient incident logging process and protocols (h) apply best practices based on previous issues and (i) establish a feedback loop to assist in the treatment of critical causes.
Customer service best practices on social media
* Response time: Respond to grievances as quickly as possible on social media, otherwise they will start telling their family and friends about the experience. Many of these, if not attended, use alternative social channels to escalate their concerns. Social channels such as Facebook and Twitter are used to express grievances.
* Replies: Know which social media posts should be resolved in public or private.
* Response: Respond to all social media feedback, queries and comments, it’s equally important and also there is a general perception that all messages must be acknowledged.
* Addressing: Include a greeting and be correct with names and initials. One simple wrong salutation — Mr instead of Ms — could lead to trolling on social media.
* Negativity: Always be positive and add empathy and compassion to gain support from your loyal customers.
* Tools: Use social media listening tools as part of your customer service. Everyone prioritises paying attention to positive reviews on their social networks by highlighting them in targeted posts, but it is equally important to prioritise and engage with negative feedback and comments to build credibility.
