03 Oct How important is Social Media Management?
How important is Social Media Management?
If you have a problem or a complaint about a company, where is the first place you would go? For a lot of people, especially since so many companies have a social media presence, the first stop is the company’s Facebook or Twitter page. Why would people choose to visit the social media pages rather than the company’s homepage?
In a word: exposure.
If you go to a website to send in a complaint or a compliment, it’s between you and the company. While most companies strive to provide the quickest responses in customer service, you may find yourself waiting for days or even weeks to get a response.
By going to a social media website, you not only make the company aware of your issue, you make other consumers who frequent the company aware of it as well. The problem is now exposed to the public and the company has no choice but to make a fast decision on how to treat this issue.
This is a great way to keep a company honest as well. No one likes to have their dirty laundry aired for the entire internet to see, so they will take whatever steps necessary to contain or fix the problems. They have a reputation to uphold, after all.
So if you’re planning on setting up a social media presence for your company, then there are a few things that you should remember.
- Make sure the accounts are constantly monitored. You want to be able to respond to customer complaints and compliments as soon as possible.
- Don’t rely too heavily on pre-programmed responses. It might take a couple extra minutes to write out a heartfelt reply, but your customers will notice the difference.
- Upgrade your accounts as necessary. When you’re starting out, you can usually get away with using the free accounts provided by Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other similar websites. Once your presence grows, though, it might be more prudent to upgrade to the business accounts offered by those same websites.
- Staff your social media department appropriately. If you’re getting thousands of messages, tweets, or comments per day, don’t expect one person to be able to respond to all of them. Hire some extra help or delegate some of the social media responsibility to other employees.
- Respond to questions or complaints based on their severity. A complaint about a dirty window should take a backseat to a complaint about a finger fried with someone’s chicken nuggets. In general, you can respond to complaints as they come in, but something that could cause enormous problems for a company (like a fried finger) should get priority treatment.
Everyone is connected, thanks to social media websites and the fact that they can access them anywhere. Set up a strong social media presence and maintain it properly, and it will serve you well for years to come.
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