Call Center Management Featured Article
Raising Your Company's Social Media IQ
It’s fair to say that companies today are striving for new ways to connect with customers. Forming a relationship that’s not directly related to buying is the cornerstone of customer engagement. Getting there, however, is not an easy journey. Social media – both a huge challenge and a huge opportunity – is one of the ways of connecting with customers.
Many companies today have only gotten their feet wet when it comes to social media. They maintain a Facebook (News - Alert) page, but it’s largely a one-way communications channel, or a social media “banner.” They may Tweet a little, but usually only about buying-related information. Today, many experts are saying companies need to do far, far more than get their feet wet in social media. They need to hold their noses and jump in. Turning social media into a two-way conversation means that when you talk to customers, they will talk back at you. This means you’ll need to get the contact center involved. After all, they are the experts at talking to customers.
Marketing will have a role to play in social media, as well. For this reason, it’s critical that social media strategies embrace both the art of marketing and the science of supporting customers in a prompt, friendly and knowledgeable manner. In a recent blog post, Brian Cantor writing for Call Center IQ notes that smart companies today are forging social media relationships with their customers that transcend the selling process.
“Whether developing keyword-driven ad campaigns or personalized engagement, brands must make themselves valuable not simply as a touchpoint for getting discounts or customer service but as an extension of the audience’s identity,” wrote Cantor. “From joking about current events, to finding out what pop culture items are of interest to the audience, to simply communicating in a non-commercial, non-threatening manner, the most social brands are those who strive to be liked for ‘who they are’ rather than simply for what they sell.”
It might be about posting cute animal pictures or touching stories that customers who “like” your pages or follow you will share with others who will then like or follow you. It might be about encouraging live Q&As with experts over topics relevant to customers (keep the commercialism to a minimum). Of course, “joking about current events” can be a risky venture – weekly we see examples of corporate social media posts that hit a wrong note and turned sour – but the benefits may outweigh the risks. (Ensure you’re not entrusting the company’s social media voice to a single unsupervised 20-year-old intern is a good start.) The point, writes Cantor, is to take social media more seriously and ensure that it doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
“Progressive business leaders are quick to dispel the notion that creating a separate, isolated social media function brings value to the business,” he wrote. “If social media is operated by people who do not understand the corporate culture, who do not understand the brand marketing mission, who cannot push customer service measures through the organization or who cannot pipe customer feedback into the product team, it will prove ineffective.”
This means that everyone in the organization – the contact center, marketing, sales, the executive layer, product managers and even back-office personnel – have a stake in the organization’s social media presence. Ensure that all these functions are collaborating in a way that can help build true customer engagement.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi