Effective Social Media Monitoring Requires Thoughtful Social Media Responding

 

Social media monitoring requires more than just listening to consumers and business prospects.  Being a good listener isn’t enough. Whether online or in person, providing appropriate responses is a key part of customer relations.  

An effective social media monitoring program requires marketers to respond to comments about their brands and, most importantly, to provide timely and satisfactory answers to direct inquiries. Many social media posts ask for help. Such requests open an opportunity to engage customers and prospects.

“If your social tactics don’t include listening and responding, you could be holding yourself back from true success,” warns Neil Patel in a post for Social Media Examiner.

Steps to social media monitoring

Patel outlines other steps to using social media monitoring effectively.

• Select a robust monitoring tool or service, use a comprehensive list of keywords, and utilize a listening dashboard.

• Set aside time in your schedule to listen and engage. Time every day is best.

• Include social media responses and inter-reactions on your blog. For instance, mention what customers have told you, what you’ve posted in the past, and what you’ve seen on other posts.

• Request feedback from followers and customers. Ask them what they think and what they want.

Companies that don’t respond at all or handle responses poorly can suffer disastrous consequences. It’s not at all unusual for customers and even interested observers to attack and embarrass businesses that don’t listen or aren’t adept at handling responses on social media. Carnival Cruise Lines surely learned that lesson from the hashtag #CruiseFrom Hell.

Avoid social media embarrassments

To avoid such a scenario, Sendible Insights recommends these steps.

Separate customer support. Create a separate channel for your company’s customer support, including a separate Tweeter handle, such as @AcmeSupport. Your primary feed will be free to focus on promoting your business, while customers will know where to go to have questions answered and problems resolved.

Blog. Post articles on how you resolved customer issues. Use a customer service tag to create a library of issues and resolutions. Customers will be able to read the blog, much like a FAQ.

Listen. Use social media monitoring software to identify issues before they become major marketing and public relations headaches. In addition to monitoring your brand name, search for keywords like “problem” and “issues” and others to resolve problems quickly. Also include in your search queries the many words that reveal anger; “suck” is one of the prominent ones.

Keep records. Maintain a spreadsheet of customer issues and look for patterns. Add issues and their resolutions to your website FAQ section and perhaps to your blog. A record can also provide keywords for social media monitoring. A significant recurring complaint may indicate your product or service needs to be improved.

Watch competitors. Monitor your competitors to learn about their mistakes and successes and to learn what they do that you can mimic and what you should avoid. Monitoring their customer service streams can inform you about issues you haven’t encountered yet but might in the future, giving you time to take proactive actions. It also may reveal weaknesses in the competitor’s products or services.

Bottom Line: Social media monitoring can help companies resolve customers’ issues and improve their brand’s image and products. But gaining the full benefits of media monitoring requires more than just listening to customers. It requires action in response to queries and criticism.