When helping clients and colleagues to understand and navigate the world of social media, we suggest a three-step process: 1) Listen to and learn from online conversations related to your business, industry and customers. 2) Participate in online conversations with core audiences. 3) Regularly measure the results to determine success, or to adjust strategies and tactics as needed. To carry out these steps successfully, it’s critical to build capacity within an organization and cultivate a work environment conducive to effective social media use. Corporate social media use must be integrated seamlessly throughout the company (marketing, PR, customer service, product development), not “bolted on.” Everything a company does, whether online or offline, contributes to branding, so it must all be in sync. (Check out a previous post on building brands through social media for more information.) I recently participated in PRWeek’s webcast, “Foe to Friend: Turning Online Critics Into Brand Ambassadors.” The speakers succinctly summed up the principles of online customer engagement, and addressed the issues of capacity-building and company culture. The “Four P’s” are key to engaging customers successfully through social media, particularly when addressing complaints and negative comments: 1) People - Listening and responding online to customers, and other [...]
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