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Using Social Media for customer relations purposes

Guest post by: Greg Pipe

Article Overview: One of the biggest attractions of social media to companies is the ability to efficiently manage customer relations. Social platforms not only provide the opportunity to liaise with current customers, but also others who may otherwise be impossible to reach offline.

Using Social Media for customer relations purposes

One of the biggest attractions of social media to companies is the ability to efficiently manage customer relations. Social platforms not only provide the opportunity to liaise with current customers, but also others who may otherwise be impossible to reach offline.

The biggest value that social networks possess is the willingness of others to become involved in discussions and communication. People discover similar interests through ‘tweets’ or others that they may already know and expand their contacts to the point of developing a relationship.

Companies use social platforms to expose thoughts, services and products to the world. Customers have an easy and convenient place to go, should they want to contact a company about a particular issue or problem.

Companies can set up their own page within Facebook and gather all their contacts together to build a community. A community indicates people joined together to share common interests. By publishing regular updates to a company page, the members will be automatically informed and reminded of the brand. This provides an ideal platform for a company to communicate with everyone through one simple update to all.

However, companies need to be careful not to rely solely on online communication. Nothing beats face-to-face value. In a world where online activity is demanding, social media should be used to instigate initial communication with potential contacts, before taking further action to meet in person.

The internet is flexible, almost to the point of invasion of privacy. Business people are much more accessible than they were 10 years ago, which makes the market a very competitive field.

Social networks are a great resource for job opportunities and assessing potential employees. Many candidates will have accounts online that can easily be reviewed. Some companies gather an opinion of the person before even meeting them.

Companies need to be aware that social media is not just a phrase and an additional opportunity to get your voice heard. There are consequences. A brand’s reputation is everything. Make sure you take the right steps within the social arena and be careful not to offend too many people.

Take time to build a social strategy and highlight exactly what you want to achieve from it. As a productive marketing campaign, there is real potential to be won.

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Article Tags: customer relations, marketing, platforms, social media



Related Forum Posts
Re: ANA Survey Says ... - [quote="GT Bulmer":3tfz6j3x]Which discipline will offer your brand the largest opportunity for growth? - 28% Social media integration - 19% Grassroots, viral public relations - 17% Traditional 30-second spots - 16% Web advertising - 7% One-page ads, newspaper/magazine - 7% Direct marketing - 5% Radio[/quote:3tfz6j3x] Hi GT, Interesting info you've presented! But what exactly is "Social Media Integration"?
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.


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