Tweet

Responding to social media enquires – understanding the basics

Guest post by: Keredy Stott

Article Overview: Punch Communications, recognises the importance of acknowledging and responding to social media queries in an effective and timely manner and has provided a number of handling suggestions for businesses.

Responding to social media enquires – understanding the basics

According to a piece of research released this week, by Auros, key consumer brands including Easyjet and Debenhams are failing to effectively respond to their customers’ queries through social media channels.

Social Media Agency, Punch Communications, recognises the importance of acknowledging and responding to these queries in an effective and timely manner and below has provided a number of handling suggestions for businesses:

Appoint a dedicated resource – now don’t panic, this doesn’t mean you need to take on a new member of staff! It could just mean that one or two people are given the responsibility of managing and monitoring your social media channels. The potential of missing a query or question will be considerably reduced, if not completely eradicated, by having a person or team dedicated to the task.

• Effective tracking – by aligning your company Twitter account with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite you can create keyword searches. This means discussions containing your keywords will appear in your searches in real-time, meaning any issues can be quickly dealt with.

• Interact – as soon as you are aware that there is a problem or issue then address it – don’t simply ignore it and hope it will go away. Reply to the person who has left the wall post or Tweet and advise them that you are investigating the problem and that you will be in touch shortly with an update. It is amazing the number of companies who register a problem and then forget to advise the customer that they are handling it!

• Take the problem offline – you don’t want the problem to be broadcasted across all of your social media channels so following the first post or Tweet privately direct message the person and take the conversation away from prying eyes.

• Bring in the professionals – if there is no-one in your team who feels comfortable handling social media enquires then bring in some professional support, such as a PR Company. Even if they are only in post temporarily while they train up team members, having a team who can competently, confidently and efficiently handle negative enquires is a must.

Related Articles
  The danger of over-responding on Twitter
  Brands 50% more popular than celebrities in social media
  It's All About Social Media Do's And Don'ts
  Resourcing B2B social media
  Legal Marketing: Social Media and Law Firms
  Social Media and Customer Service How The Disconnect Continues
  Social Media Marketing: A Necessity or a Necessary Evil?
  PR 2.0: Succeeding in the New Media World
  “Should I or shouldn’t I”
  Startups...Use Twitter As a Business Strategy Tool!
  Social Media is NOT about Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin
  TV Stations –9 Basic Social Media Suggestions
  Social Media Gains Momentum for B2B Marketers
  How Franchises can benefit from Social Media
  Strategies For Utilizing Social Media Outlets
  43% of news sharing online is through social media
  Social media : why should my business use this resource?
  The Remarkable Growth of Social Media - an Infographic
  SOCIAL MEDIA: THE NEW GOLDEN AGE OF COMMUNICATING!
  Legal Marketing: Blog opportunities

Article Tags: business, Facebook, social media queries, Twitter
Referred by: http://www.punchcomms.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter, Social Networking: What's Your method? - The bottom line: You can have thousands of friends, and it takes only a second to add one, if you don't make conversation with them, it is a useless tool, like all social media sites. I know many people who concentrate mainly on social media marketing, and they make money, but it takes time. Personally, I rather skip social media and focus on other stuff, like article marketing, and I use social media only for fun and communicate with best friends.
Re: Real Estate via social networking? - Now day’s people love to busy on Social media websites especially on Facebook. They are also using internet for all other usual task of their life. They are getting all things on social media sites that's why social media transfer lot traffic to website.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - Has anyone read any good books on social media they'd like to share? I've been considering reading one, but wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on an informative one. Someone earlier mentioned a lack of time. That is one reason I'm still in the dark ages as well but I realize that I may be falling behind the times by not at least considering the business case for social media against the time consumption. I'm also hesitant to use facebook and the like fearing it will turn into a platform for old friends to reconnect v. a way to grow my business. I also am unsure how much time it really takes to maintain various social media...any thoughts? Anyone made any mistakes or had any huge successes using social media for business that they'd like to share?
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: How much is social media part of your marketing strategy? - Most of the companies make gross mistake by using techniques listed on the internet without even looking into whether they are suitable for their business or not. If you are dance company, music company etc etc then you simply cannot afford to ignore social media. There are several other businesses which perform well in social media promotion. You need to look whether social media will help your business or not. If you see huge pool of customers who are searching for your services on Youtube, metacafe, then surely you must jump for it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Email Marketing Made Easy #11 - Avoiding Spam

3 Competencies of Leadership

Why Your Own Internet Marketing Website Is A Must

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.