MackCollier.com

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Social Media Isn’t Hard, Your Company Makes it Hard

I spend very little time here breaking down how to use social media tools.  I don’t do the deep dives that some other sites engage in where they show you all the advanced tips on how to get the most bang out of Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat.

Here’s the reason why: It’s not about understanding the tools, it’s about understanding the people that are using the tools. Becoming a Facebook ninja isn’t going to help your business a damn bit if you don’t understand why your customers are on Facebook and what activities they are engaging in.  Understand your customers first, then you can focus on understanding the tools.

Here’s an example: I constantly teach clients how they can better leverage social media to connect directly with their customers and improve engagement.  A dead simple way to do this is to follow this process: Respond to every customer mention of a specific interaction with your company.  If the mention is positive, thank them.  If the mention is negative, followup with them to get more information and figure out how you can best resolve the interaction to the satisfaction of the customer.  Of course there are other ways to respond and engage with customers, but companies love and even need processes, and this is a great starting point.

In short, if a customer mentions doing business with your company, you respond. For those of us reading this that sit on the customer side of the fence, this makes complete sense. Yet for many companies, its waters they are hesitant to wade into for fear of the unknown.

But it really is low-hanging fruit that companies can easily grasp to improve their digital efforts to engage with customers and increase customer loyalty. Case in point, yesterday during #AdobeChat, we were discussing how businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries should engage with tourists or customers that are creating UGC. At one point I left this tweet:

Then later, Enterprise finds that tweet and replies with…

And then I reply with…

It truly is this easy. I mentioned Enterprise (notice I didn’t even mark the mention as a reply, which proves they were purposely monitoring brand mentions), they responded and thanked me, then I pointed out their good behavior to everyone in #AdobeChat. BTW, there were dozens if not hundreds of business travelers in this particular chat, so that type of positive promotion is golden.

And it all started with Enterprise being smart enough to engage. Why isn’t your company doing the same?

About Mack Collier

My name is Mack Collier and I am a digital marketing and content strategist located in Alabama. Since 2006 I've helped companies of all sizes from startups to global brands such as Adobe, Dell and Ingersoll-Rand, create customer-centric programs, content and experiences. A long-time internet geek, I've been online since 1988 and began using social networking sites in 1991 when I joined Prodigy. Today, I help companies understand how new technologies like web3, crypto and artificial intelligence can integrate with existing marketing strategies to lead to exceptional customer experiences.