The bottom line about social media: it's all about communication. It is simply a series of platforms that use different forms of content to transfer ideas from a source to a recipient. The underlying benefit of social media is that the platforms have potential to transfer information from a single source to tens of thousands-if not more-recipients. How your organization chooses to communicate, and what kinds of messages you choose to send, not only define your social media policy; these messages also specifically illustrate how you use social media as a tool.
Marketing Is a Broad Term
Textbook definitions of the term marketing include lots of buzzwords and references to concepts like the 4 P's. Actual marketers will give you multiple other definitions that likely relate to the specific job functions that they perform as professionals. In one sense, marketing is simply communicating with the public about a product, brand, event, etc. All communications that serve as marketing efforts need not be aimed directly at prompting an immediate sale or moving another unit. Sometimes marketing can just be talking to a customer, fixing a mistake even, in an attempt to build a relationship.
Social Media Monitoring
Social media monitoring is big business, and for good reason. People speak their minds via social media about everything in their lives; often they discuss things that they spend money on. If they had a bad experience with a brand, they will tell their friends. Then the negative cycle of (potential) misinformation begins within the realm of consumers, which can easily snowball into lost customers. Social media monitoring allows you to monitor specific platforms for keywords. When people use these keywords in their online conversations you can see them, review them, and get to work making unhappy customers smile. Bear in minds that it isn't always negative; you can also use monitoring tools to find out what good things people are saying about you...who doesn't love a compliment, right?
Applying Customer Service
For the purpose of having an example, we will assume that you want to focus on customers who are unhappy with a particular product or service. Once you have identified a customer whom you must communicate with, it is time to engage.
- Make sure that you fully understand the customer's problem before you engage. If the problem is at all ambiguous, then your first piece of communication better be a polite means of asking for clarification.
- Repeat the problem back to the customer, assure her that you want to make it right and ask how she would like to continue communication. Not everyone wants to have an all-out conversation on a personal social media account, so offer to move the conversation offline, preferably to a telephone conversation.
- Once you know the problem and how to reach the customer, you must work out a solution. It may be a refund, a gift card, or an explanation of how you can tailor your product /service to better meet her needs.
- Make sure that some of your process is visible on the social media platform, so that others can see that your company takes customer service seriously.
Social media platforms are designed to facilitate conversation. Why not use them to have conversations with people who might not be returning customers? Using social media as a customer service tool works because the platforms can put you in direct communication with your customer base. If you make customers happy, they will probably tell their social media network and their real life network. Last time we checked, that is called "word of mouth" and it is something that every marketer, advertiser, and potential homecoming queen dreams about.