The social customer is an active participant, more knowledgeable, empowered and connected than ever before.
This is according to speakers at the Social Media World Forum Africa event in Cape Town last week.
Avis's head of digital channels, Yoav Tchelet, and MWeb Connect's brand manager for social media and social CRM, Suzanne Stokes, offered advice on how to use social media for customer service and support.
Tchelet spoke about crisis management in particular. He gave a few examples of how not to perform crisis management across social media, showing how BP, United Airlines and Motrin got it wrong.
He then gave advice on ways businesses might improve on these examples:
1. Just be human. Acknowledge the issue; apologise; rectify the situation; and be sure to communicate both internally and externally to make sure this is done.
2. Use building blocks of honesty, transparency and apology to solve issues.
3. Use a multi-channel approach involving PR, social media and internal communication.
4. Be proactive not just reactive. Put policies in place, have someone who's responsible for monitoring and reacting.
In summary, he said, having an online reputation management strategy in place and good internal as well as external communication is the way forward.
Stokes also pointed put that social media is two-way communication, and businesses need to realise that the customer does not come online to talk about brands, so broadcasting at them won't work.
She urged businesses to develop relationships with customers and turn them into “influencers” who will promote the business to their friends and contacts.
A good influencer, she said, has a high number of re-tweets or re-posts; a high level of engagement; and creates a large amount of original content.
Know the facts
Stokes said businesses also need to be aware they have to have a high ranking with Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm before they even appear on a fan's newsfeed.
She said 90% of Facebook interaction happens on newsfeeds, but users only see items from friends and those pages they interact with the most, unless they select specific options in their Facebook set-up.
There are ways of improving EdgeRank, however. Stokes suggested that businesses do the following on their pages:
* Ask questions.
* Post games and trivia.
* Interact with fans.
* Vary type and format of content.
* Relate content to current events.
* Use Facebook for customer support.
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