After more than a decade of practice, brands are still failing at social
The capacity to conduct two-way communication between a brand and its audience is what differentiates social media from (nearly) all other channels. Despite this, many brands are turning social media into anti-social media, writes Y&R’s Matthew Bishop.
It wasn’t long ago that marketers solely relied on surveys and focus groups to get insights into their customers’ needs, wants, and pain points. All that changed with the advent of social media, and with it an open forum for brands to communicate directly with their target audience.
You’d think that collectively, marketers would try to nurture and protect this sacred space from the cannibalisation that every new channel is subjected to. Evidently not.
As I thumb through my social feeds every morning, I can’t help but roll my eyes at all the brands churning out content that makes no effort to interact with the viewer whatsoever. As marketers, we have a plethora of channels to push one-way messages out to our intended audiences; social media shouldn’t be one of them.
This guy gets it, and so does Hootsuite it seems
I think the Old Spice example at the bottom says it all. It doesn’t matter how much lipstick you put on it, if the brand doesn’t care about its customers then its on a hiding to nothing no matter how good its social team is. Good marketing can make the best of something, but if there is nothing to work with…(like customer service that doesn’t do what it says on the tin), then there’s nothing to work with.
If a brand has a complaints hotline, or an area on their website directed and catering to complaints – they are rife for disruption. (Unless of course they lobby the government and have 1 of a few licenses, so to speak…) 😉
While social media provides a great opportunity for brands across both customer service and marketing (as well as much more), it’s important they’re considered separately. Agree completely that any brand would be foolish not to swiftly and effectively respond to all questions, problems or feedback.
I would challenge that two-way communication is what differentiates social for marketers. People are there to be social with their friends and family, however the majority never ‘engage’ with a brand. It’s a nice idea that social could allow brands to engage their whole customer-base in dialogue, but this was unfortunately a dream and not a reality. When you build your social marketing activity around eliciting interaction from your customers, you actively disregard the 99% that will never take the bait. The opportunity that social brings for brands is a lot of eyeballs, and the ability to reach the right ones at the right time with the right (and relevant) content.