Psst… people are talking about you. Well, not you personally; but people are definitely talking about your company. They’re criticizing your products. They’re badmouthing your customer service department. And they’re trashing your brand – the brand you spent a fortune to build, nurture, and promote. And if you are anything like the rest of us, there’s a fairly decent chance you are either a) not even aware of it, b) aware, but with no real clue how to proceed, or c) praying that it will go away if you lie completely still and play dead. But guess what? You’re an idiot. Ok, you’re not an idiot – you’re just in the same boat as the rest of us, drifting perilously out to sea. So, what can be done about it?
I don’t know about you, but when I hear people badmouthing me (e.g., “Man that John guy is so full of himself. Sure, he’s intelligent, witty, good looking and great in…”) I just walk over and introduce myself, “Hey, what’s going on? What are you guys talking about?” But admittedly different people have different types coping strategies. Some folks like to deny and disavow (if you can really call that a “strategy”). Others seek to avoid confrontation by not directly engaging with critics; but instead having their PR firm send out perky, sanitized press releases (note: no one actually reads that crap anymore). Now, just to be clear, I’m not advocating that you get aggressive and confrontational. There’s need to strap on body armor and walk into the online conversation armed to the teeth, ready to take out anyone who badmouths your brand. No, definitely try not to get all 5150 on anybody if you can help it. Attacking your detractors – whether they be angry customers, disgruntled former employees, or opportunistic competitors – isn’t going to do anything to help win customers over.
Rather, the truly enlightened among us know that the best strategy, if not the only strategy, is to bare your soul and start to engage with the people talking your brand – whether they be customers, fans, prospects, partners, influencers, employees, competitors, or critics. Interestingly, a recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller (full disclosure: John works at SAP, and SAP is a client of Burson-Marsteller) analyzed the adoption of Social Media in Latin America found for example that, “in Colombia, only 29% of companies have a Twitter account, but 86% of companies are being discussed on Twitter, suggesting that many companies are being left out of the conversation about themselves.” The key takeaway here is that companies are being talked about on Twitter, whether the company has a Twitter account or not! Just because you ignore the conversation doesn’t mean it will go away; it only means your voice and perspective won’t be heard. Essentially you’ll be ceding control of the conversation, and your brand, to the loudest of your detractors. And is that really what you want?
Of course, just having a Twitter account isn’t going to automatically solve any problems. Take for example United Airlines. As you probably know, United sucks. Even with they aren’t busy breaking guitars or stranding passengers, they still suck. They suck so much that someone made a parody website mocking United’s customer (dis)service efforts. Just to demonstrate how badly United sucks, take a look at these survey results of the top 10 major airlines. The leaders in customer satisfaction are Virgin America (97.89%), Jetblue (84.05%), and Southwest (76.92). The industry average for customer satisfaction is 43.02%. And then there’s United at an anemic 18.52%. Exceptionally sucky. Why do I mention all this? Because, perhaps surprisingly, United Airlines has a Twitter account. Though they seem to use it mainly as a marketing engine to push promotional offers and special TWARES (Twitter fares). It takes more than just a few daily Twitter spam offers to engage with customers online. It’s actually a multi-stage, multi-step process. Let’s just assume for simplicity and plot-contrivance that there are four stages. And let’s throw in an aquatic theme to be cute. So, without further ado I present…
The four stages of learning to sink or swim with Social Media:
Stage 1: You’re clueless and will likely drown. People are talking about you, but you don’t even know it! Basically at this point you could drown in a bathtub if you’re not very careful.
Stage 2: Nice try, but… you still FAIL. You’re at least aware that people are talking about you, but you’re afraid to actually engage in the conversation. Instead you rely on your PR firm or internal marketing department to push out content via social media without encouraging any real dialogue. This is the equivalent of showing up for a swim meet wearing arm floaties.
Stage 3: Congrats, you passed the deep-end swim test. You realize the importance of monitoring what is being said online about your brand, company, and products. You also realize the even greater importance of having an empowered team of customer service professionals (not just PR or marketing folks) who can respond in an authentic voice to engage in conversations and help resolve customer issues when appropriate. Congratulations, you are now allowed to swim in the deep end without adult supervision.
Stage 4: You’re swimming in uncharted waters! You’re an old pro at all this social media monitoring stuff. You’ve even set up a team of experts (both Customer Service and Marketing) to engage with customers, deliver your marketing message, and nip any potential PR or Customer Service disasters in the bud. You don’t just use social media as just another channel for pushing content in a one-directional spam approach; rather you take the time and effort to actively participate in the online community – reading blogs, posts, and tweets; commenting on posts of others and re-tweeting interesting content; and participating in Tweet-ups and other real-time online events in the social Web. Congratulations, you’re swimming with the [insert cool aquatic fish/mammal of choice]. Unless you are involved in a rare, freak sting-ray accident, you should be fine!
This post is also available on TheSocialCustomer.com at http://thesocialcustomer.com/node/31219/.
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