“If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Wasn’t that one of the first good manners rules you were taught as a child? The same could be said for branding on social media, and the good news is your customers may agree.
According to a Q1 2014 study by Converseon, 55 percent of customer interactions with leading brands on Twitter were positive and 25 percent neutral. Facebook and Google+ also fared well with most of their interactions positive or neutral. Lucky thing since research from Social Media Marketing University (SMMU) shows nearly half of U.S. marketing professionals still don’t have a strategy to deal with negative buzz on social platforms.
To keep word-of-mouth positive, it pays to follow a few simple steps on social media:
- Make sure you check your interactions constantly and answer quickly. Customers may reach out on social media because they perceive it’s faster than other forms of company communication such as calling a toll-free number or emailing.
- Most negative comments are complaints about products or services. Make sure you post an apology and then take the interaction offline so you can make amends either by refund or replacement.
- Encourage satisfied customers to leave a positive comment on social media by including links to your company’s social platforms in all your email correspondence and marketing campaigns.
- Non-customers may also check out your brand’s social media pages to form an opinion on whether or not to patronize your business. Make sure you’re posting coupons and discounts for first-time customers to encourage them to give your business a try.