The document discusses best practices for listening to and engaging with customers online. It identifies key things to listen for like compliments, complaints, needs, competitors, influencers, and crises. It also describes different types of listening like passive, active, brand-centered and conversation-centered. The document provides example responses companies can use like apologizing, asking how they can help, providing information, and explaining yes or no answers.
- One way to get started is to pay attention to the nice things people are saying - Benchmark overall advocacy scores and trends - Understand who your vocal fans are - Build a profile of what an advocate for your company looks like
- Don’t forget, complaints don’t just happen on Twitter - Understand pain points for your organization - Opportunity to locate and rectify recurring customer service issues - Track resolution time online - Carry learnings to other customer service channels (i.e. phone support)
- Where sales and social media meet - It’s all about context and timing - Listening to when people are actually expressing a need for a product or service you offer, so your approach and introduction is solving a problem - Look for your brand plus words like “need”, “looking for”, “seeking”, “recommendation”
- Underrated use of listening - Understand how competition is using social media, what sites they’re on - Uncover unmet needs among customer base, market attitudes - Gauge your organization’s maturity in social media in your industry
- Market research without filters - Key to making use of this is laser focus on conversations you want to track - Look at trends, not micro level. Discover consistent themes in needs, messaging, sentiment
- Influence is relative, and not always about numbers - Influencers for you are the ones that help compel others to take actions you want - Can be fans, customers - Influence can also be negative (detractors); important to have a handle on that too - Understand profiles of influence for your business, which will be unique to you
- How too many organizations are thrust into social media - Reactive - Look for the sparks before the fire and be able to prepare a response - Watch crises with industry or competition to learn how to handle one of your own - Gauge the community to prevent crises before they happen
- If you aren’t tracking activity, you can’t measure it an assess ROI - Connect digital breadcrumbs and paths of conversation to understand how they drive revenue/sales/conversions - Map content, website activity, lead generation, and what conversations cause them
- Is the messaging you’re putting out there sticking? Changing? Being adopted or translated well? - Watch trends in awareness and sentiment over time to gauge brand health - Campaign success: did your press release track, and for how long? Is your offline campaign translating online? Did blog coverage increase after your outreach initiative? - Share of Conversation: how often your brand is mentioned as a part of the conversations you want to be associated with
- Trace fractured and splintered conversations across the web - Understand how communities move between media types - Watch move from offline to online - Track the themes in discussions that carry, and where they land
- Benchmarking and getting a lay of the land - Learning where conversations are taking place: community expectations, topics, trends - Baseline metrics: sentiment, share of conversation, awareness, influencers, reach, media mix - Serves as an information source upon which to base strategy
- Listening with the intent to engage and participate - Act on intelligence and conversations publicly, where they’re happening - Using information you gather to affect change or progress in your company
- Inward focused - Concentrating on your own company and brand
- Outward focused - Bigger and broader than your brand; usually related to industry issues and topics - Can be a great way to get started establishing a footprint in social media if there’s no buzz about you yet
- Acknowledges that you’re listening - Shows simple appreciation for their attention and awareness - Demonstrates your presence on the social sites where your fans are talking
- Not always about fault but acknowledgment of an issue - We don’t expect companies to be perfect, but we do expect them to be paying attention and responsive (we know the tools exist for them to do it) - Often diffuses tense situations and can create advocates from detractors
- Turn frustrations into solutions - Turn needs into opportunities - Provide information where it’s missing or inaccurate
- Passive sales technique: solving problems vs. pitching “stuff” - Helps empower and inform your community - Establishes you as a resource
- Don’t be afraid to contribute to conversations online with opinions - Your community wants to know you have a take on things - Establishment as a thought leader and expert in your field - Helps raise awareness for you through substantial means, not just superficial marketing