Social media has completely changed the way businesses and consumers interact with each other. Gone are the days where managing interactions with customers was limited to your business’ operating hours and to written letters, emails and calls to a support line.
The consumer/organisation relationship is now a 24/7 one
The onset of social media has resulted in drastic changes to this process, where consumers who have experienced issues with a particular product, service, company or anything for that matter can immediately voice their opinion on the social media platform of their choice.
A number of companies have embraced this and have successfully implemented and developed a positive presence on social media, engaging proactively with their audience and using it as a means to improve their products, service offering and customer relationship management function. These organisations, however, usually employ teams of social media experts whose sole function is to monitor their accounts at all times (24/7) and respond immediately.
In the case of legitimate customer concerns and complaints, these employees are a valuable offering to an organisation and having someone on hand to address any issues raised immediately can prevent user backlash, address negative comments and positively impact the entire consumer engagement.
For smaller organisations that do not have a social media expert or team on hand to manage this, the results can be disastrous if left unattended.
The prevalence of internet trolls has also increased dramatically. A troll’s sole purpose is to place negative feedback about an organisation in the hope that it is shared amongst the network. Left unmanaged, a negative comment can trend and proliferate exponentially.
Click here to read about the top 10 corporate social media disasters.
Social media is an important element of an organisation’s business development and customer relationship management functions. If well managed, social media can assist in generating new business and managing your customer base effectively. Having someone who can assist your organisation in managing this will ensure that it receives the attention it needs and prevent a large-scale meltdown occurring.
HGS understands that most organisations are not in the position to employ someone in Australia who will manage their social media channels. We can assist in sourcing staff based in the Philippines that can look after this function for your organisation for less than AUD$2,000 a month. This includes all IT infrastructure, management and administration making it a cost-effective and easy to implement solution.
