Why Businesses need to Listen to What is said on Social Media

The Importance of Social Listening:

 

Social media provides businesses with a great opportunity to connect with customers and hear what they have to say about your brand. This is all well and good; however some companies fail to actually listen to what their customers have to say. If you are going to give your customers an open forum for them to express their thoughts on your brand, then you need to monitor the conversation.

 

 

Listening to Complaints:

If people are voicing their dislike for a current product, or their dissatisfaction with the customer service they received, then you need to address this and resolve the situation quickly. There is no point in merely deleting negative posts, this angers customers and only adds fuel to the flame. Think of who posted the negative comment as an angry customer causing a fuss in a shop, however this time they can be heard by potentially thousands of people.

Negative posts on social media have a distinct way of gaining traction online. One negative post can have a domino effect, causing a string of negative posts based on previous incidents. A customer who has poor previous experience with a brand may see a post criticising this brand and this may entice them to post about their bad experience with the brand. To stop this effect it is important to respond to complaints quickly and respectively, but don’t aggravate the situation!

Listening to What Your Customers Want:

 When making changes to products or services, it is good to keep the customer in mind. Social media can be a great tool for testing some new ideas. This can be done in a friendly and casual way like ‘any suggestions for what flavour our new ice cream should be?’ Posts like this can start the conversation with your customers whilst giving you an insight as to what they actually want in comparison to what you think they want.

A great example of a company who listened to their social media fans is Cadbury. In 2003 they took their much loved Wispa bar of the shelves. However by 2007 the bar had gained quite a cult status by those who remembered the bar fondly. This brought about various social media campaigns including a Facebook campaign entitled ‘Bring Back Wispa’. This group gained a large following and eventually Cadbury listened and jumped on the band wagon, which led to a hugely successful re-launch.

Conclusion:

Listening to what your customers have to say is vital to developing strong relationships with your customers. Through social media customers can be heard by many, so it is important that you hear them also.

Listening to what your customers have to say is not only an action which is of benefit to them, more importantly it is a benefit to your business. Through listening to what they have to say, your business can gain great insights as to what your customers think about your products and services. Listening to your customers through social media can also lead to product innovation as no one knows what your customer wants more than your actual customer.

At Webresults we offer a wide range of digital marketing services including the management of social media pages. For more information on how we can help your business get the most out of social media please contact us.

A Guide to Making Facebook Marketing Work for Your Business

Are you getting the most out of Facebook for your business? Is Facebook driving business to your website? For more information read this article on Facebook marketing. Forrester have put together a guide to Facebook Marketing which you can download free of charge.

Read more about successful Facebook marketing on our website: A Guide to Making Facebook Marketing Work for Your Business

For more information about our Social Media Management Services, call us on 01-2071872 or contact us.

Instagram for Business

Instagram is one of the latest Social Networks to “hit the big time”. Launched in October in 2010, it has had a dedicated niche following. But it has recently been drawn to the attentions of the masses after Facebook bought them out for $1bn. These days, many businesses see the benefits of using social media to promote their business. Everyone knows they should be doing it. But not every business owner knows how, as in what to post about.

What can they post about that will be interesting and generate leads? Some companies have clearly developed and great Facebook strategy, since they have thousands of followers and seem to come up with interesting topics to post about everyday, about which their followers are interested enough to comment on.

So now we have Instagram. It’s a very limited Social Network. It’s all about photos and images. So how can this be used for promoting your products and services? To find out more, read our article: Can Instagram be used for Business?

Benefits of Using LinkedIn for Business

Social Media for Business

LinkedIn is a great tool for business, connecting you to customers, potential customers and potential affiliates and business partners. But it’s under-utilised, often due to lack of awareness.

To find out how to use LinkedIn for your Business Hubspot have developed a free ebook, check it out here.

For more information on using social media for business contact WebResults today. We offer LinkedIn Training Days and other social media training services.

Social Media for Business | Social Networks

Social Media is becoming vital for business in promotion their business and products and for interacting with their customers.

But it’s important to know which social media sites suit your business type and hence, which sites have the potential to bring you more business. It’s also vital to understand how best to use those social media sites in order to promote your business.

For more info read our article on Social Networks for Business.