If you’re not sure (or your boss is not sure) whether or not your company should be participating in social media, picture this hypothetical scenario. How you react to this situation may lend some insight into whether or not your company is ready to start taking part in the millions of conversations that are already happening online.
Imagine you walk into your local coffee shop on the way to work to get your “morning fuel”. While standing in line, you hear two customers in front of you talking about your company (Company XYZ) and the terrible experience they had. You tune in and find out that they bought a product of yours that didn’t meet their expectations.
STOP! Now think about how you would handle this situation – and be honest.
Would you politely introduce yourself and explain to those customers that you work for Company XYZ and that you feel badly that your product didn’t meet their expectations? Would you connect these unsatisfied customers with your product development and customer service departments in order to resolve any issues they’ve had?
OR, would you allow this conversation to take place without saying a word – after all, they don’t know you work for Company XYZ and your boss doesn’t know you overheard this conversation. You could bypass this entire situation without anyone being the wiser.
If you see yourself and your company as the type that would step in and respond, then you should be participating in some form of social media. If your company is the type that would see this as an opportunity to not only make things right, but also to gather value input on how to improve your product or service, then without a doubt, social media is right for you!
It doesn’t matter if your social media tool is twitter, facebook or LinkedIn because it’s not about the technology. The technology is just a communication tool. It’s really about your company’s attitude toward relationship building and it’s willingness to respond to customer feedback – both good and bad. So, take the time to find out where your customers are hanging out online and start participating in the conversations because just like in the example above, the conversations are happening – with or without you.
