Social Media

Leave a comment Posted on May 3, 2016 Social Media

How to Manage your Customer Relationship on Social Media

In today’s hyper social world, customers are likely to voice a complaint or offer a compliment about your product, service or business on Twitter or Facebook. And woe to the organization that does not acknowledge or respond to that Facebook or Twitter post promptly

These days, it is difficult to separate social media management from CRM, hence the increasing number of social CRM services. But just having a social CRM offering is not enough. Just like any technology, you have to first pick a customer engagement and management solution that is right for your organization and create a strategy and guidelines around using it (Schiff, 2013).

An active social media presence is more and more about how customers form opinions on which brands they like and which they don’t. Social CRM is a buzzword for sure but it’s one worth some thought on how the strategy behind it can color a business’ public perception. In a world where your followers are your customers, and where what you post or tweet can be screenshotted in an instant, it’s absolutely critical to have a plan and Social CRM can definitely help (Marvin, 2016).

Communicating

More than 60% of users interact with brands on social channels.
Twitter-users post an average of 500 million tweets every day, which means that social media is generating a higher volume of data on customer-brand interactions, which can be leveraged for better insights and more targeted marketing and support.
Social channels are about instantaneous communication, and customers expect companies to respond within an hour (Bennett, 2014).
Simply put, your customers want to be acknowledged.
But social CRM is not just about having conversations on social media or writing blogs for your company website.
Social CRM is built around the process of communicating and engaging across online communities. The conversations can take place on individual social media platforms, or on blogs, forums, and third party review sites.
A strong social engagement strategy allows businesses to remain in constant contact with their customers by providing excellent social care, advancing brand interests, and responding to feedback in a seamless cycle (Bober, 2016).

Managing Customer Relationships

As noted above, customers expect a high level of service. Regardless the quality of the product or service provided, they will not stay loyal on a long-term basis unless they are treated properly before, during and after a sale.
So we will cover some ways to manage the customer relationships.

Communicate with costumers, regular interaction with customers will help build trust and loyalty. If the customers believe that the company is communicating with them openly, they will feel their relationship with the company is one of mutual trust.

Use every channel possible to talk to customers. This does not just include Social Media, it can also be emails and telephone.

Measure costumer satisfaction levels. Gathering regular feedback and monitoring customer satisfaction is essential to maintain high standards of customer care.
You need to be constantly in touch with customers’ needs and market developments to keep a step ahead of competitors (The Marketing Donut, 2016).

Concusion

CRM is all about using the latest technology to make interactions between customer and company pleasant for the customer and fruitful for the company by squeezing out every drop of information given. Lately, that is meant using lots of automation software and cloud-based solutions that make CRM interactions faster, more intuitive, and ubiquitous in terms of UX across whatever device the customer is using.
Companies want to interact with users where they live. In today’s hyper-connected, always plugged-in world, that means reaching out to customers on social media platforms in a way that doesn’t feel like an invasion of privacy.
Social media is still a rapidly evolving internet phenomenon. The way users interact with social media is very different now than it was in 2010. Both companies and customers need to start to think about business as more online based in this day and age (Harrigan, et.al, 2014).

References

Ballings, M & Van den Poel, D. (2015). CRM in social media: Predicting increases in Facebook usage frequency. European Journal of Operational Research. 244 (1), p248-260.

Bennett, S. (2014). How Social Media Is Transforming Customer Relationship Management. Available: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-media-crm/498921. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Bober, K. (2016). A Facebook Page is Not Enough: An Intro to Social CRM Done Right. Available: http://www.clarabridge.com/a-facebook-page-is-not-enough-an-intro-to-social-crm-done-right/. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Harrigan, P, Soutar, G, Choudhury, M & Lowe, M. (2014). Modelling CRM in a social media age. Australasian Marketing Journal. 23 (1), p27-37.

Marvin, R. (2016). Social CRM: Where Social Media Meets Customer Engagement. Available: http://uk.pcmag.com/hootsuite-pro/71279/opinion/social-crm-where-social-media-meets-customer-engag. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

Schiff, J.L. (2013). 17 Tips for Achieving Social CRM Success.Available: http://www.cio.com/article/2385481/customer-relationship-management/17-tips-for-achieving-social-crm-success.html. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

The Marketing Donut. (2016). Managing your Costumer Relationships.Available: http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/customer-care/understanding-your-customers/managing-your-customer-relationships. Last accessed 3rd May 2016.

1 Comment Posted on April 18, 2016 Facebook, Social Media

Advertising on Facebook, good or bad?

Individuals act in such manner that would maximize their benefits gained from social interactions (James T. Tedeschi, 2009).
Facebook provides an easy to use platform that can be accessed from almost anywhere to fulfill social needs of people. However, it can also be used for companies to advertise their products and keeping in touch with their customers.
Facebook alone has over 955 million active users and over 50% of active users log on to Facebook every day and an average user has approximately 130 friends on Facebook (Melason, 2012).

Thanks to the vast base of users Facebook is having, it becomes a paradise for marketers. It enables marketers to customize their advertisements to fit certain group of individuals. This can be done according to their demographic features or by their interests, and all marketers have to do is to choose which factors they are going to target their advertisements towards.

There are two different ways of advertising of behavioral targeting; Network targeting and On-site Targeting. In network targeting, the data is collected from various different sites and user preferences, where as on-site targeting is based on a specific-site. Facebook used to have on-site targeting, but is nowadays following its users’ moves even outside Facebook. There are two sides to this; Facebook follows users through their cookies as well as their “likes” (Popkin, 2011).

Difference Between Facebook ads and Google ads

Before we look at the various strengths of Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, it’s crucial to understand the primary difference between the two platforms.
Facebook Ads is a prime example of what is known as “paid social,” or the practice of advertising on social networks. With the highest number of MAUs of any social network in the world.
Unlike paid search, paid social helps users to find businesses based on the things they’re interested in and the ways in which they behave online.

Google AdWords is the world’s largest and most popular PPC advertising platform. AdWords is so widely used, it has become synonymous with the term “paid search.”
Paid search focuses on the targeting of keywords and the use of text-based advertisements. Advertisers using AdWords bid on keywords in the hopes that their ads will be displayed alongside search results.

Strengths of Google and Facebook
Today, Facebook Ads is a pioneer in the sphere of paid social, and has become a central part of many business’ digital marketing strategies.
Marketers are often taken by surprise by the potential return on investment that Facebook advertising offers, and how far advertisers can stretch a limited budget on the platform.
This highly competitive pricing makes Facebook a very attractive proposition to small businesses and companies with limited resources. Combined with the remarkable potential returns offered by the platform, Facebook is one of the best online advertising solutions available today (Wordstream, 2016).

Google’s advertising offerings are split across two primary networks – the Search network, and the Display network.
The Search network is the entirety of Google as a search engine, and advertisers can bid on an almost unlimited supply of keywords and phrases to target prospective customers.
The Google Display Network, which offers advertisers more visual ads such as banners, spans approximately 98% of the World Wide Web, making it a great choice for advertisers who want to accomplish marketing goals such as raising brand awareness.
Google makes an excellent addition to a digital marketing strategy, when combined with Google’s increasingly accurate search results, it’s easy to see why AdWords is the most popular and widely used PPC platform in the world (Wordstream, 2016).

Risks of Using Facebook for Advertisement
Before anyone should use Facebook for advertising, there are some risks to consider.
For example, if you’re caught using false information about a product, you might expect some negative feedback. When dealing with social media, this can go viral and spiral out of control. Dishonesty can be a trending topic on a variety of social sites, not just Facebook.
Using an online service is a constant risk for hackers, they are everywhere and in large numbers.
People can get classified information, so be aware of displaying emails, keeping the same password, etc.
The more risks that companies are aware of in social media, the better equipped they will be at handling them. The risks mentioned above only cover a small number of the many potential issues that could be faced (Robinson, 2013).

Conclusion
Using Facebook as a platform for advertisement is a great idea for either new companies or massive producers thanks to the low costs. There is no competition or bidding for keywords when using Facebook like there is for Google. However, there are major risks of using Facebook for ads thanks to the sheer exposure that occurs.
Facebook is the largest social media platform out there with nearly 1 billion users, not to use the advertising opportunity would be foolish in many peoples mind (Kapp, et.al. 2013).

References
Kapp, J, Peters, C & Oliver, D. (2013). Research Recruitment Using Facebook Advertising: Big Potential, Big Challenges. Journal of Cancer Education. 28 (1), p134-137.

Lukka, V & James, P. (2014). Attitudes toward Facebook advertising.Journal of Management and Marketing Research. 14 (2), p1-26.

Melason, D. (2012). Facebook posts first earnings as a public company Retrieved 12.9.2012, [http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/26/facebook-posts-first-earnings-as-a-publiccompany-1-8-billion/]

Popkin, (2011). Facebook to stop following you after log off. Retrieved from [http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/27/7991573-facebook-to-stopfollowing-you-after-log-off

Robinson, C. (2016). The Risks Associated with Social Media Marketing.Available: http://blog.tailwindapp.com/risks-of-social-media-marketing/. Last accessed 18th April 2016.

Tedeschi T.J (2009). Conflict, Power & Games – The Experimental Study of Interpersonal Relations: Transaction Publishers]

Wordstream. (2016). Facebook Ads vs. Google AdWords: Which Should You Be Using?. Available: http://www.wordstream.com/facebook-vs-google. Last accessed 18th April 2016

1 Comment Posted on January 29, 2016February 7, 2016 Social Media

Benefits and risks to use Social Media in business

The short answer to what social media is, according to Lon Safko (2012) it is the media we use to be social.

A social network, trusted network, virtual community, e-community, or online community is a group of people who interact through newsletters, blogs, comments, e-mail, and instant messages. The social network’s goal is to build trust in a given community. Every social network has different levels of interaction and participation among members. This can range from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board posts, to competing against other people in Virtual Gaming.
The ability to intermingle with like-minded individuals instantly from anywhere on the globe, has considerable beneﬁts (Safko, 2012).

The benefits to use Social Media in business
Because it appeared quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one.
The statistics, however, illustrate a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use (DeMers, 2011).

For businesses in any industry, the key to success is knowing your audience. Social media makes this possible, and easier to accomplish than ever. With tools like Facebook Insights in Hootsuite (a site which manages all your social media) you can learn the dominant languages spoken among your social media audience, as well as their age and gender. This knowledge can help you cater campaigns and product offers to your target audience, which will provide you a better return on investment (Cisnero, 2014).

(Taken from Hootsuite, 2015)

Social media for business gives you instant access to positive or negative feedback, which provides you with valuable insights on the customer perspective. For example, if you launch a new product and share it on social media, you’ll instantly learn what your customers think of it. Another way to gain customer perspective with social media is by learning how they use your product; brands often base new products or services on their customers’ original ideas.

Another benefit for any business to use social media is the fact that it increases the web traffic of your website. SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success are always changing. It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, ensure optimized title tags and meta descriptions, and distribute links pointing back to your site. Google and other search engines may be calculating their rankings using social media presence as a significant factor, because of the fact that strong brands almost always use social media. As such, being active on social media could act as a “brand signal” to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. That means, if you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence could be almost mandatory.

Risks for businesses using Social Media

One inappropriate tweet or Facebook post can cause irreparable damage, but should this stop companies from integrating social media into their business?

Social media may cause a risk to a company’s reputation by creating negative publicity. Legal issues may perhaps arise if a company gives an inappropriate comment about another company on a social media platform for instance.
While social media allows a company to interact directly with customers in real time, it also gives those same customers a public platform to voice dissatisfaction.
However, Steve Nicholls, author of the best-selling book “Social Media in Business,” (techxb.com) believes that any form of progress comes with risk and the key is to identify them and overcome them.

Conclusion
As we all know, social media is ever changing, and what was cool yesterday might not be tomorrow (O´Hare, 2011).
The longer you wait, the more you have to lose. Social media marketing, when done right, can lead to more customers, more traffic, and more conversions.
The most important things online are to listen first, and when it’s appropriate to add something to the conversation, you slide it in, just like in the real world.

Sources

Chaney, P (2009). The Digital Handshake, Seven Proven Strategies to Grow your Business using Social Media. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. p185

Cisnero, K. (2014). Benefits of Social Media for Business Every Skeptic Should Know. Available: http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016.

DeMers, J. (2014). The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/2/#20e587935232. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016

Hootsuite. (2014). Social media is an easy way to learn about your audience. Available: http://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-for-business/. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016

O´Hare, C. (2011). Utilizing Social Media to Benefit your Company. Available: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9ba6ebbb-d440-4845-afa8-62b761d80dc1%40sessionmgr198&vid=1&hid=110. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016

Safko, L (2012). The Social Media Bible. 3rd ed. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.. P537-600

Techxb. (2014). Top five risks companies face when using social media. Available: http://techxb.com/top-five-risks-companies-face-when-using-social-media. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016

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