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Tuesday September 21, 2010

Topic: Customer Management

Reference: Milstein, Sarah (with Twitter). “Think about Twitter as a place to build relationships.” Twitter 101-Best Practices: http:/?business.twitter.com/twitter101/best_practices.

More and more the key to social media is centered on the issue of relevance. If you are not relevant you don’t matter and you are not part of the conversation that is taking place between your customers and your potential customers. Many ask weather the effort required to be meaningfully engaged in social media is worth the effort?

Tuesday September 21, 2010

Topic: Customer Management

Reference: Milstein, Sarah (with Twitter). “Think about Twitter as a place to build relationships.” Twitter 101-Best Practices: http:/?business.twitter.com/twitter101/best_practices.

More and more the key to social media is centered on the issue of relevance. If you are not relevant you don’t matter and you are not part of the conversation that is taking place between your customers and your potential customers. Many ask weather the effort required to be meaningfully engaged in social media is worth the effort? The answer surely lies in the opportunity cost of lost relevance and missing the opportunity to brand your products using the leverage of endorsements from people that they know. That personal endorsement is worth its weight in gold and many companies cannot afford the cost of obtaining similar mindshare through traditional media channels. Even over a small customer base, it is easy to see the value proposition of social media as a major branding channel. Additionally, a major collateral benefit can be derived from a series of relatively informal personal communications. That benefit is sustained relationship building. It is the sustained relationship building that builds relevance and improves the value of the interaction. In the referenced article the commentator examines the use of Twitter to build relationships and ultimately concludes that it is a place to achieve solid relationship development. “Listen regularly for comments about your company, brand and products –and be prepared to address concerns, offer customer service or thank people for praise.” The commentator lays out several important keys to making Twitter work for you including making sure that your tweets have value; testing the waters to check the level of interest in promotions; and developing some metrics around the value of Twitter from outreach, engagement, and the number of questions answered. It is a relatively instant feedback channel, so it can be used specifically for that purpose.  I like it also because it gives you more content for search engines to find and another method to increase your search optimization. The commentator also suggests using web tools to determine how much traffic your web page is receiving. All of these things connote additional value that can be attached to social media outreach. The more that you do with it, the more that it has the potential to do for you. So make the time to make social media investments and watch the value of that time increase.