Social media is just that, social, a talking shop where consumers get to air their opinions to each other and critically to you the business. For instance perhaps you run an ecommerce site associated with your retail premises and you have a customer care department that sits separately from marketing. Does the customer care team monitor social media as much as marketing or do you still count a complaint as a phone call or a letter? Don’t miss out on the chance to turn a Facebook complaint into a success story of how you dealt with the issue and then a marketing opportunity as all your followers and most importantly the consumer involved, wax lyrically about how nice you are now. This could have gone the other way if you didn’t monitor your social content for issues as well as pushing messages.
Digital agencies aren’t excluded as we can sometimes be accused of discussing issues that matter to us but perhaps not our clients. This is the second use of social media, what do my customers want from me? They are your in house review panel that passes judgment on everything you do and you don’t have to pay them. If you’re getting more likes from the right consumers (not just some trolls!) then ask them what they want and you might be surprised what your business development department thinks of the suggestions.
Finally it can really help drive more, quality traffic to your site and that is what is going to make you the money. Content is king even if you have a team of flying monkeys to do the donkey work for you, it really is fresh new words that search engines like and marketing tools like blogs, twitter etc. really can help with this.
So ROI does not have a £ necessarily attached but it adds value to your sales, marketing, business development and customer care teams which really is worth it isn't it?
