Creating a social media presence for your business is without a doubt, beneficial. If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, setting up a business page on popular social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Facebook is a great marketing strategy. Customers can read more about your business and get your contact details. You can easily target the customers you need, and at the same time meet people who may help you with your business. Businesses are doing it - the appeal of having a social media account is just great and it comes with great returns, if managed wisely.
Wise management spells success
The boom of social media as a marketing strategy has been around for a while. Some businesses are sharing their benefits while others have to learn the hard way. If you can get hundreds of customers through your sites, you can also lose them faster than you gained them if you experience a social media meltdown. Imagine having all those subscribers that can see your every update. They’ll be so dependent on looking at your sites for the latest happening on your business, especially when something goes wrong.
Social media meltdown can happen in many forms. It may be because an update on one of your sites riled up your subscribers, or possibly the person handling your site responds to subscribers in a rude manner. Sometimes, it may be caused by too much (or lack of) activity in your site. Basically, a meltdown happens when you start losing subscribers in bulk.
The moment you decide to set up a social media site for your business, plan out how you’re going to do it well. Will you be maintaining it by yourself or will you hire someone to do it for you? If you already have an account, have you considered the proper precautions to avoid a social media meltdown?
The biggest failure I see on social media sites are those who think it’s “so easy” that they try to handle it and end up being sporadic in their posts or tweets. That inconsistency in and of itself speaks volumes about who you are and what kind of dedication, professionalism and follow-through you have with your business or your interactions.
Tips to protect your brand from a social media meltdown
Content planning – when you have your content, follow a schedule to post on your sites. If you have promos or new products, strategically include them in your schedule, but make sure you don’t start over-posting because it may also cause your subscribers to unfollow you.
Login profile inventory – If you are maintaining more than one site, create a login inventory that has all the information you need to access the site. This is important because if you forget your login, you might be missing out on customer concerns and they might think that you don’t care about them anymore. They’ll stop going to your site and eventually lose interest.
Internal communication – If you hired someone to do the updates for you, lay out some rules on how to deal with customers about their concerns. You can also give them sample updates so they get the tone you want for your updates. Remember that whatever update gets posted on your site will affect your business, good or bad.
It’s very important to be proactive with this. Too many are reactive, updating or informing social marketing team members of things after the fact or giving them slivers of information. When it comes to your social marketing team, you can never over communicate. Include them in all memos, updates and promotions so that they can work well as an extension of your brand.
Man your site – you have given your customers a chance to make it easier to reach you. When they ask or post a concern about you business, answer them in real-time because the less the waiting time, the better. They will love you for your customer service.
Apologize – when customers express their dissatisfaction on your sites, communicate with them properly and apologize for the inconvenience. You can then give them a solution to their concern. Apologizing will calm your customer and make the conversation more productive.
Provide timelines – if your business is going to have problems like delays in delivery or shortage in supplies, set your customer's expectation by providing a timeline. Post updates on when they are expected to arrive, etc.
Avoiding a social meltdown is all about properly managing your social media sites. It all starts with properly planning and understanding your purpose of having a site. You invested time and effort in setting it up and attracting customers, so don’t waste your efforts by neglecting it. As a business owner, review your sites and communicate with whoever is helping you maintain your site to ensure that you are getting the right feedback from your customers. If there is a problem, deal with it as courteously as possible and then try to take the conversation offline (off the page). This will show that you are listening, caring and cautious about their privacy. All are important in showing what a true professional you are. Remember that these sites are public - all your subscribers and possible referrals have the chance to see how you do business.
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