
Social Media for Business IFSA March 2013
People Buy from People (they like) • Build relationships • Encourage personal staff accounts • Offer solutions through interaction • Provide support and advice • Be an expert • Get familiar • Ask questions • Listen, listen, listen
Comfortable enough to ask for advice • Advice and solution offered • Booking made!
Benefits • Communication • Personality • Sharing • Tell your stories • Positive WOM • UGC
Challenges • Feedback – not always good? • Consistency • Putting the right personality in charge • Protecting your brand online • Customer service – 24/7? • Weekends off
Bad PR Some of you may remember this after the Olympics – tweet sent from the Twitter account of a Dublin restaurant
Mind your Manners! • Users are quick to be critical and accuse • They feel safe and fairly anonymous • Cyber bullying is an issue and greater education and understanding should be promoted by all • It can be damaging to people and businesses in the short term – but keep it in perspective!
Brand Reputation • Act quickly • Get advice if necessary • Advise staff on what is happening • Issue a well thought out statement • Respond in as many forums as possible • New material replaces old so produce fresh content
Quick Survey What Users Don’t Want • Brands saying that they know what you want..they don’t. • Censorship of negative feedback • Poor engagement strategies • Bad grammar • Corporate speak • Spam • Lack of response to messages • Communicating too often with too many messages together • Pushing products • Posting cheesy images • Information that’s useless
Homework! • Do your research • Make a plan (set targets and deadlines) • Get other people involved • Make it easy to stay on top of communication • Know the etiquette (get some training!) • Take it one step at a time!