At our social media company, there are a wide array of personalities and ways of doing the daily grind. But we are all tracking on what needs to be accomplished to get the job done. So, we gotta believe that you and your employees are no different.
But, at the end of the day, whose opinion reigns supreme? Hint: it’s not you or your employees. It’s your customers. They keep the cash coming in, and they can be powerful brand ambassadors for your biz.
A common saying in the South is, “If momma ain't happy, then no one's gonna be happy”. The same applies to your business. If your customers aren’t happy, then your business isn’t going to be either.
Now more than ever, customers have a firm grip on the power of their voice. They are using that power to ignite change by sharing their voice with others. Just take a look at the news, and it’s easy to see. Where are these voices and opinions being shared? Mostly, on social media.We’re not just saying this because we’re a social media company.
Your business should be monitoring, listening, and responding to incoming messages and comments from your customers on social media. Otherwise, you’re missing out on a BIG piece of the customer-satisfaction puzzle. This could be harming your business’ reputation and image for potential and existing customers.
We encourage you to think twice about the importance of social media monitoring. Take a look at the top reasons why social listening is essential for your business. It may be time to begin partnering with
Nice Branding Agency as your social media company.
1. View Stories Being Crafted About Your Brand
On social media, users can craft a story about brands that matter to them. When these brands are a positive part of their life, they will share this. However, this can also work against you. You better believe customers can whip out a slew of negative thoughts about your brand. And this happens when they are not thrilled with your business.
Whether you want them to or not, customers are turning to social media. It is here that they share their experiences and reactions related to your brand. And regardless of their take on your products or services, you have to see it as the gem that it is. This is invaluable feedback. It can help you improve your business and tailor your offerings to meet their needs.
A large piece of social media is the visual capture of moments. If your business is franchised — or even if it’s not — you can use social media monitoring as a way to see how your employees are offering and portraying your services.
For example, let's say a customer posts a photo at your business. Your social media manager sees that in the background your store is messy. This is not what you, as the business owner, intended to present. Since you've seen the photo, you can quickly establish a system to ensure that doesn’t happen again.
Social media monitoring allows you to delve into conversations taking place on social media about your brand. It’s that simple.
2. Determine What’s Working
If you’re a restaurant like
Valeo’s, a pizza joint in Kenosha, WI, and there’s an overflow of social mentions raving about your delish pizza and fantastic customer service, then you can make the assumption that your business is killing it with your recipes, service, and atmosphere within your restaurant.
Typically, people don’t get on social media to share a 5-star review unless it’s something they really believe in and are loyal to. Social media monitoring allows you to see what’s making customers happy. It also helps you see where your business can improve.
3. Determine What’s NOT Working
You may recall that last spring,
Pepsi released an advertisement featuring Kendall Jenner. Sneak peek: it was a protest-themed commercial, and it completely missed the mark.
There were likely hundreds of eyes on this ad before it went live, but it still got the green light to be shared with the masses. And once it did, social media erupted — and not in a good way. It was a very, very bad day for Pepsi, their creative team, and especially for their social media managers.
As a social media company, we think about how many of our staff review even ONE Facebook post for our clients before it hits the Internet. So, can you imagine how many people at Pepsi had to give their stamp of approval on such a high-profile video advertisement? If you don't understand the creative world, let's just say a LOT of people previewed this ad before it went live.
4. Use Monitoring to Fix It
If you’re thinking, “My business would never make a mistake like that…,” you might need to think again. We certainly have to believe that Pepsi and crew had planned for this ad to be a raging success, but through social media, the ad went viral (not a good kind of viral, y’all), and negative mentions and backlash soared in the aftermath of people seeing the ad.
We weren’t inside the office and don’t know exactly what happened following the release of the ad. However, we do know that social media monitoring played a vital role in Pepsi seeing consumers’ conversations about the ad and realizing it was completely off target after widespread condemnation on social media. According to marketing technology company
Amobee, 77% of digital content engagement around the phrase “tone-deaf” mentioned both Kendall Jenner and Pepsi.
Good or bad, social media monitoring is a way for you (or your contracted social media company) to keep a pulse on your customer’s responses and reactions to your brand. Your social team will be able to identify problems with your company’s actual physical product, your prices, or your messaging.
5. Build Relationships with Your Customers
Do you have your own personal social media accounts? Then you know that *good* feeling you get when people like your posts, or if someone comments on your post telling you how cool you are.
Well, guess what... Consumers are posting for YOU on your business accounts, and it affirms them too when you respond to their feedback. When you’re monitoring conversations on social media, you can take specific actions to respond to your customers and track satisfaction and perception of your brand.
If a customer tells you how much they like your business or service on social media, we can guarantee you that responding back to them will only help increase their loyalty to your brand. Because we’re in a human world with businesses run by humans, your biz is bound to make a mistake in the eyes of a customer. A simple response to a customer letting them know they are seen and heard can radically improve the way they see your brand when a mistake does happen.
If you want to learn more about the impact that social media monitoring can have on your business, contact the social media mavens at
Nice Branding. We’re queens at keeping customers happy on social media and alerting our clients when we start to see patterns that could impact their brand.
Holla at Nice Branding Agency if you would like to get started working with a social media company!