One question I frequently get asked is how to handle complaints on social media - in particular on Facebook pages. Do you quickly delete your fan's complaint, block them from your page and go on living life like it never happened? Do you wait for a fan to defend you? Or should you jump in and defend yourself?
In yet another testimonial to the pervasive popularity of Twitter, a Mexican soccer club has opted to replace players’ names on their jerseys with team members’ online Twitter names.
Take a look at the graph below that was provided by Hitwise last week, the week Google + went public.
Looks promising, huh? Something like 4000% growth or some other such number that I can't remember. At last, a worthy competitor to Facebook. Everyone basked in the fact that Google + was going to take over the social media crown and how this growth was so much higher than when Facebook was launched.
But all is not fantastic in this graph.
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It's tempting in the rush to 'fix' a social media solution or grow a social media presence, to throw everything at it. Sign-up and win an iPad. A notable law firm did that recently and got 1000 Facebook friends almost overnight.
But this strategy can be wrong.
It is more important than ever for brands to find innovative and unique ways to connect and engage with their target market in today's digital world. No longer are we purchasing products in stores - the growth of mobile has changed the way we browse, compare, purchase and share our customer experiences.
In case you don't know what a hash-tag is, it's a...well, one of these: #. And users on Twitter use this to designate an important word, a subject or a way of 'tagging' a Twitter post to make it searchable by other people using the same #. For example, if a news event occuring like the Queensland floods, then those posting updates on Twitter would finish their posts with #qldfloods.
Simple, eh?
I'm often asked when I speak about social media, on how to deal with negative feedback on Facebook pages, Twitter or any of the other communication platforms. I normally refer back to a complaint I saw on the Facebook page of a restaurant I was pitching for a year or so again that highlighted disappointing service, poor food and general annoyance at everything the restaurant had done.
Are our friends on social networks more important than our "real-life" friends? Are we changing the way we communicate and who we communicate with for the better? Or are we becoming more and more anti-social as technology advances?
I Facebook while I'm out to dinner. I tweet at networking events. And earlier this week I was caught checking for notifications and friend requests mid-conversation with my mum. Which, as you can imagine, didn't go down well.
Social Media. You can't ignore it. Or, maybe you can. But if you're too afraid to dip your toes in, your business may suffer the consequences.
As a keen user of social media I was really taken by this series of tongue-in-cheek print ads for a local San Francisco Chinese Restaurant. Particularly liking the “Cash Only.” addition into the strapline!
