Dive Brief:
- Sprout Social’s Q2 2016 Index report uncovered that brands aren’t engaging with customers on social media, sending only one message to customers for every 23 promotional messages.
- Not engaging with customers who reach out to brands on social media has consequences, as the report found 36% of customers will publicly shame brands for not engaging and one in three will actually take their business to the brand’s competitor.
- The research also found that 90% of consumers have used social media to communicate with a brand, and one in three use social media as the communication channel of choice when they have an issue with a brand.
Dive Insight:
In terms of meeting this challenge, Andrew Caravella, VP of Marketing at Sprout Social, shared three tactics for brands to improve their social media engagement strategy with Marketing Dive.
First, scale back promotional material. While social media promotions are of course important to your overall strategy, they shouldn't dominate it. "Make sure you provide people with relevant responses before pummeling them with promos," he said.
The study revealed that 75% of people are more likely to post something positive about a brand if that brand attempts to connect with them in a meaningful way on social. "If you prioritize customer care, you'll be surprised by how many people will become vocal brand advocates," Caravella said.
The second thing to do is to keep responses timely. As people's expectations for fast responses only continue to rise, if a brand lags in response time, it's likely a consumer will become turned off. Caravella suggests keeping the response time in under four hours. "Any longer than that and people will check out," he said. If brands need to rethink their social strategies and staff up to accommodate for timeliness, he says that's something to prioritize.
Lastly, it's crucial for brands to be honest with themselves and with their customers. Transparency is a topic that is sometimes taken for granted, but in an age when consumers are hyper-informed and already fed up with advertising to the extent of deploying ad blockers, being transparent is important.
"To be a truly social brand, you need to ask yourself some important questions: Why are we not responding? Is it bandwidth? Time? Or are we ill-equipped to handle the types of messages we're receiving?" he suggested. Adding that once a brand can answer those questions, though it may necessitate internal changes such as C-suite conversations or adjusted goals, it will be better able to meet consumers' expectations on social media.