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Consumer feedback can be a scary term when it comes to social media. It’s difficult to manage and control. However, if dealt with correctly consumer feedback can be a powerful tool for building brand awareness, loyalty and engagement. The conversations are happening, with or without you, and crafting a strategy to effectively handle consumer feedback is key. Here are my top ten ways to handle consumer feedback:
1- Listen:
The first step in handing consumer feedback should always be to listen and in turn receive feedback. Conversation around your brand/organization are happening with or without you but if you aren’t listening then you will undoubtedly be left out. There are different ways to listen on each social platform. One can listen to all platforms, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc… at once by using a social media monitoring systems (SMMS). There are a plethora of social monitoring systems out there and careful consideration must go into selecting the right system based on your social goals and strategies, industry type and amount of social engagement.
If you’re not ready to select a SMMS tool there are different ways to monitor consumer feedback on the various sites. Twitter allows users to see when they are mentioned by creating a search for @mentions. This search reveals all tweets mentioning your organizations Twitter handle. On Facebook it’s a bit more difficult. However, keeping a close eye on your organizations wall for posts and comments should be a top priority. In addition, search Facebook for Pages using your company name. For example, when searching for “Comcast” on Facebook, the top three results include, COMCAST SUCKS with over 3,000 likes and I hate Comcast with over 10,000 likes. What you don’t find is an official Comcast Facebook Page. Listening to blogs is even more difficult as there are numerous platforms to blog on including, Blogger.com, WordPress and TypePad. The best way to monitor blogs is to create Google and/or Yahoo alerts for your organizations name and variants of the name as well.
2- Answer:
When you find conversation around your brand consider whether or not it would be beneficial to join the conversation. Thank those who pay your brand compliments, join a conversation about a new product you’re launching and provide more details, disperse misinformation but jumping into a conversation and sharing the correct details and share messages others have crafted about your brand by RT, Sharing on Facebook and providing links on your brands blog.
For those times when social users ask direct questions be sure to answer. The question might seem silly, or obvious but if one person is asking then you know there are many others who share the same inquiry. Answer the question on the same social platform it has been asked on. If you’re brand gets a high volume of questions on one or a number of subjects consider crafting a FAQ section on your blog or website and direct people with those questions to the FAQ to find their answers.
3- Do NOT Delete:
One of the biggest mistakes in dealing with negative feedback is to delete. It’s tempting to just click that delete button but there could be serious backlash from one simple click. Not everyone is going to love every decision your organization makes, or all the messages you post. In traditional marketing it was easier to avoid the dreaded negative feedback or at least close your eyes and ears and not listen, unless the voice was so loud you couldn’t avoid it. But, in today’s marketing world even one voice can be heard loud and clear.
Deleting negative feedback can lead to even more negative comments. When someone see’s you’ve deleted their message(s) that person is likely to re-post and point out that you’ve deleted their original comment. This can make your organization look guilty, even if the negative feedback was unsubstantiated. It’s okay to have some negative feedback so long as you address it, and have more positive messages about your brand than negative. If the negative outweigh the positive it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re business is doing and why there is so much negative sentiment around the brand.
I should note, messages containing profanity, harassment and just plain nonsensical or piggie back marketing can and should be deleted.
4- Do NOT Ignore:
Aside from deleting ignoring is one of the worst ways of dealing with consumer feedback on social sites. This doesn’t mean you have to respond to ever single comment on Facebook or RT all the @mentions you get on Twitter but there can’t be complete silence either. Acknowledging comments, thanking RT’ers and participating in the conversation will only bolster brand loyalty. If you’re looking for engagement its key that you engage as well. Those brands that simply push messages out without paying any attention will ultimately fail on the social platforms, no matter how large or recognizable their brand is.
5- Consider:
Keep in mind the goal of social media marketing should always be to engage current and potential consumers and hopefully increase brand loyalty. Having the unique opportunity to hear directly from consumers should not become a lost opportunity. Listen for consumer feedback, respond and more importantly carefully consider what the social world is telling you. For years organizations have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to form focus groups for testing all sorts of new products and service ideas. With social media you have a willing, ready and able focus group at your finger tips. Take advantage of this opportunity and take social feedback into consideration when making decisions about various aspects of your organization.
6- Create a FAQ:
I’ve been writing a lot lately about the importance of incorporating a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section into websites, blogs and even Facebook Pages. When you find a large number of people asking the same questions or giving the similar criticisms it might be time to answer that question in a permanent place. Once you have the answer in one central location you can direct people to your FAQ for the answer. This saves time, money and shows you’re listening and care enough to answer consumer questions.
Once you’ve created the FAQ section continue to contribute to it. As new questions arise be sure to go back and update the FAQ section. If there is a corporate crisis use your FAQ to do damage control and make any necessary apologies for glitches etc… FAQ’s can be extremely useful and should appear on more than just the company website.
7- Ask Questions:
This article has addressed what to do when consumer feedback is received unsolicited. However, brands paving the way in social media know asking questions is a key component to eliciting consumer feedback and building engagement. There are many ways to ask questions on all the social platforms. Facebook has created Polls which is a fun and visual way of asking questions and receiving controlled answers. Tweeting questions are easy but consider adding a hashtag (#) next to your question to draw a larger response. Every time you blog it’s a good idea to end your blog with a question to incite engagement. Even Linkedin allows brands to ask question by simply creating a group and asking questions of group members.
Be careful to not rely too heavily on asking questions. This type of message is generally well received by social media users but can’t be the only type of message used. If you haven’t been asking questions yet it may take some time before your social community starts answering, but don’t give up. Keep asking relevant question on the various social platforms your brand lives on.
8- Utilize Various Platforms:
As mentioned above there are a number of social platforms to consider building a presence on. There are the well know social platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin but there are literally hundreds more. For those who blog, and every organization should be blogging, there are many blogging platforms to choose from including the three most popular, Blogger, WordPress and TypePad. While I would suggest every enterprise at least create a presence on the most well known social platforms, to ensure others don’t take your brands name and create a presence for you, I would also encourage organizations to research the many other social platforms to see if they might also be a place to engage consumers. If nothing else, a presence should be created on as many of these platforms as possible to aide in controlling reputation management.
Here is a small list of social platforms to research and, at a minimum, create accounts on:
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Zoominfo, Amazon, BigSight, BusinessCard2, ClaimID, Digg, FriendFeed, GetGlue, HuffingtonPost, Identi.ca, MeetUp, MyBlogLog, Naymz, PeoplePond, Posterous, RedOrbit, SVWsticker, TheWuffieBank, Tumblr, Vimeo
9- Create a Response Team:
One of the largest hurtles to over come is figuring out who will be responsible for managing consumer feedback. This person, or group of people, should be well versed in your organization so they are able to answer questions, set straight misconceptions and feel comfortable representing the organization stand point on issues. Whoever is responsible to handling consumer feedback should also be in a position where they can answer questions timely. It’s not necessary to answer questions immediately but the goal should be to answer within a 24 hour period. For those highly negative or sensitive messages the answer should come much more quickly. A response team is critical and thought, consideration and training must go into developing the right response team.
10- Take Advantage of the Opportunity:
Consumer feedback, whether positive or negative, is one of the most beneficial aspects of social media. Whatever your strategy for dealing with these conversations make sure you take advantage of all the opportunities they offer. Consumer feedback should not be something to be feared but rather embraced and used to build brand recognition, loyalty and engagement.
How is your organization handling consumer feedback?
If you’re looking for more great information on how to build, implement, manage and measure your social strategy consider attending the Social Media Strategies Summit in Boston September 20-22 – Early Bird Special ends this Friday June 10, 2011.