Connecting with Customers Online: The Importance of Strategic Customer Care on Social Media8/15/2019 AuthorSteve Ryan, Founder & CEO 
Brands have flocked to social media and social media advertising as an extension of their brand, showcasing product, telling their story, and trying to increase conversions; however, they are still struggling with high-level customer service. According to the Q2 2017 Sprout Social Index, only 1 in 10 messages receives a response from a brand on social media, taking an average of 11 hours to respond. Social media is not a one-sided conversation and brands need to realize that as they push content into the feeds of consumers. Brands need to be listening and responding to the conversations.
According to the 2019 Hanapin State of Paid Social report that was recently released, "97% of marketers are investing in social advertising, up 10% from last year." If you're paying for social media advertising, you should be investing in customer service on these channels as well. Customers who have questions, positive reviews, or complaints found you on social media and likely want to communicate with you directly from that channel. Customers want to speak with the brand from the channel they're on - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat. SPOTLIGHT
If you're looking for a brand that does customer service and engagement well on social media, look no further than Southwest Airlines. They must have a behemoth social team - actively responding to customers (happy and not so happy) every hour of every day. Each team member signs their responses with his/her name and adds a slice of humor or personality with each engagement. Their customer service social strategy is done right.
DISSAPOINTMENT
Let's talk about a real life experience, turned social media experiment. A brand that runs a sale for two weeks. The day after the sale ends a follow-up email goes out to their database extending the sale and sweetening the deal by adding free shipping on all orders placed that day. Nice thought, but what about all of the customers that bought during the sale and paid the shipping cost?
Unhappy customers turned to social media to express their frustrations. Customers commented on the post announcing the extended sale and free shipping expressing their displeasure without a response from the brand. As a fellow unhappy customer that was charged shipping, I tried to resolve the issue privately by DMing the brand on Twitter. 24 hours later, I didn't have a response and my frustration was growing. I followed up with a DM on Instagram. Same situation - no response. I followed up with an email. No response. According to the Sprout Social Q3 2017 Index, consumers take action when a brand does not respond to their social media message. Nearly 40% of consumers will move along to the next social channel, as illustrated above, to seek resolution. 
While trying to resolve the issue privately, a friend publicly tweeted at the brand directly expressing her frustration and almost immediately had a DM from the brand offering to refund the shipping cost.
POINT
This brand cares more about the public outcry than those that tried to handle it privately. Their email marketing team might have messed this one up a bit, but their social media team took an even bigger hit by leaving their disgruntled customers without a response.
What do consumers really want? They want to be heard and have some sort of resolution to their issue and often times a simple response will go a long way. A brand is going to answer the phone when someone calls (during normal business hours when the next available agent is ready), so why wouldn't you respond on social media? Show your customers that you care and are willing to respond to their needs it will turn into real dollars. 
If your team doesn't have the time or bandwidth to have a dedicated social media customer service team member on staff, you run the risk of losing important customers and business. Partnering with a third party social media company allows you to focus on the day to day of your business operations while they handle the customer service responses in an effective and timely manner.
Still not convinced? Read Why You Need a Social Media Customer Service Plan from our friends at Sprout Social. FOLLOW RYTECH ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
2 Comments
 Do you get tired of liking the same photo on Instagram that you already saw on Facebook or vice versa? Do you find yourself wondering if you already liked that photo as you are about to double tap on Instagram? Do you have social media fatigue? YES .... I DO .... Pick Me! This doesn't mean throw in the towel and shut down your social media accounts. It means it's time to start being strategic about your social media activity and leveraging it for your bottom line. According to the 2019 Sprout Social Index, 77% of consumers said they are more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media. Read our blog post, 'How to Tell Your Story on Social Media.' We regularly talk to businesses and business owners, marketers, and communications directors about their social media strategy and hear similar pieces of feedback, which typically fall into two different camps: Too Hard/Not Enough Time
Super Easy
Time is always going to be a constraint (and not the topic of this post!). For those struggling with finding the time, consider outsourcing a component or hiring someone to help you develop a strategy. You can also spend a few minutes each day or block out a few hours each week to devote to your social media strategies. For those of you thinking that it's "super easy" because you can post the same thing everywhere, THINK AGAIN. While the functional task might save you a minute or two, you run the risk of alienating some audience members and causing a lackluster response on at least one channel. YOUR AUDIENCE CARES ABOUT YOUR BRANDIf you're humanizing your brand, your audience becomes brand ambassadors to help you share your story. You want to encourage them to follow you on multiple different channels so they can further understand your company, share your message, and engage. This can lead to user generated content through audience involvement. By posting the same piece of content on all channels, your audience does not have a reason to follow you in more places than one (and if they already do, they'll likely unfollow). YOUR AUDIENCES ARE LIKELY DIFFERENTBy thinking strategically about your social media strategy and leveraging your accounts, take into account that the audience demographics will vary by channel. Social media analytics will quickly inform your strategy by identifying what your audience is looking for on each specific channel. Your Instagram followers are likely younger and looking for something that is completely different than your Facebook followers. If you post the same content at the same time, you'll see engagements plummet and little return on investment. THE MECHANICS ARE DIFFERENTOn Twitter, you don't want to see an Instagram link that takes you to Instagram to see the full post. A business or person that you tag might be on Facebook but not on Instagram and then it looks like you do not know what you're doing on social media. If you're not taking the time to post different content, you aren't maximizing the potential reach and engagement on each post and each channel. As you look to refine your social media strategies, make developing each social channel and audience its own top priority. You don't have to be on all social media channels to be successful with social media. Your primary audience might only be on Facebook and the rest of your efforts might be lost completely. Be strategic. Do your homework. And spend the extra few minutes to generate content that is unique to each channel. connect with rytech AuthorAshley Anderson, Social Media Associate “It’s no longer a matter of discussion whether a nonprofit organization should be active on social media networks—because they should. That is, if they want to keep up.” A 2018 study done by Donorbox concludes that nonprofit organizations need to keep up with social media trends in order to connect with their audiences in a way they never have before. A few social media tactics that nonprofits should be using include keeping consistent with messaging, making sure to showcase the impact of their organization, and making sure they connect with their audience. However, many nonprofits struggle to keep up with the changing social media trends. In this article, we lay out a few social media mistakes that every nonprofit should avoid. 5 COMMON MISTAKES NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS MAKE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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