Social media is all the rage in marketing today, and with good reason too. Everyone from businesses, to non-profits, and politicians to movie stars are building virtual communities on social media sites. Social media makes it possible to engage people who would not normally have any way to connect. In many ways the opportunities that social media provide are similar to the way business is conducted in small towns. And just like in small towns, there are advantages as well as disadvantages to the communal aspect of social media marketing.
In a big city, or on the internet, if one customer isn’t completely satisfied, he or she may complain to a few of their friends about it. Since only a few people ever hear the feedback about your business, there is not necessarily much implication for the business. But when it comes to small towns, or internet marketing with social media, the customers feedback is critical, since everyone in the community stands to find out if there is even one unhappy customer.
Negative Feedback Gets Attention
In small towns if only one person makes a stink about something, everybody finds out about it, and they will want to know why, and what is being done about it. So too, when a customer gives feedback in social media it draws attention- a lot more attention than the positive feedback. Diffusing volatile situations like that is an art that social media marketers need to do well.
In case negative feedback does strike at your social media efforts don’t simply erase the bad feedback, otherwise the person who left it make just make a bigger stink elsewhere. Instead, respond quickly with a fair and truthful explanation, and give them something free if you have too. Additionally, if you really do need to apologize for something, then go ahead and admit your mistake, and offer your plan for how to prevent these types of things from happening in the future.
Positive Feedback Gets Attention
This point is in the same vein as the previous one, positive and negative feedback both get attention. In fact, the fact that positive buzz gets so much attention is just the reason for engaging in social media marketing. The goal is to stir up such a positive buzz that your customers, or ‘community,’ will do the marketing for you. Just like in a small town, when people really like a store or business they come together in support of it.
The first step in producing and maintaining a positive buzz is being an awesome company from the inside out.
In John Jantshch’s book, The Referral Engine, he explains that the way to make your customers into a referral engine is by making them so incredibly happy with you that they will be overjoyed to refer your business to their colleagues. The way to do that is by having all of your employees passionately devoted to your business. And the way to do that is by planning out the entire business structure, considering what is your mission, and how does everyone involved connect to it and contribute to it.
Once a business delivers awesomeness, the social media community will naturally provide a lot of positive buzz.
The Social Media Community is Part of Your Business
In a small community, the Mom and Pop store and the local professionals are all part of the community as well as the community being part of the businesses. Everyone celebrates each others’ successes, and mourns each other’s losses. In social media marketing it is vital to think of your community in the same regard, they are not just there for the business transaction, they are there for to engage in an ongoing relationship.
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