Interacting with people on social media channels is a very interesting experience for anyone, however, it can be a hazard for a company if you don’t get it right. If you only use your account to post ads, people will just dismiss your ads most of the time. This can take an even worse turn if you go with a random “company” as a result of searching for “social media marketing company near me”, and the best-case scenario is that your social media marketing budget will not have a significant ROI. The worst possibility is that you can lose customers if your social media management is not up to scratch.
At Twelve12, we want to share with you some interesting examples of social media interactions between people and companies.
There are so many stories of fails and successes on social media, but I want to begin with a personal experience. This writer has a very well developed Twitter account with a considerable amount of followers and, as it happens, I shared what happened when I called customer service of a major supermarket. A guy with a very nice voice answered and when I got transferred, another sultry-voiced person talked to me. They both were very professional and helpful, but I turned the whole thing into a story about this supermarket having a special line for ladies and the supermarket’s official account got involved. Instead of engaging with all the followers that were participating, they decided to just say something random and effectively killed the thread that had been going on for hours and had reached a lot of people. That, right there, was an inexperienced social media manager behind the wheel.
Another example is of some very infamous exchanges to do with social media managers for an official office from a country or a sports club, making fun of another country’s defeat at a sports competition. These were very unfortunate mistakes that had to be thoroughly explained and apologized for.
Some accounts just have to rise above the average social exchanges. A standing ovation is awarded to Oreo, for when they reacted quickly to a blackout at a Superbowl and had some clever ads up on social media in a matter of minutes regarding the trending topic without being obnoxious. Some brands can be fun and playful and they are allowed to talk back within some limits, as it happened to “Moon Pie” answering a harsh tweet in a fun and non-aggressive way. And it is really interesting for people when brands respond to each other in a good-natured way, as if they were an individual instead of a company.
These are just some interactions to illustrate the point of the level of engagement that any company can have on social media. The type of interaction that you should have with your customers is ultimately your choice, but be aware that not everyone can do this well and there is a lot to lose if you leave it to an inexperienced SM manager.
Give us a call today – Twelve12 is ready to answer all your questions and help you avoid the dangers of blindly selecting random results of searching for “social media marketing company near me”.