Page 254 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 9: SOCIAL CRM ■Oil and Water

Beware: some businesses and organizations will find that, like oil and water, the princi-
ples of social business simply “do not mix” with their own existing practices. Whether
it’s a case of “not invented here” or “we know our customers best” or most any other
reason, some organizations will find it tough to listen openly to their customers, and
tougher still to rebuild their internal communications channels to support receiving
customer conversations and then applying them constructively to their next generation
of products and services.

If you’re familiar with Yelp and Amazon’s ratings, you’ve no doubt asked your-
self “What if someone says something really ugly about me or about my business or
organization?” For many firms who would otherwise be interested in social media
marketing, one of the roadblocks to the adoption of social technology is the idea that
“If my business participates…any (negative) conversations will grow louder.” But this
assumption isn’t quite right, and in many cases is the opposite of what actually hap-
232 pens. Here’s why: When you participate in the conversations that matter to you, any
negative conversations can actually be reduced over time. And, when they are not, it’s a
pretty clear indication that a serious social business program is in order!

Brent Leary

Brent Leary is co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials LLC, a CRM consulting/advisory firm
focused on small and mid-size enterprises. You can follow Brent on Twitter (@BrentLeary) and
read his blog here:

http://BrentLeary.com

How’s that? It works like this: At the outset, recognize that customers talk about
their experiences, including those that involve your products or services. If they love it
or hate it and it matters to them, they’ll talk about it. If the conversation is negative, it
may be that they don’t understand how to use your product correctly, for example, or
that it doesn’t work as well as they’d like. Once you’ve gotten that feedback—through
your listening program—your next step is pretty clear: Reset their expectation or
explain the correct use of the product or make the actual product better. If you do
these things—giving credit to your customers for their ideas and including them in the
collaborative change process that results—the negative conversations will decrease over
time. Failing to address the expressed concerns or not participating at all are the sure
roads to amplified negative conversations.

The many review sites that are now popular have accelerated the feedback
process and, in general, raised the stakes for businesses of all types when it comes to
the impact of conversations around brands, products, and services. Over the past few