Everyday social media becomes more important in the contact center.  After an especially negative encounter with a company many consumers, both young and old, turn to social media websites to vent about bad experiences and caution friends and family against particular brands.  The problem for businesses today, is that it’s not only friends and family of individual users that “hear” these rants.  Sites like Twitter and Facebook serve as loudspeakers, broadcasting dissatisfaction, and occasionally satisfaction, to millions of people across the web.  In many companies, contact centers have become the hub for monitoring and responding to these online customers.  Here are three keys to help guide you to a successful social media monitoring plan:

1. Determine your objectives and define your goals
   Before you begin scouring the web for every mention of your company name, know what it is you want to accomplish.  Do you want to respond to every person that mentions your company?  Probably not if you’re a huge brand that gets thousands, or millions, of mentions every day.  But if you’re a smaller brand, deeply engaging in conversation with your customers could be highly valuable.  Do you want to respond to positive comments about your company or products?  What about retweeting (or reposting) comments from users?  What kind of value do you want to add to the conversation?  Social media has a lot of potential, but in order to accomplish anything you must know exactly what you want to accomplish and ensure your social media goals and objectives align with corporate goals and objectives.

   Having clearly defined, measurable goals is another must.  Things to consider include: how many followers or fans you have; how often you want to post content; the number of interactions you want to have with people; how quickly you want to respond to comments and the list goes on and on.  Laying out a plan with specific goals will help keep everyone in your contact center aware of what you’re working to accomplish.

2. Determine your metrics
   Once you’ve established your goals, decide what key metrics will help you define success.  Some common metrics include:
   •  Visits to your profile
   •  Mentions per specified time period
   •  Number of inbound links
   •  Referrals to your website
   •  Number of subscribers (followers, fans, etc)
   •  Number of comments and unique commenters
   •  Ratio of positive to negative comments
   •  Recommendations/referrals
3. Employ monitoring tools to assist you
   Social media is just one item on a long list of items that contact centers are responsible for.  Instead of spending hours and hours trying to monitor numerous social media sites on your own, make use of free tools and tools your vendors may already provide.  A quick Google search for “social media monitoring tools” reveals over 4 million results including companies that offer paid monitoring services as well as ideas for free tools.  If spending money on another tool isn’t an option, check with your current vendors to see if their systems can integrate social media with the contact center solutions you already have in place.

Have questions about integrating social media with your Inova Solutions products?  Post them below or contact us today.

About Camille: Camille is a Marketing Communications Specialist at Inova and graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa. She loves watching USF football, spending time with friends and family, and walking her dog, Lexi. You can contact Camille at camille@insideinova.com.