One of my first blog posts for InsideInova.com was about monitoring social media in the contact center. I discussed three key ways contact centers can monitor social media in a very strategic way:
- Set goals and objectives
- Determine metrics
- Use a free, or paid, monitoring tool
I was thinking about this post and wondering if I had perhaps jumped the gun a bit. Working in the marketing world I hear about social media monitoring everywhere— webinars, trade publications, newsletters from marketing vendors and the list goes on and on. “Social media monitoring” is probably one of the newest and biggest buzzwords to drive businesspeople crazy. If you’re a call center manager or supervisor, this monitoring task has likely rolled down from upper management and landed squarely on your shoulders as a customer service initiative. If it’s not your responsibility yet, it probably will be soon.
So before you start planning your approach, what exactly is this social media monitoring thing anyway and why is it so important?
Monitoring various social media outlets (like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, digg, blogs and so on) is simply keeping a “virtual ear” open for mentions of your company. In some cases this could also include high profile employees, like Apple’s Steve Jobs. Tracking what people are saying online about your company is crucial. For one, customers are no longer telling one or two people about an experience with your company, they’re telling hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of people over the Internet.
There are countless examples of frustrated customer online rants going viral. One of the more entertaining is United Breaks Guitars (caution- the chorus will probably replay over and over again in your head) which is now a trilogy of music videos by a musician who checked his guitar, only to have it broken, while flying United Airlines. The original video went viral on YouTube and has been viewed more than 8 million times. Only after the video received national attention did United offer compensation for the broken guitar.
Having a social media monitoring system in place allows companies to proactively reach out to customers ranting and raving about a negative experience. Take Best Buy’s twelpforce; employees scour the Twitter universe for people in need of tech advice. Best Buy proactively reaches out to them and answers their questions via Twitter. I can’t think of a better way to position the Best Buy brand as a customer service leader and tech expert.
Social media monitoring provides a great way for you, the contact center manager, to contribute to the bottom line by proactively reaching out to disgruntled customers and improving potential customers’ perceptions of your company. All of this can be easily, and inexpensively, accomplished. See my first social media monitoring post for advice on getting started and post your questions and comments below.
 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.
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Good post, Camille. Do you think social media monitoring is as important for B2B companies as it is for B2C?
I think social media monitoring is definitely important for B2B companies. Lots of recent studies show B2B buyers are just as active in social media as B2C consumers, even when it comes to researching business decisions. Making sure you represent your B2B company properly and address customer concerns in social media forums is key.