Social Media – The Hidden Business Challenge

The business-marketing buzz at the moment is for companies to focus on putting together effective social media strategies. So powerful has social media networking become that every self-respecting business, small or large, includes some kind of presence in on-line media platforms like Face Book and Twitter.

Maintaining an effective image takes considerable time and money, as information has to remain alive and currently accurate. Yesterday’s news is not acceptable.

Focus is on preserving outward facing messaging. But social media is a two-way path and within that audience of potential customers there are those that are existing ones, who are sending messages back and in the public domain. And herein lies the rub. What if your existing clients are telling you that they don’t like something? What if they are recommending changes?

One of the biggest challenges faced by the larger brands is how to respond quickly enough to the input received. What if a company has spent millions on research and development of a new product or the updating of an old one, and once launched, the messages coming back through the public domain of social media are saying they don’t like it!

How do you turn around fast enough? People follow people and so if enough people openly criticise, the negative impact can be a disaster. And many smaller companies are not even aware of the true impact of this negative feedback.

Being aware of the need to respond to the negative quickly, as much as the positive, should be an equal part of every companies social media strategy, but many forget, and concentrate only on outward facing messaging without having a back up plan to deal with resolving any inward bound negativity.

We all know that facing our critics, being seen to resolve challenges timeously and being able to change direction are all part of keeping our brand in tact and our company relevant.

What actions are you taking to keep your brand “safe” in the social marketplace?