Social Media ROI: Be Careful to Not Analyze It to Death
In an attempt to predict social media ROI, too many companies are applying direct-marketing rationale and stunting their full potential for success.
» 2009 » December
When Twitter Goes Bad: Copenhagen Leak and the Power of the Press
Twitter advice for marketers: focus on press online to really ignite the buzz.
Social Media Predictions 2010: Twitter Takes on Customer Service
Prediction: social media will grow in 2010. Geez, thanks for the newsflash. Yes, it’s that time of year again when the experts tell us just what to expect next year.
ZD Net recently posted just such an article that’s worth a quick look. In general, these guys expect the economy to fuel the adoption and integration into corporate America. Also, social networks themselves will begin to help users better define themselves and their relationships between different groups of “friends”.
One thing they are missing, IMO: Twitter as a customer service tool.
Twitter is beginning to find a legitimate place in corporate marketing. In many ways, it’s is becoming the company-to-customer equivalent of IM: short bursts of information that keeps people posted up to the minute. These bursts are being used by companies like Best Buy’s TWELPFORCE to help make interactions between customer service and consumers open, fast and effective.
Before Twitter, a call with customer service was riddled with angering phone trees, insane wait times, transfers and, if we were lucky, searches on a self-help site. Now with Twitter, companies can quickly see across thousands of conversations to identify issues and solve them en masse. So instead of hundreds or thousands of customers feeling left one there own with electronics headaches, Best Buy can talk to them all faster and with better outcomes.
The result is happier customers…the very definition of CRM, as well as more efficient call centers, less abandon rates and the ability to spot problems before the blow on on the Web. At CBC, we’re are seeing increasing requests to help set up similar systems from companies that range from automotive insurers to food distributors. The key will be training and planning, as in most things. But in the end, we predict a happier customer in 2010.
