Over the last several years social media has completely revolutionized the way we market our brand. Anyone has the ability to get their message heard in minutes with very little time or effort. Mediums like Twitter and Facebook guarantee that every opinion can be shared, whether it’s between dozens of friends or thousands of strangers.
It’s important to make sure that your company has a dedicated person, or group of people, to insure that your clients are always satisfied and since customer care is a full-time (that is, 24/7) job, you need the right person. He or she should be an integral part of any company,
A Community Manager is someone who is responsible for managing the flow of communication and dealing with consumer concerns whenever they arise.
Social media allows everyone to have a voice, but it also allows You as the company to have direct communication with every individual who has an opinion about the way your company does business. If your technician just visited a customer’s home and performed a poor job then not only can your customer contact your offices and complain, but they can also take a more indirect route and post a Tweet or tell their Facebook friends about it. This kind of interaction is the new ‘word-of-mouth’ and it’s important to make sure whatever complaints they might have are monitored and addressed as quickly as possible.
In the construction industry, it’s more important to resolve complaints and issues than to reach out to consumers and that is why most typical social-media strategies don’t apply to your business. So how do you decide which tools are most applicable to your strategy? Should you use a blog, make a Facebook page or start tweeting? Most construction industries will do well to follow TiFuTe (tea-foot-ie) social strategy, as outlined below:
Target and Inform
The internet is a large and populous place and sometimes it can feel like you’re talking to yourself, so use the success of other brands to give yourself a head-start in the social-game. Most Tradeshows and Exhibitions are already on twitter, go see who they’re following and who they are having the best conversations with and join them. Social media is informal, so you can jump into any topic without hesitation and a few tradeshows even make ‘lists’ of who to follow in specific industries like HVAC Techs or Plumbers. Use tools like Facebook to connect on a personal level with your customers and make it a point to tell each client that they can follow up with you by writing on your Company’s wall or tweeting you. Think of social media as the spokes in a wheel, all leading back to your hub (your website). When you start to build a larger audience, you want to make sure that you keep them captivated by sharing informative links and tips on your blog or website.
Follow Up
You should make it a point to tell all of your clients or prospects to visit you on Facebook or Twitter in order to build rapport. In today’s social-age, a Facebook ‘Like’ is worth as much as a good referral and a retweet is the new C2C norm. If you are proud of your product or service then you can use these tools to flaunt it, but make sure that your clients are satisfied! A happy client will tell 3 people, an unhappy one will tell 300 so make sure you communicate with them often to plug any holes that may appear in the dam.
The best part about using any of these tools is that combating customer complaints becomes much easier. No company is perfect, people will always complain, but as long as you recognize their problem and tell them that they will be looked after it helps reassure them. When one of your clients posts a complaint you may be worried that it looks bad for business but showing that you`re handling it in a timely and responsible fashion may help build rapport with your existing base. Sometimes showing a little weakness makes you stronger.
Track and Evaluate
All of this positive feedback will pay dividends after potential clients or on-the-fence prospects check out your Facebook reviews and see what people think about your product. Once you’ve acquired a loyal following with which you interact with on a daily basis, you need to be able to track the metrics and use this data to your advantage. Facebook Page manager provides you with analytical data about who likes your brand and it also sorts which demographic they fall into. Using this information, you can create a highly-customizable Facebook ad that will be seen by the people that need to it most. Play around with it, for as little as $5 you can reach your page members in a certain town or even just wish them a happy birthday. You can use an assortment of Twitter directories (wefollow.com and twitdir.com are two favourites) to make sure that your brand is synonymous with your trade and that your name is the first one that people see.
People are already talking and have been for months. You can use tools like icerocket.com, addictomatic.com or Google Alerts to search exactly what people are saying about your company.
While these tips won’t make you give you a million Twitter followers or hundreds of Facebook fans, they will make sure that you are connecting with the right people and you’re engaging in relevant conversations, which will help build your brand reputation in the long run.
Written by Slava Pastukhov, Social Media Specialist for Jonas Construction Software