We often hear the question bounced around about the ROI of social media. This post isn’t an argument about how much of a monetary return you can expect by engaging in social media for your business. You can make up your own mind whether it makes sense for your company to spend money on social media marketing (it probably does).
But if you have any presence on social media, read on for some examples of why religiously monitoring your accounts provides a worthwhile return on your time investment.
My Personal Anecdote
Recently I was looking for a vendor to recommend to a client here in Tampa for an SMS texting campaign and took to Twitter for help. After some research, I had narrowed the search to two specific companies and sent out a Tweet to see if my tribe had any personal experience with either vendor. I also happened to tag both companies in the Tweet; we’ll call them “Company A” and Company B.”
While I didn’t get feedback from my Tweeps about which service was better, within a few minutes, I did get a response from Company A. They simply thanked me for considering them, gave a quick pitch, and provided a link to their services page. Company B never responded to the mention. Guess which one I ended up recommending to the client?
As stated, I had done my research and both companies stood out. Review sites had them alternately as the number 1 and number 2 rated services in their industry.
So, all other things being equal, what ended up making the difference was that Company A had someone monitoring their social media and responded to me promptly. I recommended them, figuring they probably have better customer service.
Now, this is just one example of how monitoring Twitter actually garnered a new client (my client took my recommendation and is very happy with the service, by the way).
But there are a plethora – love that word – of scenarios where dutifully monitoring your social media accounts can provide a real return on the investment of time and money it requires.
What it Means for You
First of all, for almost all small/medium businesses, monitoring social media is certainly not a full time job. You don’t have to have someone sitting and staring at a wall of screens with an itchy mouse finger just waiting for a mention or message to respond to.
Just leave open TweetDeck, HootSuite, Sprout Social, or any of the gazillion other tools, and keep your eyes, or ears, open for an alert. When you get a mention or a message, respond appropriately and immediately. Easy peasy.
In my example, it meant a new client, but social media can also be used as a great customer service tool. When someone has had a bad experience and takes to social media to complain, monitoring your accounts will give you a chance to quickly rectify the situation.
Often times, exceptional customer service after a bad experience leaves a more lasting impression of your business than if the transaction went smoothly in the first place.
Or in the case that, praise Buddha, someone leaves some positive feedback on social media, by acknowledging them quickly and thanking them, you’ll score major points for your business; not to mention the sweet Retweet/Share value to spread the word of your business’ awesomeness.
The point is this: it takes very little effort to monitor your social media accounts and respond to EVERY mention or message. And in the case that your business is big enough that it IS a full-time job to monitor your accounts, you bet your sweet – let’s be P.C. – tushie that you dang well better have someone doing it!
