Are you social? A short how-to about feedback on social media.

How to: social media monitoring, from zero to hero.

As the technology interferes more and more with our lives, the buying habits of the customers are changing.

A few years back, a customer that wanted to give a feedback had a limited audience: it was either via support center, dedicated forums or maybe your website reviews (if you had such a feature). Nowadays,  the customers have a very powerful tool in their hands: social media. Their thoughts can be seen faster and by more people than ever. As time flies a lot faster, a recent survey says that 42 percent of consumers complaining in social media expect 60 minute response time.

That's kind of fast.

Other studies show how  social media can influence the purchase habits: approximately 46% of online users count on social media when making a purchase decision (Source: Nielsen), and 72% of people who complain on Twitter expect a response within an hour.

But don't worry, there are a few ways in which you can stay on top of the wave.

If you're new to social media monitoring, you should firstly search out for some good "social media listening " or " social media monitoring" apps. You will find tools like brand24 or hootsuite that will notify you instantly if you brand name is mentioned. You should begin to discover what people are saying about your brand.

How it works? Usually, monitoring is done using a list of keywords. The keywords that you use need to be relevant for your brand and your business. You can use for example your brand name, product names and other words that your customers are using. Based on these keywords, your monitoring system of which you will see some examples below goes out to the social networks you specify, extracts relevant articles or messages and puts them in front of you in a structured way.

Keeping an eye on your social media accounts and react when your customers need you most will help you gain their trust.

This reminds me of a very good example on social media monitoring example. A company like Virgin Trains that keeps an open eye on their twitter account and acts fast is an example for everyone - their reaction created a huge impression all over the social media networks.

It is known that no one can control what is being said in the online environment, and pleasing everybody is simply impossible.

Monitoring the social media lets you listen and respond in real-time and protect your brand from negative word-of-mouth. If you carefully monitor the social media networks you have a higher change to turn complaints and negative feedback into positive publicity. Smart companies respond promptly to negative comments, provide support and feedback to their customers (or to customers of other competitors ;) ).

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