As I am on social media a lot because of what I do, I come across many companies on Twitter especially who aren’t engaging or interacting with their customers. Even I don’t get responses from some companies even though I have over 39k followers! What makes me so special I hear you say? Well it a missed opportunity for them. I would most likely Retweet (share) them to my followers – if people see me chatting to them, they will most likely follow them also. (and also it always makes me smile to see proper engagement from companies).
According to Ireland Customer Experience report from Cexi.org, ‘Ireland is approximately two years behind the UK and four years behind the USA markets when it comes to world class customer experience. In Ireland, face to face interaction is highly valued and brands who excel in this area generate strong customer loyalty and advocacy.’
Social media is the easiest way to ‘meet your customers face to face’ online and yet Irish brands are not meeting customers’ expectations.
Customer engagement and building relationships is the most important aspect of social media marketing. Especially on Twitter. But lots of companies are not doing this at all. Social media is ‘Social’ not about selling. The secret is to build up relationships with other so that they do your marketing for you. Is your company engaging with your audience? Do you know who your followers are? Remember people always remember how you made them feel.
There is a great report from Cexi.org about Customer experience in Ireland.
According to a Content marketing survey with the Institute of Ireland and 256 media Only 26% of Irish marketers rate their content marketing efforts as successful or extremely successful. This compares to 42% in UK
This statistic proves that most companies are not sure HOW to use Twitter and other platforms correctly.
Twitter is rated as the most effective social platform (52% rating it effective or extremely effective)
53% of respondents have a person (or team) in-house who is responsible for content marketing.
The biggest problem facing Irish marketers is a lack of time. Finding quality content professionals is an increasing concern too.
All of the above results prove that we need to learn HOW to use time saving tools e.g. Agora Pulse – And proper training from leading influencers in these social media platforms is essential. Jenny Brennan has a whole series of webinars on Facebook, I have just launched my ‘Twitter for beginners to intermediate’ online workshops, Melonie Dodaro also has Linkedin tips galore online. So what is stopping these companies learning online if they can’t take the time out to spend a day at a workshop? Perhaps the basics of getting online needs to be revisited?
IrishExporters.ie recently did a Digital Marketing Research, Insights & Trends Publication which is very interesting! You can download a copy fromhere – This report was done by Voodoo marketing
From the sample of websites evaluated in this report:
Only 4% utilised the various mediums of content available to them
32% struggled to keep the content on their websites fresh and engaging
Only 12% of websites serve content in more than one language
96% rely on an international (global) website, which is controlled from abroad.
Of the 150 companies that were analysed 54% have at least one social media profile 36% use LinkedIn as their primary platform 7% update their social media profiles daily
Twitter launched a really simple way to increase engagement. Twitter polls. Check it out – see the icon beside the camera icon. You get four choices of answers …..find out what your customers want! Do a blog post about the results afterwards.
This is one of the reasons I am bringing the Social Media Summit to Dublin in March 2016! It’s time we all learn from the experts in the USA and the top experts here in Ireland how to do it right. Put it in the diary. There will be workshopson the first day, then speakers on the second and third day. I saw a real need for us to learn more about how to create a better customer experience.
If well executed, regular social media activity can become a significant traffic source to your website but also create a ‘Digitally looking your customer in the eye’ experience (Ted Rubin always talks about this).
‘The ultimate goal of using social media is to become an industry thought leader on relevant platforms. This is a slow process which requires dedicated resources within an organisation. ‘(Via Voodoo marketing)
Be ahead of your competitors. You have a huge opportunity here to enhance your customer’s experience via Social Media and show you are the most innovative, engaging business or person in your field. See you at the Social Media Summit – Looking forward to it!
If you need help with your social media strategy do get in touch!Tweetinggoddess@gmail.com or check out my online Twitter workshops here
