Reasons why every brand needs to build a Social Relationship with its customer.
The next edge for the organizations that want to optimize the power of social interactions & get closer to customers is the Social CRM. Getting closer to customers is the top priority of every brand. Today’s brands are passionately building social media programs to do just this.
Earlier, the social presence of brands and handling customer engagement was done by the Public Relation (PR) department of an organization. With the ever evolving personalities of the customers, brands need to successfully exploit the potential of social media, companies need to design experiences that deliver tangible value in return for customer’s, Time, Attention, Endorsement and Data.
There are a few reasons that are making every brand stimulate over the Social Media to create a strong Customer Relation.
Growing level of interaction
Over a thousand million users have actively embraced the social media in the shortest spam of time. Clearly, this is where customers are gathered and brands want to be. Social media holds enormous potential for companies to get closer to customers and, by doing so, facilitate increased revenue, cost reduction and efficiencies.
With social media, though, companies are no longer in control of the relationship. Instead, customers are now driving the conversation, which can trump a company’s marketing, sales and service efforts with unprecedented immediacy and reach.
Successful business via social media apps
Use social media to identify who is driving the most conversation about your brand, then reach out to those loyal users and build a managed relationship with them. the IBM surveyed research states that,
- Nearly 80 percent of the online consumers we surveyed have at least one account on a social networking site where they can quickly and Easily connect with people.
- Almost half have accounts on media sharing sites where they can access or upload photos, videos and other Types of media.
- But only a fraction of consumers, a mere 5 percent, consistently take the time and effort to regularly respond to other’s Comments or post original content.
- For businesses, the challenge is unlocking what their customers care about and creating social media experiences that deliver that value. But first, companies need to understand the dynamics of consumer growth and activity on social sites and take stock of consumer attitudes and the triggers that compel them to seek out a company in the first place.
Although the consumer rush to social media is indeed impressive, companies also need to be aware the numbers can be deceptive.
Offline Brands
Companies that struggle with transparency risk being perceived by customers as insincere or manipulative. These types of organizations may find it difficult to interact with the authenticity that has become a must for business customer interactions in social media.
- Quiet enough already interact with brands available over social media where as some make sure that the brand is communicating on basis of honesty while some don’t interact with brands at all.
- Interactions with businesses are not the same as interactions with friends. Most consumers are not motivated brand advocates who connect with a company primarily to feel associated with a brand community.
Online Brands
Companies, clearly aware of this global social media phenomenon, are feeling intense pressure to get in on the action. Nearly 70 percent of business executives say that their companies will be perceived as “out of touch” if they don’t engage, and over half believe their competition is successfully reaching customers through social media. Not surprisingly, their rush to embrace social networking sites has reflected consumer’s adoption, with 79 percent claiming a profile or presence on a social networking site at least and over half use media sharing and micro-blogging sites.
- Consumers are willing to interact with businesses if they believe it is to their benefit. They can trust the company and decide social media is the right channel to use to get the value they seek.
- Companies have some confusions regarding why consumers interact with them via social sites they think consumers follow them via social sites basically to enable consumers on Facebook to select products and purchase directly from a Facebook page.
- That value could be in the form of a coupon or specific information. Engaging with a company via social media may result in a feeling of connectedness for consumers.
Conclusion:
Organizations need to be aware that less than half their customer base is likely to interact with them in a social media environment. This can fluctuate, of course, depending on the targeted market for a particular industry or type of business.
With all being said, let us conclude with a positive idea for marketers and public relationship officers that “SOCIAL” in “Social Media” stands for interaction. It’s the duty of the brand to engage its user through daily posts, updates, news related to build a healthy social CRM before losing its customers attention completely.
