Social Control

05 March 10

Brands want to build an audience of loyal followers who will not only follow-through with a purchase but will also refer others to the brand. This is the ideal goal. Brands work hard at trying to achieve that ideal goal through various forms of marketing.

But with today's social web, that's not easy for some. The reason is, marketing is no longer a case of brands speaking to an audience, as if it were a one-way communication. Today, thanks to various forms of social media, the web is a two-way conversation and brands will hear from their audience quite frequently.

That's a problem for some brands.
1. Sometimes the feedback isn't always positive but the social web is widely read. Can your brand stand up to positive AND negative feedback?

2. Feedback loops are very short now. If your brand creates a brand communication initiative in the next ten minutes, you'll get feedback within the hour. Are you ready to receive so much feedback?

3. Feedback is much easier to give, which means you could potentially get a lot of it – both positive and negative. Do you have systems in place to triage the feedback and deal with it appropriately? Nothing is worse in today's world of nearly-instant communication than a brand that receives feedback and doesn’t acknowledge it as soon as possible!

4. The social web's conversation can quickly get away from you if you're not careful. Do you have best practices set up to watch for feedback that is about you (but not necessarily directed to you)? And, do you have clear response procedures and escalation instructions to deal with the varying severity of positive and negative feedback that can come in?

When people approach a conversation, they don't approach every conversation in the same way. They consider who they're talking to and what the outcome of the conversation should be. Now that the social web has created a true conversation between brands and their audiences, your brand needs to approach the social media conversation in the same way.

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