Week 3: Likable Social Media

Social media has indeed made an overall improvement in the effectiveness and success of marketing, PR, and advertising initiatives. As with everything, there are pros and cons, but in the case of social media, the positives far outweighs the negatives. According to David Kerpen, some of the major advantages of using social media in business, are as follows:

 

“You have a front seat to spontaneous chatter of interest to your business. You   have the ability to check in on prospective customers or prospects discussing problems your company solves or listen to existing customers talk about unrelated issues just to get to know them better. Checking in on your vendors, partners, or even your competitors’ customers has never been easier. The amount of data you can gather and the number of conversations you can tap into through social media is nothing short of mind boggling.” (Kerpen, 2011, p.14)

 

Another pro of social media is “Social media is the first communication channel that allows for such listening in large scale, no matter what you sell or market, your customers are definitely talking.” (Kerpen, 2011, p.15) The idea behind this method is that you can get to know your customers before talking to them or rather, talking at them. There is such much advertising that is unsolicited and aimed at the masses with the hopes of catching random attention, rather than really listening to the needs of consumers prior to releasing any marketing, PR, or advertising initiatives; the importance of listening cannot be overstated. In order to compile and sort all of the information, many companies use Major Enterprise Listening Systems so that a company can see in real time what people are saying about it. Kerpen uses the analogy of a professor teaching in a giant lecture hall v. a small, intimate class with a workshop to explain how social media builds trust and communities. (p. 67) In short, another pro of social media is that it is interactive, consumers can talk to the company and to one another about their likes, dislikes, questions, comments, and concerns; it creates online communities. From this, another benefit naturally arises, customers helping other customers, rather than going through the company, it’s an external support system that in turn, creates trust and loyalty. Yet another pro of social media, is quick feedback from a company, which may not have been given prior, because social media makes it incredibly easy for a customer to make their issue known to the general public. Just as was the case in 2009, with country singer Dave Carroll and United Airlines. When putting a claim into United Airlines about his broken guitar went unanswered, the singer took to YouTube, and received so many views that United Airlines quickly responded to solve the problem. (Kerpen, p.69) There are so many similar stories of unsatisfied customers going public with their complaints and then receiving the response they deserved in the first place. This brings us to a potential con of social media: social media sites can also cause a lot of problems for any company, as negative comments are made visible to anyone, anywhere, anytime, and the companies cannot control what is seen. Kerpen stresses that even though a company cannot control certain things as a result of social media, they can respond accordingly and appropriately in order to mitigate the damage, such as the “do-not-delete rule” and taking “quick public response, then take the issue private.” (p. 76, 77) I agree with Kerpen when he insists on authenticity and getting to know ones consumer base, but also understand that the idea of being authentic and responding to all posts, even if they are negative, can be a bit daunting for any very large company. (p. 97) Although I think social media has made it easier for companies to target specific audiences and allow for two-way dialogue as means of meeting the needs of consumers, it has also made the job of marketers, advertisers, and PR professionals slightly more difficult, in that they must now keep up with trends, comments, and feedback of all kinds, all while keeping their business authentic and trustworthy to the most amount of consumers possible.

 

Reference:

 

Kerpen, D. (2011). Likeable Social Media. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.