The importance of being there, or how to maintain a solid online presence

An online presence doesn’t only customer service

Even though it’s a really (really) huge part of it, customer service isn’t the only reason to listen on social media chatter.
Sometimes people just need someone to talk to, a place to ask a quick question, or simply be able to say what’s on their mind, to someone on the inside.

A really mind blowing example is Hilton’s Twitter account which not only helps with customer queries, but they also listen on very certain keywords and amazingly find people looking for food or lodging while on vacation and will help them find something, even if they’re not paying clients. How’s that for giving people something to talk about?

Danny Sullivan seems to have a knack for receiving really weird treatment by various brands on social media, and he always enjoys sharing it with us on his blog posts.

Case study

Even restaurants can have a great online presence by listening to what people say around their area, or even simply responding and offering simple services on their social media channels.

A client of mine who’s a pizza restaurant in Verona, Italy, has created a proactive Facebook page where they share experiences of diners in their restaurant, and talk about their special plates. They also started to show their human side on the page, putting photos of themselves on vacation as they show what they themselves eat!

This created a safe space for people, who are interested in trying their food, to send direct messages asking for reservations, take-aways and general information like allergens or special dishes.

Be there

Hold a great online presence by following these pointers:

• Listen to your own channel and answer promptly.
• Listen to other channels, to see what people say about you and try to resolve any possible issues.
• Steer the conversation by answering transparently on your page, instead of hiding them in private chats.
• NEVER hide negative comments and ALWAYS try to resolve issues maintaining your calm and manners.
• Be human, no automatic answers, no copy-paste from the handbook and answer to the point.
• If you’re a larger business, try to maintain a standard by coaching your social media agents to use the same lingo and tell them what they can and can not offer on their own.

Pro tip:

• You’re really going to want to give your clients an omni-channel experience by making sure all your channels’ supervisors communicate with each-other, so that the hostess at your restaurant will know about the client who just contacted you on Facebook.

Keeping it short and sweet, I have linked a few interesting links today, in case you’d like to read a little deeper.

Share your customer experience stories in the comments and try to make sure they’re funny! 😀

Contact me for personalized pro tips and ideas!

Author: Shay Stibelman

Digital marketing consultant in Milan, Italy. Born in Israel, raised in Germany by Russian parents. I help small and medium businesses get their digital marketing game on point. Perfect their website, landing pages, funnel marketing and social media strategies, in order to increase ROI and optimize that ever elusive marketing budget. View all posts by Shay Stibelman