The Three Cornerstone Tactics For Your Business’ Start With Social Media: Listen. React. Engage.

August 13, 2020
Posted by Maurice

When starting with Social Media for your business – just like with starting anything else in professional life – a list of clearly defined objectives will guide the entire team when working on a strategy of how social media is used. First point on the list should be that social media is not and cannot be an isolated tool. It has to be embedded in the core marketing and communication strategy and be used to achieve the objectives of said strategy.

The road to success in this channel only leads through value creation, authenticity, and empathy for the followers.

An optimal approach to get started in social media is easily described in three main steps:

Listen
React
Engage

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Listen.

As the word implies, this step focuses on a passive entry into the social media sphere. Channels are created and now you start to follow key opinion leaders in your environment. This entails very thorough research in each channel. These opinion leaders will provide you with the important topics and talking points in your environment. By learning about important key words, best practices in your industry, and simply reading along and analyzing the conversations that are already taking place, you are learning the rules and language that is being ‘spoken’. You gain important business intelligence that will provide guidance for the following steps.

Listen also means that you start searching for your company, brand and products to see what is being said about it.

React.

You now open these channels for your customers. Listen to what they say and follow their conversations. Unless their conversations are stating incorrect facts about you or your product, or are questions directed at you, you do not interact. This mode is very passive and reactive. While continuing to collect business intelligence, you now have the ability to react to inquiries and to start reducing the time it takes to resolve any consumer problem that might exist.

You will now see a higher level of customer engagement with you and your brand, simply because you are available as a (personified) brand. This bears a lot of responsibility for your organization. At this point, clearly defined escalation processes will have to be in place as well as the aforementioned code of conduct. How do you speak to your audience via social media? How do you react and what is the social media persona that you want to communicate? These are crucial elements that need to be defined and prepared. Anyone actively operating the channels from your CEO to your intern does have to internalize these rules and follow them always. Not doing so can have dangerous consequences to your organization.

Granted, if you are the pizza delivery around the corner it does not quite have the same impact as it may have in highly regulated markets like tobacco, alcohol or healthcare.

Engage.

This final stage is the highest level within the three. You are no longer just listening or reacting to what is directed at you, but starting to actively push out content. You start conversations and engage with your customers. It is at this stage that you begin with thought leadership, opinion shaping, and theme creation to establish a relationship with your follower ship.

All of this is based on the predefined objectives and strategy. Every action you take now has to serve the objectives that can range from pure reputation management to expanding the reach of your company and brand. Either way, clearly defined processes with roles and responsibilities within your team, for each channel and, last but not least, a well-managed communication and event plan for each channel will now define your success. The previous work you have done segmenting and learning about your customers is being applied now.