Companies usually have Facebook pages and groups to communicate directly with customers. Corporate Facebook pages/groups, in general, are well utilized when the company recognizes the importance of the page.
The characteristics that might lead some pages to be used widely are:
- The page is actively posting frequently. Several posts a day are OK. However, multiple posts in a matter of minutes could lead to users unfollowing.
- Communicate and engage in posts with users with a friendly tone.
- Listen to the customers. If the company makes changes in offers and products based on customers’ feedback.
The characteristics that might lead the users to abandon the page would:
- When the company does not listen or takes too much time to respond.
- When there is nothing interesting offered by the page. Only ads.
- The company responds to criticism in an unfriendly manner. The company can even go viral for the wrong reasons by just a bad reply to a customer.
Interaction with Customers
One of the benefits of social media is that brings direct communication between organizations and their target audience (Thomas, 2011). People like to participate in discussions and polls when the company offers choices of which one they prefer or they think is better. If customers feel that they are part of the product development process, they will participate more in the discussions on social media platforms.
Information System Strategies for Social Media
In order to increase the effectiveness of the social business strategy, the organization needs to focus resources on social IT platforms in general. The company needs to invest and hire capable personnel to manage social media accounts. Human resources are the most important components of the information system (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011) and those social media administrators are the face of the company to the public. In addition, they should use services for online reputation management in order to monitor what is being said of the brand on social media and be able to respond to customers efficiently.
Additionally, the organization could invest in a Social CRM which is a tool that enables a business to connect directly with customers from different social networking sites (Laudon & Laudon, 2001). A good example is Salesforce IdeaExchange which allows the gathering of information as “wisdom of the crowds” when customers submit and discuss new ideas (Laudon & Laudon, 2001).
In conclusion, having dedicated and capacitated personnel for social media accounts and investing in software that allows companies to communicate and gather feedback from current and potential customers helps the bottom line.
References
OBrien, J. A., & Marakas, G. M. (2011). Management information systems. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Thomas, L. (2011). The McGraw-Hill 36-hour course: online marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2001). Essential of management information systems: organization and technology in the networked enterprise. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.