“Social media will help you build up loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.” Bonnie Sainsbury
In this TEDtalk, Kareem Yusuf discusses the importance of understanding the tone we are using when communicating with others.
What we perceive as a simple factual response could be interpreted as hostile, unfeeling, or defensive. When we better understand tone when communicating with technology, we communicate better with others.
When communicating to the public as an employee, everyone needs to be more aware of the message they are communicating to the public and whether that message is in-line with the company's belief system.
For instance, a yoga studio may frequently share messages via social media about local yoga events, things happening at the studio, new membership opportunities, or other businesses in the community that they support. The owner of the business may have certain political beliefs, or have an ongoing dispute with their neighbor, but those messages are not shared on the yoga studio's social media accounts as they are not business-related and may isolate some potential customers whose opinions are not the same as the owner's opinions. But, a yoga studio may post on their social media account something that they as a business owner feel strongly about, like the loss of a prominent individual who was well-known in the yoga community.
When it comes to social media for businesses, it's also important to remember that it's not your personal account. Although you may think a cat video is hilarious and have it all over your personal social media accounts, the business social media accounts are not yours--they belong to the business you work for.
Sometimes, businesses get bad reviews, trolls, or negative comments on their social media accounts. As with any other communication for a business, any response needs to be professional and an attempt to fix the situation.
Please read the article 8 Ways to Deal with Negative Social Media Comments. After reading the article, decide how you would deal with the following negative social media posts/comments using the tips from the article.
The quality of the t-shirt I got there was horrible! It fell apart the first time I washed it. Don't waste your money at this store!!!
The owner came to install my air conditioner and was a very abrasive person. I know it's hot, I know he had to work in the sun, but when I asked him to do a couple of other electrical jobs for me he said no. Is this customer service???