Social Media Marketing Mistakes & How to correct them
Whether you’re the world’s second-largest clothing group and have just released an advertisement featuring a certain child modeling a certain sweatshirt, or you’re a prominent sports brand who has just congratulated Boston Marathon runners for surviving the marathon—cleaning up on your social media marketing channels isn’t as simple as pressing delete.
For businesses trying to promote online, being in the limelight means leaving your brand open to public scrutiny.
Plus, the bigger your name, the more damage control you have to prepare for.
All the more reason to learn from the mishaps of the pros right?
Here are 3 simple ways to right a wrong through social media marketing.
- Own up to your mistakes
For H&M and Adidas, the above incidents demonstrate taking responsibility for fails that occurred on a global scale. For the clothing giants that meant apologizing publicly, scrapping the marketing material, and introducing internal practices to prevent such incidents from ever repeating.
However, the same principle still applies even if you’re a small business dealing with a disgruntled customer.
When you take ownership of your mistakes within your social media marketing, you might not whether the storm right away, but at least you’re communicating to your followers that you welcome customer feedback and wish to find a solution.
To your followers, being a company that’s all ears, demonstrates your desire to get more in touch with their needs. Afterall, “the customer is always right” for a reason.
- Never delete negative comments
Negative feedback is posted publicly for a reason. By deleting these comments of your page, you’re not only failing to meet the needs of your customers, but you’re inviting the problem to snowball. The customer will likely keep on commenting until you’ve addressed their frustration, and if the problem is directly linked to your offerings, chances are it will persist in the future.
With that being said, there are exceptions. For instance, if a customer is being disrespectful to your company or towards other customers, let them know their comment is unacceptable and issue a warning to them. If the customer continues to cross the line after issuing a warning, deleting or blocking said the individual is perfectly acceptable.
- Respond promptly and know when to take things offline
As a rule of thumb, respond to customer inquiries and complaints within the hour. You might not have a clear solution right away, but by addressing the customer’s problem in a friendly conversational manner, you’re ensuring the individual that you value their opinion and will own up to any issues. Furthermore, sending a personalized message will make the individual feel like more than just another face in the crowd.
Since a customer’s negative posts are free for the public to see and can prompt others to join in, oftentimes to prevent a situation from escalating, the best course of action is to take the conversation off social media so you can talk to the customer one on one. In many cases, this willingness to go the extra mile through your phone or email is all you need to keep the problem from snowballing.
Responding to customers on social media can be quite daunting, but by addressing trouble spots with personalized care and responsibility, you can rectify any situation. Respond with honesty, authenticity, and after resolving the customer’s complaint, follow up to ensure he or she is satisfied. Following these steps demonstrates your brand’s commitment to top quality and service, and is a great way to improve the experience for future customers.
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