Is your business being unsocial on social networks?

12
Oct

Two insights and observations for you this week that seem to be challenging for some businesses using social networks.

The first is restrictions on fan posts on Facebook pages

Open your Facebook and navigate to your business page. In the top right click Edit page and Manage permissions to get to this screen.

We’re interested in the Posting Ability options

What options do you have enabled here? Do you allow users to write or post content on your wall?

Many brand pages deny their fans the ability to share content or post comments and feedback on their wall. Perhaps they are scared about what people might say about them or that people might post inappropriate content. Either way it’s unsocial.

Managing your business Facebook page takes a little time each day. Someone in your team should have a smart phone or the ability to receive notifications when someone posts on your wall so if the content is unsuitable it can be deleted or dealt with. Complaints or issues should ideally be dealt with on the wall as a comment reply unless it’s defamatory, rude or just totally inappropriate. Most people who post on brand page walls want to share their brand experience, something funny or interesting and that’s the sort of engagement that Facebook offers, unless of course you block that.

Blocking user comments is like telling your audience “we’re not interested in what you have to say” and if the brand won’t listen to its customers why should they listen to the brand?

The more you can encourage people to engage with your business on Facebook the more people will see those posts, see their friends talking about you and perhaps like your page too.

The other issue is when businesses start a Facebook or Twitter profile and then neglect it.

I’ve probably mentioned this before but it’s critical to the image of your brand and your business online. All too often we see Twitter accounts when the last tweet was 2 months ago or a Facebook profile with customer comments that are weeks old with no replies.

If someone emails you or calls your customer service number and you ignore them, how do you think that customer will feel? They will probably talk to your competitor and you’ll lose their business.

A neglected social profile is worse for your brand than not having a profile at all. Social networking takes time, effort and a good plan. Even if you’re only posting once per day or three times per week it’s much better than nothing at all.

If your business wants to leverage social networking to connect with current and potential customers please, be social, engage, reply and be active every day, otherwise you’ll look like a closed shop.

Justin Flitter | Social Media Consultant – justinflitter.co.nz

What others are saying

Author

Leah Klugt

October 12, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Hate to disagree, but I do so completely! It’s all about brand management and perception. Facebook is about connecting users to the brand, but enabling all posts looks ridiculous to those outside when they have their “Tagging Tuesdays”.

Any stranger to your page is flooded with excess tagging rather than quality posts from the brand they signed up for.

Plenty of interaction can be had under the posts in the comment section, relevant interaction. There’s also a Reviews tab for those that want to give you feedback.

- Author
  
  Justin Flitter
  
  October 12, 2011 at 1:43 pm
  
  Hi Leah
  
  Fair comment and I’d feel the same as you if I was a fan of a page that did that.
  
  I don’t think anyone with a reasonable brand presence on or offline can confidently say they are in complete control of their brand.
  A customers perception is your reality. What they feel or think about you is reality and you have to deal with that. If people want to share stuff on your wall that’s positive, why not?
  The other point to note is that 99% of your fans never go to your page or your wall so most fans would only see brand posts plus any interactions that follow theirs.
  
  Lastly the comments and reviews tabs are hardly used. Plus in my opinion that draws valuable conversations off the walls and its those posts that help foster further user engagement, more fans and more value for your money.
  
- Author
  
  Daniel | Propaganda House
  
  October 12, 2011 at 3:20 pm
  
  Have to disagree with you there Leah – promoting an interactive dialogue is THE most important thing for businesses on social media, and they should do it however they can (as Justin emphasized), particularly on Facebook.
  
  As far as wall clutter goes, users always have the option to switch between viewing only posts from the page, or posts from everyone.
  
  Nice post btw Justin!
  
Author

Emma Mulquiney Online Editor - MYOB

October 12, 2011 at 4:13 pm

I’m going to be a complete fence sitter and agree with you both!

Leah – I’m with you on the ‘Tagging Tuesday’ part. It’s annoying, and seems to be a bit of a cheap grab for likes rather than actual engagement. I think the premise is you can leave a tag back to your page if you like the page – a practice that seems thankfully confined to the many Mumpreneurs on Facebook, I’ve largely seen it on those pages that sell second hand goods like ‘Kim’s Bargain Bonanza’
I don’t know anyone who’s actually clicked through from one of these tags – do let me know if you have!

But I’m also with Justin and Daniel. In my previous life working in e-marketing for a retailer, management were keen to ‘turn off’ the wall. Their fear was ‘what if someone says something bad’?? It took me awhile to educate them as to why that was a good thing. Interaction is about all kind of engagement, not just the positive stuff!

Here at MYOB, we want all kinds of interaction – photos of our partners at conferences and roadshows, product feedback, questions, comments, thoughts and tips – and I think confining this to post comments and reviews is a tad limiting.

Great post, Justin!

- Author
  
  Daniel | Propaganda House
  
  October 12, 2011 at 4:42 pm
  
  Very diplomatic Emma
  
Author

Stephen Hamilton

October 13, 2011 at 5:37 pm

As I’m fond of saying, one needs to approach this sort of thing as a process, and not an event. Merely signing up for these Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn etc accounts isn’t the end, it is the beginning.

Being engaged & social doesn’t have to be something that takes up large portions of your day, something that is a concern for many small business owners. Schedule 10 minutes to log on and be social once or twice a day. As Justin points out above, even interacting a few times a week consistently is far better than nothing at all.