MattHaupt

I mean, I get it. Clients want to know that if they are putting in the resources (aka money) into trying this whole “social media” thing they better see some kind of results. Some companies are even better than others, saying they’d rather see an increase in positive sentiment of their brand then actual sales numbers increasing.

But sometimes I think companies want to do too much with their social media experience at once, and they don’t get that they can actually get a lot out of doing small things that makes a big impact in an individual’s life than trying to reach everyone with their new viral video.

My suggestion? Realize that your brand/service is not perfect and try to find the people who are expressing that online. Maybe it’s a guy who blogged about how his cable company was 5 hrs late to a scheduled appointment. Maybe it’s the fact that someone had difficulty using your website to buy a product and now is tweeting that they are pissed off.

Once you find those people, find the appropriate response to help them with their problem and let them know you are sorry. Yes, you are only affecting one person, but if a person is willing to bad mouth your service they are probably more likely to say good things about you for helping them out. And if not, oh well. You haven’t made anything worse (which is more than I can say for some social campaigns).

Make small but important impacts online and you’ll be rewarded in the end. It’s like bringing back the old mom and pop type attitude.

Photo courtesy of  polandeze