Social Responding on Facebook – Listening is Only Half the Battle

ByAndrea Rickett

Today’s manic rant is about social media interaction.  Guess what?  You might need to be doing it differently.  Are you commenting back to your fans and community?  Are you actually DISCUSSING things with them, or are you just posting articles and wandering off?

There is a huge impact to be made by coming down to the level of the measly peasants who yearn to interact with your brand, (you know, the people who keep you in business?), and talking to them like their opinions matter.

I’m going to call out one organization.  Because I can.  Because it’s the truth, and a great lesson to learn, and they aren’t reading our blog.  But you, small business owner, social media enthusiast, or blogger ARE.  And this is for you.

I’m also going to give kudos to one organization.

Needs to change: EA Sports NHL

EA keeps many pages and social profiles for their different titles,  but always key titles.  As a HUGE NHL series fan (I have a special edition cover, one of 200 in the world), I am consistently disappointed by their social efforts.

The correct model:

Post engaging content —-> listen to what folks have to say —-> respond and engage inside discussions about said content —-> move on as thread dies, potentially changing content strategy as you make discoveries about the nature and interests of your community

The EA/bad model:

Post engaging content —–> ? —–> profit?

So good at life right now: Orange Amplifiers

Orange consistently blows my mind with the way they utilize social channels, especially Facebook.  Here, in rough fashion, are some possible levels of interaction in social channels.

not bothering to respond
clicking like on select comments
retweeting/reposting
replying to general feelings or ideas
replying to individual posts/reviews/comments
replying to individual messages

Orange amps does the top level stuff well.  I’d encourage you to take a browse around their page when you get a chance.  I’ve even once seen them call out someone on their page for posting homophobic comments.  Wow.  That’s dedication to both community engagement AND brand identity.

That’s what having some personality looks like, EA.  Maybe start taking notes.  These are small changes that can improve your brand loyalty drastically.