Ain't nobody here but us chickens

We always want to be closer to customers.

Maintaining strong relationships usually means getting to know each’s
intricacies.

Tailoring your message tofit just one or two of these intricacies might be the difference in making or missing the sale.

In the age of social networking, your customers are online and so is their
information.

Your challenge is finding a way to engage them effectively without making it seem like you’re selling something.

Telstra’s latest attempt to engage its BigPond customers via the microblogging site Twitter is a sobering reminder of the pitfalls that exist with new customer engagement strategies in the social sphere.

More to the point, it’s a strong reinforcement of the need to develop a strategy and strong understanding of the mechanics of social networking
before entering the space.

Engaging customers and other users of social communities but only knowing parts
of either is a dangerous business.

Telstra has been particularly vocal when it comes to its new media engagement.

Its social guru Peter Habib has invariably described the telco as being “quite active” in the space, what with its Second Life, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter presence.

But as social media expert, Blogwell’s (http://blog-well.com/) Lidija Davis points out, “Telling people you are ‘quite active’ and being ‘quite active’ are two different things”.

Indeed, Telstra’s presence in social media is still invariably one-sided.

Customers tweet that they have a problem with their BigPond service.

Telstra directs them to its website to fill out a standard support form.

This is a major misunderstanding of the dynamics of social networking.

Social media users expect a strong level of one-to-one, personalised engagement.

The communities they participate in – such as Twitter – are built on this kind of open and honest conversation.

The types of conversations taking place are in many ways an antithesis to
traditional marketing communications.

A single generic product message or strategy will not work. Rather, each
person you engage with is new and wants the message to be tailored to
their specific needs.

If you don’t have the time or resources to do that, perhaps Twitter – or social
networking in general – is not the right medium for customer engagement.

Of course, Telstra will argue – despite much constructive criticism
from said communities – that jumping into a social community without understanding its mechanics is a good learning exercise.

Sure, it made a couple of faux pas in the implementation, but also has a
‘process of continuous improvement’ in place.

And anyway, we’re only criticising them because they’re corporate pioneers in the space, which makes them an easy target.

On face value, this is the wrong attitude to be taking into this type of
customer engagement.

But at the same time, we can only begin to imagine the regulatory, legal and political minefield that staff must have had to negotiate internally to even get this far.

Even so, it is hard to advise anyone to adopt a similar ‘learn-as-you-go’
approach to social networking.

It could damage your brand – or at the very least result in a one-sided
engagement.

Neither result is a particularly good outcome.

Love it or loathe it, Microsoft does deserve some credit for making good use of social networking for customer engagement – Facebook pages, live Twitter streams at events, and a wideranging blogging strategy have all contributed to this success.

There are also many high-profile CEOs and companies that effectively
use Twitter, Plurk and a host of other social networking services for corporate purposes.

High-profile social media expert, Laurel Papworth, lists 17 Aussie CEOs – including Rob Antulov from 3eep and Mike Cannon-Brookes from Atlassian – as some of those to effectively enhance their personal and corporate
brand reputations through Twitter.

(see http://silkcharm.blogspot.com/2008/09/ceos-that-twitter.html)

Anyone thinking of dipping a toe in Twitter could do worse than set up an account and ‘follow’ the feeds of these types of business leaders for a couple of months.

At the very least, it will provide a base-level view of how they approach each interaction, and an opportunity to validate whether you have the time and
resources to establish a similar channel to communicate with your customers.

When it comes to implementation, take the time to create a clear social media engagement strategy.

It may also be worth engaging known experts such as Laurel Papworth, BlogWell,
acidlabs or Alister Cameron to at least vet it and gain feedback on how you can maximise interactions and the benefits to your business within these communities.

The power of social networks as new communication channels between corporates and their customers and as a mechanism for creating some form of digital inf luence is undoubtedly alluring.

And while good results can be hard to measure, as long as you approach it
right, having a presence probably can’t hurt.

Much.