Don’t trip over social media monitoring’s fine line [stats]

If you’re using your favorite social media monitoring tool to listen in on conversations about your brand, you may wish to know about a recent study.

Apparently, consumers have a very fine line between wanting you to respond and feeling like you’re snooping.

40%-60% of consumers feel they should be able to talk about your brand without you chiming in.

However, 50%-63% of them want you to respond to complaints that they post to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. And, if they say something nice about your brand, as much as 49% want you to respond to them.

Just in case, that all wasn’t confusing enough, roughly 47% of all consumers believe your should be monitoring their conversations.

Sheesh! So what is the best practice for engaging a customer that is talking about your brand? Well, there’s no hard and fast rule, but these two pointers may help….

[highlight color=”yellow”]1. If the conversation is directed at you, you have permission to engage.[/highlight] If you see a tweet with your @username, or a you’re tagged in a Facebook post, consumers are happy for your to respond–whether they’re complaining or praising.

[highlight color=”yellow”]2. If the customer has not tagged you, then proceed with caution.[/highlight] Unless you feel that a customer is complaining because they actually need assistance–and you feel you can truly assist them–it’s best to stay out of the conversation, but do keep an eye on it.

Like I said, one size does not fit all. It seems that consumers are still not quite sure what exactly they want from brands, but one thing is clear: If you are listening, be sure to take onboard feedback, even if you don’t respond.

(via Marketing Pilgrim)