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Social Customer Care Is The New Marketing

Social Customer Care Is The New Marketing
by Shep Hyken

Just three weeks ago, approximately 4,000 people made their way to the San Diego convention center to attend Social Media Marketing World. Marketers from all over the world were there to learn about the latest ways social media can make money for their companies. The goal is to leverage these social channels into a marketing strategy that creates brand awareness, sells more products and services and gets the brand closer to its customer community.

Several years ago the idea was bantered about that customer service was the new marketing. Delivering an amazing customer experience gets customers to come back as well as refer their friends, colleagues and family members. Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most, if not the most powerful brand strategies, and customer service is the way to get customers talking.

Bringing this concept into the present, it can be said that social customer care is the latest and greatest version of this “new marketing.” Handling customer service over social channels like Facebook, Twitter, etc., is a way to amplify your customer service story. Jay Baer, in his excellent book Hug Your Haters, said it best when he declared that social media makes customer service a spectator sport. When a customer posts a comment, good or bad, the world can see it. They can also see how the company responds – if the company responds at all.

For those brands that have already embraced social media as a powerful customer service channel, I applaud you. For those that haven’t, here is a crash course on getting started. (Even those that already have might find an idea or two that is useful.)

1. Get social. Your company probably has a presence on the major channels, but are you using those channels for customer service and support purposes? If not, it’s decision time – and that decision should be to move forward with a formal social care strategy.

Read full article on Forbes.