Interactions wins the Social Media Game

Social media is all about interaction

Social media is an essential part of how companies present themselves. Even if they are not present on the platforms. Especially in sensitive situations, people talk, post and comment - the question is whether you can actively shape and control the conversation or whether you are helplessly at the mercy of the situation. Those who turn a deaf ear, a mute eye or a blind eye not only miss the opportunity to positively influence the company's image in the long term, but can also seriously damage the company's reputation.

The power of interaction

Posting relevant content on a regular basis is a good start to managing your company's social image. But it's not the end of the story. It's the active conversation that creates the real experience for users. The culture of discussion and relationship building has proven to be more powerful than individual posts - especially when they are a one-way communication. Those who actively ask, comment, and respond build relationships. This creates many opportunities:

• Strengthen the brand: Demonstrate expertise and service quality by answering questions quickly and clearly.

• Activate existing customers: Through questions and discussions, you activate your existing customers and remind them of the brand.

• Attract new customers: Comments increase reach. As a result, content is seen by more people.

• Listen: When you listen to your community and view criticism as an opportunity to identify product or service weaknesses, you can fix them.

• Positioning: Only those who know what is being said about them can manage the conversation and counteract negative comments.

• Problem solving: Users want to be taken seriously and are looking for solutions to their problems.

• Build trust: Problem solving and peer-to-peer discussions build trust.

Answering questions on your own site should be the solid foundation. The ultimate discipline is to leave appropriate comments on other companies and profiles.

Fear of the Shitstorm

One thing up front: Critical comments or a few annoying trolls are far from a shitstorm.

Genuine criticism is best met with understanding and a solution, or if that is not or, if that is not possible, a perspective for the person concerned. Understanding often comes when it becomes clear that work is already being done on existing problems. An explanation of why something is not feasible for the company can also defuse a situation.

Unjustified criticism can be corrected, but in a respectful tone. Trolls and perpetual complainers often catapult themselves into obscurity by making numerous comments without any tangible arguments. With a strong fan base, it is even possible for the community itself to take regulatory action in such cases. It has been shown that humor can also be used very effectively, as long as it fits the corporate image.

A shitstorm is when so much criticism and insult is directed at a company or person in a concentrated period of time that it becomes impossible to deal with it. True shitstorms rarely take place in just one medium, but the topic is usually so explosive that it can be found on many networks. Therefore, it is not enough to pay attention only to the source medium (if it can be identified). The fear of a shitstorm leads companies to risk too little on their social media channels.

As a result, most companies make the same 3 mistakes:

• Always choosing the same content formats 👎

• Not addressing current issues or trends 👎

• Always staying serious and (too) professional 👎

But these are the 3 things that give you reach, because users are interested in discovering what's new, what's hot, and what's important. If the fear of criticism inhibits the content strategy, success is likely to fail in the long run. To counteract this fear, it helps to have a strategy for preventing and handling shitstorms.

and handling of shitstorms. This should be included in the community management guide.

What to include in a Community Management Guide

A community management guide is helpful in conveying a uniform image of the company to the outside world. Especially when several employees are involved in community management, it is important to set down rules.

Such a document should include the following aspects:

• Systems and permissions: What systems are used in community management and who has what permissions within each channel?

• Responsibilities: Who is responsible for what channel and when?

• Tonality: Determine whether communication is by you or from you. Netiquette can help curb inappropriate comments in the community - or a reference to it can explain to all users why some comments are not accepted. Also, be sure to cover how to handle emoticons and humorous replies. A database of acceptable emoticons and do's and don'ts is a good place to start.

• Hours of operation and response time: Communicate hours of operation to the community and set a maximum response time internally. Speed is especially important in customer service.

• Contact person for each department in the company: Community managers can't possibly keep track of every line of business in the company. They don't have to: All they need is a list of people they can contact with specific questions.

• FAQs: Over time, some questions become repetitive. Frequently Asked Questions save time and can be answered by a chatbot if necessary. But every community manager should know where to find the right answers. Updating FAQs on a regular basis has proven useful.

• Collection of past cases: Similar to FAQs, but for internal use only, is a collection of past topics and cases. This way, if a criticism arises again, it can be dealt with more quickly and effectively. Due to privacy reasons, no personal data should be stored here.

• Details about products, services, and the company: e.g. assembly instructions, warranties, dimensions, ingredients, or a list of all branches. If this is too extensive, provide links or contacts should be provided. Similarly, consider whether clear price communication fits with the sales strategy.

• Crisis communication: The best way to manage a crisis is to prevent it in the first place. This can only be achieved through social listening and preventative measures. A good social media strategy should identify potential points of criticism and weaknesses in advance and define how to communicate about them. If a sensitive situation does arise, the most important thing is to react quickly. Knowing the right contacts (PR, C-level management) and reaching them immediately can take the wind out of the sails of an impending shitstorm. Especially if they show their face on social media.

Chatbots and AI

Chatbots and AI can make a community manager's life a lot easier - but in our experience, they cannot replace a person (yet). For FAQs and simple inquiries, chatbots with pre-populated answers are great - those who fill their database well and maintain it constantly will reap great benefits. However, there are always special cases and questions that are too complex for a chatbot.

Anyone who has been in this situation knows that nothing is more frustrating than going around in circles with a chatbot and your own question, without being able to get in touch with a real person. Even an AI can't solve this problem (yet), because it can only generate an answer from existing information. If this information does not yet exist, an AI will not be able to provide useful results. In addition, the answers of an AI should be controlled by humans, because they could contradict company policies.

Our conclusion

Have the courage to allow communication on your social media channels. In fact, invite it by asking questions and actively engaging your community. Also, dare to produce content that is of interest to a user, rather than putting the company's interests first.

Prepare yourself and your employees for community management and take the time to create good guidelines. Get professional help if you need it. Learn from your experiences and continually improve your community management.