Proactive Communications With Social Media

Social media can be used for more than PR and marketing campaign planning. It's power can reside in relationship development, insights and customer service, as well as SEO, PR, lead generation and other marketing initiatives.

Relationships with prospects, leads, sales-ready leads, customers and "fans" can help organizations fine tune their services and products. These insights are valuable, but for an organization to accomplish a true proactive communication methodology with social media, they must develop a robust process for social media marketing adaptation with buy-in from managers and directors.

Phases of social media adaption for proactive communications

• Signals & listening - Set up a tool and practice for listening to brand mentions, as well as competitor mentions and industry trends. Listening in a proactive methodology indicates real-time engagement and response. This program needs to be ongoing, and guidelines should be carved out in advance. Social media alerts and social media listening tools are options for marketers. Alerts are a simple and low-cost option for businesses unable to invest in their online brands.
• Content creation process - With a real-time listening process established, another step in building a proactive social media communication methodology will be fluid and responsive content creation. Marketing professionals need to respond quickly to online indicators, including complaints, questions, and compliments.
• Integration - Conversation data needs to be shared between departments. If the marketing team is the only team that benefits from this data, the organization does not benefit as a whole. Knowledge must be transferred.  This feedback process should involve customer service, product/service development teams, HR, managers, and directors. Additionally, marketing teams will need freedom within clear guidelines in order to use social media proactively. Google Plus and Twitter can be used for business. Twitter for business does not imply that messages are pre-canned sales pitches or offers. Businesses need to be authentic, responsive, and generally helpful in order to properly embrace the medium.
• Measure & analyze - As an organization expands its communication practice, there will be more activity and data to measure. This includes activity from the top to the bottom of the marketing to sales funnel.  Understanding customer engagement rates, click-through rates, conversion, customer happiness, and purchase intent can all be growth indicators and can be lifted by a proactive communication process.