The Impact of Social Media on Your Business This Holiday Season

With nearly one in four people actively using social media, your business is always only a click away from a consumer either giving you a rave review or tearing you up on social media. The impact this could have on your business, either positive or negative, is immense. During this holiday season, consumers will be sharing their experiences more than ever on social media and they’ll be turning to social media as a way to engage with your business. Are you ready? If not, here are some facts and tips to help you prepare for the impact social media will have on your business this holiday season.

A recent survey from Conversocial revealed some interesting statistics on consumer use of social media that all businesses need to take note of. Specifically:

• 4% of customers will take to social media this holiday season to vent frustration if their first channel of contact doesn’t work.
• Retailers are expecting 5 times their regular volume of customer service issues over social media this holiday season.
• 8% of your customers are less likely to make a purchase decision from a brand if they see unanswered customer complaints over social media

But, on the positive side:

• 8% of customers will spend more with companies that offer great social customer service.
• 7% of customers use social media to make product recommendations, whereas only 12% would use phone, 30.4% would use email and 2.9% would use chat.

And most importantly:

A social customer will tell an average of 42 people about a good experience they had with a company, and 53 about a bad experience.

[Tweet “#WordofMouth: A social customer tells 42 people about a good experience, 53 about a bad one…”]

 

Now that you know the facts, you can prepare to deal with your social customers this holiday season. Here are a few tips to help you create a positive social experience:

Have a Dedicated Social Team

While the holidays are a busy time and small businesses are already pushed to the limit with staffing and additional expenses, if you have a social presence its imperative that you dedicate at least one individual to maintain your social channels so you can engage real time with your customers. This will allow you to make positive experiences even more positive and the opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one before it blows out of control.

Get Everyone on the Same Page

If someone does call you out on social media, make sure that all of your employees are well informed of products, processes and promotions and on the same page. There is nothing more annoying to a social consumer than having to deal with someone who can’t really help them and solve their problem. Make sure your social team has all the information they need and are empowered to fix customer issues.

Use Social to Engage and Upsell

If you have a customers using social media to share their experience with others, take that opportunity to engage with them. This is a perfect time to thank them for being a customer and to also let them know about special promotions, sales and products that they might be interested in. Just be sure that you when you engage in this manner you come off more as ‘helping’ than ‘selling’, as it will be better received.

By knowing what social customers expect and how they tend to react, you are much better equipped at turning this holiday season into an opportunity for your small business to shine.