Social media has proven to be more than an entertainment and interacting platform. Businesses market has learned a lot from the social media. Did you know that social media monitoring (SMM) is the best approach for a (Fast-moving Consumer Goods) FMCG company? Regardless of what you have to say about your products, your customers have their own take. The truth is that your customers will communicate with you via social media. Therefore, businesses should focus on social media monitoring to understand their customers.
The businesses in the FMCG sector are the biggest beneficiaries of social monitoring. Successful businesses will monitor what their customers are saying on social media and seek to address the issues raised. If you want to know the percentage of customers that are happy with your products, then invest in social media monitoring.
For marketers, social media monitoring helps to improve their sales pipeline. For the PR department and Customer Relations department, social media monitoring is a strategic undertaking. The same applies to the Research and Design department. These are some of the key departments of any FMCG company. You need to address customer concerns within the shortest time possible. Therefore, you got to be keen to know what the customers are saying. A fast response time is like a sure bet when it comes to customer retention efforts.
So, why does every FMCG company need social media monitoring?
Scroll down further to understand why this is a crucial undertaking.
#1 Social Media Monitoring Will Help in Enhancing Marketing Efforts, Hence Higher ROI
Are you looking for ideas to improve your marketing efforts? Do you want to know which segment of the larger market needs improvements on your products? If so, try social media monitoring. Through SMM, you can identify the segment that you need to focus on.
Many digital marketers forget that communication is a two-way process. Therefore, they focus on sending hourly posts on social media to promote their products. Once they post marketing messages, they don’t come back to review what customers are saying about the marketed products! To increase your ROI focus on what customers are saying. The only way to get direct communication is monitoring social media conversations.
Several discussions are ongoing on social media. These discussions are being carried out on different social media platforms. The good thing about social media is that you can find out who is talking about your products. Through monitoring, you can know the demographic details and also the location details of those discussing your products. Through an effective social media monitoring tool, you can understand customer conversations that matter most. Therefore, you can address their specific needs based on what your customers are saying.
For FMCG Companies focusing on a specific region, location-based social media monitoring is the best approach. There are various tools that allow you to leverage location-based social media monitoring. For example, Geofeedia, WeLink, Snaptrends, and Local Measure. Take advantage of these tools and monitor what customers are saying. Then, you can craft marketing methods that are specific to the needs of these customers. Through this, a company can improve the potential of increasing their regional sales.
#2 Social Media Monitoring is Fundamental for Effective Customer Care
Through monitoring what customers are saying, an FMCG company can have the best customer care services. According to businessnewsdaily.com, using social media for customer care can take your business to next level.
Example:
Take for instance Vodafone, a telecommunication company. They use their Twitter account as a platform for customer service platform. Customers communicate any issues through the platform. Then, the company quickly responds to the concerns raised. If it is something that cannot be resolved there and then, they assure customers of their commitment to resolve the issue. This is a good undertaking since no matter the quality of service, customers feel they are valued. Here is an example Tweeter exchange between the company and a client.
Customers have turned to digital platforms, and they are buying online and send complains online. Therefore, businesses should be ready to put measures in place to monitor what customers are saying. If you don’t respond quickly, you are bound to lose the customers. This could be followed by a social media crisis as the unattended post goes viral.
When one customer complains through social media, others will also express their views. Soon after the first post, there will be a big conversation going on. Remember that your competitors are also watching what your customers are saying. If you don’t respond quickly, the post will most likely trend over different social media platforms. The aftermath is negative and will affect your future sales.
Therefore, a company that is keen on social media monitoring and respond to customer complaints has a high potential for customer retention. You might be wondering how an FMCG company with millions of customers can effectively handle issues raised on social media. The answer is that you need an effective social media monitoring tool. The tool you choose should be able to skim and highlight customer complains. This is on different social media platforms that companies use. Examples of tools that are available today include:
#3 Social Media Monitoring Will Help Control Social Media Crisis
Social Media Crisis is a dangerous occurrence that will cost you your hard earned reputation. Many FMCG companies have been victims of social media crisis in the past. Some were able to effectively control the situation whereas others lost a fortune as a result. The only way to monitor a looming social media crisis is monitoring online conversations. Identify mentions and discover what it is about. Get in touch with the agitated customer and assist in resolving the issue.
Example:
Coca-Cola, a leading FMCG company, responds quickly by asking complaining customers to get in touch with the company immediately. Check out their Twitter account for tweets and replies. For instance, in the screenshot below, the company was able to sense the issue would trend and reach many people. The customer relations officer quickly went to direct messaging to calm the complaining client.
Social media has drastically increased the speed through which messages reach people. The news will go viral even before leaving news desks! The spread is faster than how newsrooms reach their audience. Inappropriate responses to customer issues can cause severe reputational damage to your brand. Through an ongoing social media monitoring, companies can easily identify and deal with social media crisis effectively.
Create a special wing in your company responsible for social media monitoring. The team should monitor closely all the mentions and inform the PR officers of any looming crisis. Answer negative comments quickly and initiate a friendly conversation. This seems to be the approach Coca-Cola has taken in dealing with concerns raised by their customers. Through this approach, FMCG companies can help in controlling the spread of negative comments.
While responding to negative comments, you should also vet the source of the comments. Be careful to verify whether the information is from a credible source. Note that customers can easily doctor photos and post them. In case of the unauthentic source of information, communicate the same to your followers and supply evidence. Also, it is important that companies monitor a change of sentiments. Identify pressing issues and once you address them, come back to social media monitoring and check if the number of negative comments has reduced. This is a good way of measuring the effectiveness of your crisis resolving methodologies. Basically, through social media monitoring, companies can help prevent a crisis.
The 5 Most Crucial Crisis Management Steps
#4 Social Media Monitoring Helps Companies Identify Potential Opportunities
Public information is readily available on social media platforms. Do you know that you can get ideas for new products from social media conversations? Your potential clients are looking for products through social media. Your Research and Design team should be keen to identify these opportunities. If you have a matching product that can satisfy customer needs, you can recommend to them. If you currently don’t have a match, why not grab the opportunity?
Technology has led to interconnectivity, and your global clients are in touch. They are discussing your products while others are looking for better products. They are also suggesting similar products that they would be glad to have. An FMCG company that has social media monitoring in place can easily come across these new ideas and suggestions.
Companies have ended up redesigning their products to meet expectations shared by their online customers. Basically, if you don’t strive to meet client’s expectations, you will lose the customer. R&D department should be keen to identify where clients request changes. Monitor the conversation overtime and come up with the products that customers wish to purchase.
Social media monitoring is also effective for user experience research. Through the sentiments shared by customers, you can easily know where to change and what customers like most. It’s important to note that user experience is the key to business success. Therefore, FMCG companies that monitor social media will have an added advantage. This is because as customers raise concerns, you know where to improve.
#5 Social Media Monitoring To Identify and Share Compliments
The social media platforms are not only a channel for complaints. There are millions of happy customers who send compliments on social media. These compliments can be re-shared to showcase how you are making your customers happy. Therefore, implement social media monitoring to identify some of the happy customers. You can re-target these customers in your future marketing campaigns. Therefore, keep a list of happy customers for future use.
Example:
Starbucks coffee is a good example of how identifying and sharing compliments works positively for companies. The company was keen to identify one happy customer on Twitter. They amplified the message by replying to the tweet and reached thousands of other customers. This would not be the case if the company didn’t invest in monitoring social media conversations. Here is the screenshot of the tweet.
Read the full conversation that followed later here.
Starbucks was also keen to respond to the other comments that followed. Through such initiatives, an FMCG company can be to reach more new clients. This is because modern day clients always want to have similar or better experiences that their friends and relatives have had.
Key Takeaway
Through social media monitoring, a company will be able to measure the effectiveness of their marketing techniques. It is also important to monitor social media so as to ensure unsatisfied customers are identified. You can then follow up with the customer and learn how to better your products. If you don’t have SMM in place, you will not be able to overcome a looming social media crisis. This is dangerous for any company as it has a negative impact. Remember SMM will help save your reputation. Lastly, you can take advantage of the compliments that come through as illustrated above.
Do you have a social media monitoring strategy for your FMCG Company? As you strategize on social media marketing, you also need to ensure you monitor what customers are saying about you. The most successful companies in FMCG industry have a social media monitoring strategy in place. Further, these companies have made it a priority to respond to every customer concern as raised on social media. We have seen examples from Coca-Cola and Starbucks coffee. Any other company can implement the same and succeed in their business. There are various tools available online for social media monitoring. Choose from the available options and implement SMM. However, be careful to identify the best tool that will allow inclusive social media monitoring. This is one that cuts across all the social media platforms.
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