Controlling social media conversations

Organisations need to control conversations about them taking place on social networking platforms and make sure their audiences get the content they want.

These are the words of Matt Barclay, senior client acquisition manager for Africa at Meltwater Group, who was presenting at the ITWeb Social Media Summit, in Bryanston, yesterday.

According to Barclay, a lot of organisations are realising that social media cannot be ignored, as SA gets more connected. Referring to a recent World Wide Worx study, Barclay noted that Facebook is near saturation in SA with about eight million users; Twitter's user base has doubled in the past year; 58% of major brands are using YouTube as a marketing and communication medium; and 92% of the biggest brands in SA post to social media sites at least once a week.

He added that, by 2017, Internet usage in the country is expected to quadruple, with IP traffic expected to reach an annual run of 6.1 exabytes - equivalent to two million DVDs. There will be more than 133 million network connections by then, and 14 487 minutes of video will be streamed or downloaded every second worldwide.

Thus, he noted that, with social media becoming mainstream, organisations are able to control the conversations on these platforms by monitoring them using two techniques - listening and engaging.

"By listening to social media conversations, organisations will be able to identify trends in their industries, as well as new opportunities and the influencers talking about their business, brands or industry," said Barclay. "Listening also enables you to revolutionise your customer service and to monitor competitors."

He added that by engaging with social media, organisations can build long-lasting relationships with clients, respond to complaints and answer questions, promote their content though sharing, and reach out to new prospects.

"Social media has evolved, and it should be looked at in a strategic and integrated manner. Monitoring correctly can provide business insights for multiple divisions within the organisation," he said.

After monitoring social media platforms, he urged those in charge to feed insights back into their organisations.

"They should provide social insights back to their [public relations] and communications departments to easily identify influential journalists on social media, target influential groups and customers across all social mediums with company specific information, and pick up industry trends and issues before they hit mainstream media."

He added that social media monitoring can also feed vital insights back into an organisation's marketing department. He believes this is helpful in running and tracking the uptake of viral marketing campaigns and competitions. "The department will also effectively market your brand through multiple social channels via identified influencers and brand ambassadors, and create a community of people, mark them and target them."

Feeding social insights back into an organisation's research and strategy department will also boost competitive intelligence and provide customer insights that can be used in product development, Barclay added.

It is also his view that providing social insights back into an enterprise's customer service department can help identify early indicators, including negative buzz about a product, which could be a warning for looming product returns or call centre volume increases.

"With this insight, organisations can also easily respond to complaints and questions while sharing praise and positive feedback internally and externally. They can also assign incoming posts to the correct people to maximise efficiency and customer experience."

The sales department can use the insights to identify the right leads and build relationships, he explained, adding that the content organisations create to drive people to landing pages and generate leads has to be helpful. "Get involved in the right conversations and offer your advice without adding sales pressure."

Human resources can also use insights from social media, he said. "About 1% of people in SA secured their most recent job through social media, according to Kelly Global Workforce Index," he said. "However, 24% of respondents said they had used social mediums to look for jobs."

Concluding, he noted that organisations must incorporate social media into their company's culture. "There was a 171% increase, from 2011 to 2012, among certified top employers in SA in the use of social media to communicate with staff."