It’s a pretty natural human reaction to complain when something doesn’t go our way. In the past, we might simply have vented our frustration to a couple of friends. Now, we turn to Twitter and Facebook. A much larger audience is listening there—one that is not limited by geography and has the ability to easily amplify any complaints. As a company, when individuals use their social channels as a means of complaining about you, it can be frightening at first. It can feel like you’re being attacked and like you have no control. But these truly are opportunities to jump in and help rectify the situation, even improving the customer’s experience with your brand.
Question and answer
This type of content serves to meet customer support needs. Something has gone wrong, and customers seek a solution. This can range from a detailed forum thread on resolving a technical issue to a simple question and answer on how to make a product return. Your main goal is to drive answer.
Also, don’t overlook the content that can be generated within your own community. User-generated content can be amazing—a gift, even! Your users can help write what your audience finds interesting, relevant, and useful. The possibilities are endless.
Using analytics tools like SimplyMeasured, True Social Metrics, as well as tools from the networks themselves, you can measure the conversations you’re having on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and even YouTube for content creation ideas. The big takeaway: Members of your community are openly talking about what they want. In order to reap the benefits of that conversation, all you need to do is listen. It’s remarkably easy to derive meaningful insights when you’re looking in the right places.