The start of social media marketing began in 2012, triggered by Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Facebook ad campaign. The campaign was incredibly successful: Facebook saw an 870% increase in traffic, and the Coca-Cola Facebook page saw a 39% increase in followers.
This success encouraged other social media platforms—like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter—to follow suit. They, too, began offering marketers the opportunity to advertise and market their products or services on their networks.
So then, marketers, having seen the stats, grabbed these marketing opportunities with both hands: With social media, marketers could connect with wider audiences, start conversations, promote content, and access performance data like never before.
Now, a whopping 92% of marketers consider social media a key part of their marketing strategy. Especially now they have the ability to track, measure, and prove Social Media ROI.
But social media is no longer a channel for just marketing teams to exploit. Having seen how quickly social media has grown and how effective it can be, business leaders from customer service, HR, and data teams are queuing up for a slice of the lucrative social pie.
How Customer Service Teams Are Using Social Media
Social media gives unhappy customers the perfect platform to rant and rave about their dissatisfaction with a company.
Social media, therefore, has the power to destroy a brand’s reputation.
In seconds.
Unless there’s a team of customer service reps, out, on the frontline, monitoring, answering, and resolving problems, questions, or complaints, as soon as they come in. It’s no longer acceptable to leave comments or messages unanswered for more than 24 hours.
That’s why 59% of customer service teams are now using social media to keep their customers happy and their brand’s reputation intact. And it’s also why an estimated 60% of customer service requests will be managed through social media by 2023.
Phone calls and emails are on their way out, social media is on its way in. The arrival of all-in-one social media management platforms, like Agorapulse, is speeding up this transition.
Most social media management platforms have some sort of message inbox feature. Agorapulse has a Social Inbox that pulls in messages and comments from across all social networks into one, single place. This makes it quick and easy for reps to stay on top of conversations and respond to problems or questions quickly.
Most social media management platforms (including Agorapulse) also offer social listening capabilities, which allow reps to monitor what people are saying about the brand, on other channels and networks.
Keeping track of brand mentions allows marketers to proactively step in and dampen the sparks of discontentment before they turn into hot flames of anger.
How Data Teams Are Using Social Media
51% of businesses believe that social media is the most important source of data for informing future business decisions.
Give Your Content an Extra Boost With Data From Your Social Media Report
Platforms like Agorapulse, which have analytic and social listening features, allow data teams to collect and analyze data about how campaigns are performing, what people are saying about the brand, and what competitors are doing in the marketplace.
This helps data teams identify and predict:
- Patterns in consumer buying behavior
- Consumer preferences and interests
- Preferred channels and methods of communication
- Barriers to purchase
This information can then be used to:
- Inform key product, marketing, and strategic decisions
- Identify a crisis before it hits, or manage a crisis in real-time
- Understand customers better, and therefore engage with them more effectively
- Inspire new innovative products, features, or services
Without data, business leaders don’t make sound strategic decisions that lead to success. They make wild guesses and hope for the best. That’s no way to run a business.
How HR Is Using Social Media
Two of HR’s biggest responsibilities include:
- Hiring talented people
- Keeping hold of talented people
Social media plays a key part in both tasks.
Using social media for recruitment
70% of job seekers will use social media to find a new job. So, it’s no surprise that 70% of HR recruiters will, therefore, use social media sites to find candidates and fill vacancies.
Social media platforms allow HR to post job openings, find the best talent, and vet applicants before they reach the interview stage, saving them time and money.
But social media coupled with a global pandemic has blown the job market wide open and changed it forever.
Job seekers are no longer constrained by location, thanks to the new-found acceptance and belief in hybrid or remote working. And platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit mean they don’t have to rely on recruitment agencies or job ads to find the right position.
This has made the job market incredibly competitive.
It’s no longer enough for HR to simply advertise a new position.
HR teams now need to work hard to maintain their brand’s reputation and portray their values and work principles to potential candidates. They have to sell the company and the job through regular “life at work” posts, pictures, and profile updates.
But again, social media management platforms have made this task quick and easy. For instance, Agorapulse has a set of publishing features that would allow HR teams to create fresh new content, schedule it in advance, and publish it across multiple networks.
Publishing features, like these, take the long-winded tedium out of content creation. They allow HR teams to dedicate more time to finding the right talent rather than posting the “right content.”
Using social media for retention
Just as social media plays a key part in finding talent, it also plays a big part in keeping it.
Previously, HR would’ve moved heaven and earth to keep employees away from “distracting” social media sites during office hours.
Now, HR is actively encouraging them to use those sites. They want employees to join the organization’s social networks and connect with fellow colleagues. Being part of an organizational social media community enables employees to build strong bonds with the people they work with, which will make them feel closer to the company and less likely to leave.
HR teams are also using social media channels to initiate discussions, run polls, and offer networking opportunities. These initiatives bring employees together and help address issues without hierarchical boundaries. This type of democratic inclusiveness is a huge morale boost for staff because it makes them feel important enough to be included.
Conclusion
Social media has also become the perfect platform for HR teams to publicly recognize employees’ achievements, celebrate work anniversaries, or welcome new hires. These types of posts build up the kind of warm, cohesive, and close-knit culture that employees want to stay, snuggled up in, for good.
So, you see … Social media is an effective channel for more than just marketing products or services to customers. It can be used to recruit and retain staff, keep customers happy, and inform key decisions and strategies.
Sign up for a free Agorapulse trial and see how much easier a social media management platform can make completing day-to-day marketing, HR, data, and customer service tasks.
