Whilst its old news that 'Lush Cosmetics' decided to ditch 'Social Media' which they say is due to them not being able to keep up with the programmatic 'whackamole' which they felt put them in a place where they had lost control over brand safety, they also expressed concerns that at time Social was just a 'crisis' management platform.

When we speak to companies who are blatantly under performing on social media, one of the anecdotal comments that always pops up is the concerns they have about customers using the platforms to voice their opinions, and in particular the disgruntled ones are of even more concern.

However, simply removing yourself from the 'social conversation' doesn't really dilute those conversations about your brand does it?

Once we have explored the myths, and fears about a social strategy it becomes clear that the brands we work with realise that they can gain so much more than it just being a place for them to carry over the 'advertise and promote' mentality that is the intrusive ad market.

To stimulate conversations on social will of course open some degree of debate about what people really think about your company, or brand, these comments can be good or bad, however my view is that if you are an organisation who truly values its customers and wants to improve there's no better way to understand where the pain points are, and where you could be losing and winning business to your competition than social media.

To do this requires you to create an internal, and external socially inclusive strategy, this should also include employee advocacy at every level, and starting at the top down, combine this with consumer advocacy which actively encourages discussion and engagement. To do this right also requires you to have the right skills based training, and of course the right 'listening tools'. 

But....If the underlying product and service is broken, no amount of social media and advertising will generate a positive view about who you are.

As the article below says;

"There’s no way to fake your way through the customer experience growth path; no amount of money, advertising, or vast product portfolio will make up for subpar experiences. Using a customer-centric approach to achieve growth is to drive customer obsession throughout the entire organization. Today, you need an exceptional sales team. You need to have a strong marketing team. You need a responsive customer service team. By comparison, you may only need a “good enough” product. Don’t get me wrong: You can’t just have the best customer experience in town and serve terrible food or a sub-par cup of coffee — or sell a product that doesn’t work".

We don't do retainers, we're not an agency that creates and produces copy/content or sells ads for you.

We are active 'practitioners' of what we do, we already know and can evidence the ROI of a robust and internally aligned 'Social' strategy.

Part of that evidence it that you are reading this blog, just like many others - including your competitor!

We also don't do outbound pushy, salesy marketing, so if you would like to explore more, please contact the author of this blog.