Social Community Management Archives

The Importance of Monitoring and Responding on Social Media

Social media revolves around engaging and interacting with your audience, where simply being present on social media platforms is no longer enough to stand out against other brands and creators. To build authentic relationships with your followers, establishing a community of individuals who feel heard, seen, cared about, and ultimately connected to your brand is essential. Therefore, when customers share inquiries, complaints, or compliments through comments on your posts, it is crucial to respond promptly to express appreciation for their business and demonstrate attentiveness, a reason for the existence of a community management agency, which can assist in your social engagement efforts.

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2023, 51% of consumers surveyed say that the most memorable brands on social media are those that respond to customers, and 68% of customers follow brands on social media to stay informed about new products and services. This information highlights the importance of monitoring and responding to comments on social media for long-term brand success.

But, as we all know, the world of social media is full of bots, trolls, and irrelevant opinions/comments, so we must understand how to engage with audiences on diverse social platforms and, specifically, how to address different types of comments in unique situations. In this article, we will guide you in the different approaches to handling a range of social media comments and offer our tips on the most optimal ways to respond.

Positive Comments

Positive comments can be anything from a simple “thank you” to an in-depth product or service review. Because consumers take the time to show you their appreciation, responding to these messages and reciprocating the gratitude is essential. When crafting your response to positive comments, be sure to use a sincere tone, thank the individual for their feedback, and personalize each message so each person feels directly spoken to, which can further their connection to your brand. For example, the ticket vendor BigStub uses an effective community management strategy to respond to comments promptly and enthusiastically. Below is an example of how BigStub addressed a positive comment on Facebook, but this practice can be seen across all of the brand’s social accounts. Ultimately, your response demonstrates to consumers that you value their business and feedback, fostering trust and a sense of community.

Neutral Comments

When it comes to neutral comments, it is often easy for them to go unnoticed, but responding to them is as important as addressing positive or negative feedback. The most significant advantage of responding to neutral comments is that it shows your audience you are available whenever they need you to be. Additionally, it allows you to engage in a casual conversation with your audience, which helps to personify your brand and further build consumer relationships that can foster brand loyalty. Check out the Instagram activities of Galaxy Theatres below, for instance. In this example, the brand responded to a neutral customer inquiry with a detailed, eager response that opened up the floor for further conversation. Thus, it would be silly to miss out on a similar opportunity to engage with your audience in a fun, relatively low-stakes manner. Consider working with a community management agency to guide your response strategy.

Negative Comments

As a brand, it’s crucial not only to listen to negative comments but also to respond to them appropriately. Negative comments can look like a range of issues surrounding the product or service, including customer care experiences. Before heading straight for the keyboard to defend your brand, remember to approach your response with delicacy, understanding, and empathy to avoid fueling an existing fire. A dissatisfied customer can leave the conversation feeling content and attended to by demonstrating respect for their opinion in your response. As for negative comments that take the form of offensive remarks and hate speech, it is essential to clarify your brand’s boundaries for this behavior and address it as unacceptable. You can take additional measures like blocking and reporting the social media account to the platform. Suppose your brand receives social media comments related to a crisis. In that case, you should have an established crisis communication plan to handle the situation best, and a community management agency can assist you with this. Overall, properly monitoring negative comments on social media helps you steer clear of any subsequent harm to your brand’s reputation, correctly identify serious or timely situations, and uphold strong brand values and a positive online community.

Analyzing All Comments

Many tests and tools exist to provide valuable brand insights derived from all of your social media comments. A social media sentiment analysis considers the emotions and opinions of those talking about your brand online, which is beneficial for identifying and addressing negative comments before they escalate. On top of that, conversation analytics uses AI and machine learning to find patterns and form reports derived from customer conversations. There are many social listening techniques worth exploring to keep your brand ahead of the conversation, and a community management agency can support you in gathering valuable insights from your data.

A well-executed plan for engaging with social media comments helps you establish your brand, gain loyalty, and connect with the right audience. Improve your brand reputation and skillfully navigate potentially harmful situations by adopting the abovementioned strategies and practices.

How Content Moderation Builds Customer Relationships

October 13, 2023/in Content Creation, Digital Marketing, Social Community Management /by Bright Age

Loyalty – it’s something we all search for and hope to receive from others. In the context of brand loyalty, consumers purchase repeatedly from a single provider for various reasons; it could be because of the quality of the product or service, the competitive price point, or even a consumer’s emotional attachment to a particular brand. Regardless of the exact reason, these factors all contribute to customer relationships.

While it is reasonably apparent that brands should build and maintain good relationships with customers, it is important to understand how the content being published affects these relationships and to take part in practices that ensure only relevant, appropriate, and engaging content is attached to a brand’s image. One way to build and manage customer relationships is through content moderation, which is the process of monitoring, reviewing, and managing user-generated content (UGC) on digital platforms to ensure it complies with the platform’s guidelines, policies, and legal requirements. Let’s take a deeper look into the role of content moderation in building customer relationships and how brands can leverage this process to foster invaluable loyalty from consumers.

Why is Content Moderation Important?

From Instagram to a business website, content moderation is important on all digital platforms for many reasons, with customer service and brand image at the forefront. In regards to customer service, content moderation helps create a safe, respectful, and productive environment for customers to interact with a brand. By filtering out spam, irrelevant comments, and promotional content that can clutter digital channels, legitimate customer inquiries and feedback can receive the attention they deserve. Additionally, moderation aids in identifying and removing abusive, offensive, or harassing content. This all helps to reduce the likelihood of negative customer experiences and reputational damage to a brand. Further, brand image is better protected in the hands of effective content moderation by demonstrating that a brand truly cares about its customers and takes feedback seriously. A content moderation agency can assist brands in finding the most effective techniques. Ultimately, brand trustworthiness is greatly enhanced through content moderation efforts, and the more that a customer trusts a brand, the stronger their loyalty is to that business. Below are some key aspects of content moderation that can build customer relationships.

Brand Guidelines

First and foremost, every brand needs content moderation guidelines, which outline the do’s and don’ts of a brand’s moderation techniques. Whether it’s the team member developing an AI moderator or a human moderator going in manually, everyone on the team should have a proper understanding of how to refer to the brand and/or products on digital channels. For example, if a social media user leaves an abrasive or rude comment on a brand’s page, should that comment be deleted, responded to, sent over to another department, or shown to a senior-level team member? These types of questions should be addressed in the content moderation guidelines to ensure appropriate, consistent, and unbiased handling of a situation. Consumers will acknowledge a brand’s commitment to staying true to its values, which fosters trust. If necessary, brands can partner with a third-party content moderation agency that specializes in creating these guidelines.

Context Awareness

What might be acceptable in one context may not be in another, so considering the context in which content is posted is an important aspect of content moderation that aids in building customer relationships. While automated filters and algorithms are highly useful in identifying inappropriate content, brands should avoid over-reliance on automation as it may not fully understand the context. Additionally, moderators should be aware of cultural differences and sensitivities on global platforms – a brand should not wish to silence a customer due to its own lack of knowledge on a subject. No one is perfect, but customers will recognize a brand’s effort to fully understand a situation before engaging, a level of respect that can go far in establishing and maintaining these relationships with consumers.

Effective Communication & Engagement

Addressing users in a timely manner demonstrates a brand’s effective communication skills and genuine care for customers. These response time standards should be included in the content moderation guidelines, mentioned earlier. Further, content moderation allows brands an opportunity to position themselves as a leader in maintaining a positive online environment. This community ownership helps to place a brand in a favorable light among online users. Moderators should focus their energy on responding to real comments and concerns that can progress a relationship with their customers. By engaging with the community, brands can build trust and gather insights into customer needs.

Continuous Adaptation

With our ever-changing digital landscape and new social media trends popping up daily, brands that are willing to adapt to the behavior of online users garner credence and esteem from customers. So, content moderation policies should be regularly assessed and updated to allow for relevant engagement from brands. With a willingness to change, brands are able, through moderation, to properly collect feedback from users to identify areas for improvement. By recognizing how public opinion is constantly shifting, and by considering genuine responses, brands can use the digital space as a bridge to meet its audience, furthering the relationship with its consumers.

There are many key ways that content moderation builds customer relationships, and this article highlights some of the important aspects for brands to keep in mind. Content moderation plays a crucial role in building and maintaining customer relationships, especially in today’s digital age where online interactions are integral to business success. Think of it as a ripple effect – proper content moderation can help foster a positive and safe online environment, which then enhances customer trust, engagement, and ultimately loyalty to a brand that stretches beyond measurable value.

Social Listening – What is it & How is it Useful

September 19, 2023/in Social Community Management, Social Media Management /by Bright Age

Social media has become an essential part of modern marketing, a valuable tool for brands to directly engage with consumers and gain insight from what people are saying in the digital landscape. However, the power that these platforms hold is only beneficial when paired with an understanding of how to analyze, interpret, and report their performance. One way to do this is through a process called social listening, also known as social media listening. Social listening is a process of tracking and analyzing conversations, discussions, and mentions of a brand or product across various social media platforms and online sources.

There are many components of social listening that give brands data-driven insight from real-time public opinion, allowing them to stay informed and consistently a part of the digital conversation. Here are some key aspects of social listening and ways that it can be used to develop a well-rounded marketing strategy!

1. Data Collection: First and foremost, social listening begins with the collection of data from a wide range of online sources like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Yelp, and many more. This data includes anything from text-based content like posts, comments, and reviews, to multimedia content such as images and videos. Automated tools and software are often used to continuously monitor social media platforms and online sources for things such as keywords, hashtags, brand mentions, or other related topics. In short, these online conversations are translatable into valuable business insights.

2. A Proactive Approach: You may already be aware of social media monitoring, which tracks specific brand mentions across platforms and is useful for quickly responding to negative feedback online. While this tool is functional as an extension of customer support and is crucial for brands, it is a highly reactive strategy, functions on the micro level, and doesn’t paint a large picture when developing a marketing strategy. With social listening, brands take the initiative in online reputation management by understanding how customers are perceiving not only their business, but also their competitors and industry as a whole. The data can be aggregated into a proactive marketing strategy, allowing brands to identify gaps and opportunities that help position them ahead of competition.

Give People What They Want: An important use of social media listening is that it helps brands understand what their audience wants and expects from them. For example, a coffee brand may notice a surge in conversations around cold brew coffee during the summer months. They could then use this information to develop a targeted marketing campaign surrounding their cold brew offerings, and execute it during this season when consumers’ buying journeys are more likely to be influenced. Brands can also gain insights from social listening through customer feedback, whether it be positive or negative, and can make any necessary adjustments to improve the happiness of their audience. It’s safe to say that social listening and customer care go hand in hand.

Trend Identification: Trends, trends, trends. Finding patterns in digital conversations can not only give brands insight into what’s working for their audience and what’s not, but also insight into how their competitors and industry are performing. Social listening is not limited to monitoring one brand or topic of interest, as it should be used when conducting market research to track competitors’ mentions and activities in the digital landscape as well. This aspect of listening provides an opportunity for brands to develop relationships with potential customers who are already engaged in the industry. Additionally, social listening can identify industry trends before they are even considered trends, allowing brands a chance to adapt their messaging and offerings early-on. One aspect of trend identification is influencer identification, which allows business and individuals to pinpoint relevant influencers and opinion leaders in their industry. By listening to keywords and trending conversations in real-time, brands can boost their name through collaborations with influencers that customers trust and are actively keeping up with.

5. Product & Content Development: Listening to customer discussions and feedback is a great way for brands to gain inspiration for new ideas and improvements of existing offerings. For example, in response to the consumer trend of “Netflix and chill,” Netflix created a video demonstrating how consumers can make their own socks for when they are streaming the platform. This is just one example of how brands can leverage social listening for content creation that is relevant and engages with the audience.

With more than 82% of marketing professionals viewing social listening as a key element in strategic planning, it is essential that brands use it to their advantage. Social listening is a valuable tool for brands to stay connected with their audience, understand market dynamics, manage their reputation, publish engaging content, and make data-driven decisions to drive business success. It provides a direct line of communication with customers and allows brands to adapt and evolve in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

The Benefits of Social Media Reputation Management

April 7, 2022/in Community Management, Online Reputation Management, Social Community Management /by Bright Age

Where there are people and businesses, there is also reputation. Reputation determines the social standing of a person or business in society. For businesses in particular, it is extremely important to have a positive reputation because it can drive sales and increase customer loyalty. A good reputation is not easy to gain, especially after a damaging blow, which is why a brand must incorporate an effective social media community management into their business to ensure consistent efforts and actions are taken. In other words, a brand’s reputation may be positive or negative at the moment, but it can always be rewritten.

What Is Brand Reputation Management?

A social media community management team presents ideas through sticky notes

Brand reputation management is the process of monitoring how the public sees the brand while continuously influencing their perception for the better. Keeping an eye on the public’s perception may sound tedious to some since opinions tend to change, but in the world of business, reputation is everything. It takes years to build a positive opinion but only minutes to completely lose numbers of customers. This loss can be eased with the aid of brand reputation management, as it has the ability to control a brand’s narrative.

Small businesses may believe that due their size, they don’t need any brand reputation management as of yet. However, that is false; even local businesses may face reviews or events that can put the brand at the center of conversations. It is important that companies of all sizes incorporate a social media community management team to address any incoming issues, whether big or small.

Keeping & Attracting Customers

Once a brand is well reputed, the business will have an advantage over their competitors. Customers and clients will stay loyal to the company, knowing that their products and services have and will continue to satisfy their needs. Additionally, by word-of-mouth from those loyal customers, more will be attracted to a brand who already has a good standing in the industry. After all, trust is a key factor in any relationship.

In order to ensure that a business maintains this trust with their customers, in addition to a reputable name, a brand community management team must incorporate strategies and content that is accurate and consistent to their brand’s character. Conversely, if a brand posts content that is inconsistent or is false information, it can affect their credibility.

GoodRx is a medical service company and a client of Bright Age who frequently shares original articles on their Facebook and Twitter pages. Although they’re known for finding the best pharmacy coupons and deals to save money on prescription drugs and other medical costs, another main mission of theirs is to inform their readers about their health. This consistent character, to help others regarding their health, builds credibility within trust and an increase in reputation.

Customer Experience & Support

In order to preserve and improve a brand’s reputation, social media community management teams must also focus on their business’ customers’ experiences and collect feedback. This is a given to improve their services as well. When customers feel like their voices are being heard, their thoughts about the brand increases positively, leaving a trail of good seeds planted around on the Internet.

The transport company Uber, for instance, is famously known for mastering their customer experience. The customer service team identifies any problems in their consumer feedback data and readdress it with solutions to improve their service. Additionally, Uber wants their commuters to feel safe when entering the vehicle because at the end of the day, it is still a stranger’s car. To foster this trust, commuters are aware of their driver’s name, the make of the car, and the driver’s ratings. It also works both ways; the drivers, too, are aware of a user’s rating and are able to cancel on those with poor ratings. With this foundation of trust Uber has built into its system, satisfied drivers and commuters are more likely to use the service again, providing Uber a reliable revenue stream.

Maintaining Sales

Social media reputation management teams can also help preserve and increase sales by taking care of a brand’s reputation. As mentioned before, it takes constant effort to build a positive opinion about a brand from the public, but only a matter of minutes before losing customers. With a management team, sales are able to increase while the reputation does as well. Additionally, companies with high reputation can use this to their advantage by increasing their prices. Due to their high reputation, their loyal customers are willing to pay the price of the product no matter how much it is marked up.

Social Media Community Management

A social media community management team is an essential to businesses, especially if they want to market towards the new generations today. Building a reputation may take years to do, but with a team who puts in the constant effort to strengthen a brand’s positive image, the business’ goal will eventually be achieved. Bright Age works with all sorts of brands, including GoodRx, Galaxy Theatres, and more. Sharing our ideas and content for your social media page in order to increase your reputation is what we do best. Reach out and request a consultation with Bright Age today to complete your goals!

The Importance of Brand Monitoring on Social Media

January 11, 2021/in Community Management, Social Community Management /by Bright Age

Brand Monitoring on social media is one of the easiest ways to grow and manage your digital presence. By giving your audience the ability to share, like, comment, and react to certain products or services, you have a direct line of feedback from your customers. This way, you can easily have your own social media brand management from the platforms you are posting on.

What is brand monitoring?

Brand monitoring is understanding and viewing the way your brand is perceived and accepted by your customers. It is tracking how your brand does when you post a product or launch a new campaign. It is an important part of understanding and growing your brand. It really boils down to seeing how your audience reacts to your posts, products, and services. Knowing this information is crucial to every brand.

Why is this important?

Your brand is only as good as your customers see it. Being a business, your company depends on customers that will buy your product or service. Without seeing how they perceive your brand, you are left without direction on how to change or improve your brand to better fit your audience. There is no way to successfully grow your business without understanding how your brand stands with your audience.

Integration of Social Media

Social media is a great tool to use for brand monitoring because of the access you have to your audience. When you put your business on social media, especially on platforms that customers can openly communicate with you on (Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter), you are more likely to see immediate feedback when posting new content or even new products. Social media brand management is simple and effective. For example, if you upgrade your Instagram or Facebook account to a business account, you can unlock specific insights on your post information. This will include how many likes, comments, shares, and saves your post gets. It will also show the demographic of your audience, the best times to post, how many people saw/engaged with your post that were not following you, and so much more.

Brand monitoring is not just tracking your audience. It is also finding out ways to further engage and grow your audience. By getting the information from your social media, you are now able to take that knowledge and input it into your brand. This does not mean a total makeover of your brand, but just constantly fine tuning it so that your brand fits your audience. The more you monitor your brand, the better information you have to improve your brand, products, or services.

Brand Elements to Monitor

There are certain parts of your brand that should be carefully looked at when gathering information. These parts include: channels, name variations, competitors, trends, and public figures. Channels are ways that your brand is seen by your audience. This can include social media, news, review sites, and the list goes on. Specifically on social media, you want to make sure that people can easily find your page and that page looks professional and intriguing. Name variations are how people refer to your brand. These can be nicknames, abbreviations for your brand or other words that your brand might be associated with. If you do not recognize a different name variation for your brand, you could be missing out on important information that could be used to improve your brand. Competitors of your brand are extremely important to be aware of. Your customers may be split between a competitor and your brand and to make sure your customers are engaged and stay engaged, it is important to know how your audience reacts to certain posts, products or services. Overseeing trends is important in order to keep your brand up to date with what is happening in the world. The absence of trends in brands could result in a negative connotation of the brand which would lead to poor engagement or even product sales. By incorporating trends, you are not only engaging your audience but demonstrating that you care what is happening in the world. Public figures come into play when they are mentioning, using or influencing people to use your product or buy your service. Monitoring the figures that do represent your brand is important because you want to make sure their actions and words correspond with the values and intentions of your brand.

Social media brand management is extremely important and useful when creating and expanding your brand. Monitoring your audience can only give you more information on your engagement and activity. If you are having trouble with this crucial part of brand monitoring, Bright Age Digital Creative Agency is here to help.

Questions and Answers to Elevate Your Social Media Strategy

July 27, 2020/in Social Community Management /by Bright Age

Marketing your business online will do you no good unless you approach it with a social media strategy. Each platform offers unique tools for businesses to market towards consumers, but a successful business will strategically utilize these tools to reach their target audience in the best way possible. The following questions and answers will help you take into account what aspects of social media are the most important to your business, and how you can capitalize on other brands by elevating your social media strategy.

What is the most popular social media platform?

As of 2020, Facebook is the most popular platform with about 2.6 billion monthly active users. Not only is this platform the most popular for recreational users, but it is also for marketers. Facebook offers the lowest prices for businesses on the platform, and users can even set up their business accounts and personalized profiles for free. Facebook ads are quite popular because they allow a business to set up their target audience through psychographics, technographics and demographics, which makes it an ideal advertising platform for businesses seeking to reach a specific type of person.

What is the fastest growing social media platform?

Currently, Tik Tok is the fastest growing social media platform with a high 97.5% increase in growth compared to Instagram’s 6.7% drop rate, which used to be the fastest growing platform before Tik Tok. Although businesses are still coming up with new ways to use Tik Tok to their advantage, there is a lot of room for improvement and marketing creativity on the app.

Which social media platform should I use to promote my business?

Choosing which social media platform to use to promote your business can depend on a few things. Taking a look at your target audience, industry, and what you wish to accomplish can help you figure out which social media platforms would be best for your business. It is also important to understand what platforms are available and what each of them offer. Click here to read about which social media platform is best for your business.

What is the best time/how often should I post on social media?

While choosing the best time to post varies depending on industry and the platform you are using, the most important thing to look at is your target audience’s behavior. There a few different ways to monitor this, but start by checking the engagements with your business. Taking a look at your most popular posts can be a good indicator of when you should post. As a business, it is important to post at least once a day, but monitoring your engagements will also help you determine a good posting frequency.

How should I get more followers on social media?

There are many things you can do as a business to gain more followers on social media, but the most important is to know who your target audience this. Targeting specific consumers that would be drawn to your business’s type of content is the best way to maximize your following.

What kind of content should I post?

Finding out the best type of content for your business to post will take some trial and error. Start by researching your competitors pages and analyzing what type of content gets the most engagements on their social media pages. Then, you can come up with creative post ideas utilizing pictures, videos, text, hashtags and other social media properties to see which type of content works best for your page.

How do I get started with social media marketing?

To begin marketing your business, you need a plan to follow. Once you know your target audience, you can use it to create a goal for your business and develop a social media strategy to achieve it. Social media marketing is most successful when it is done strategically and in an organized fashion.

What is the average age of Instagram users?

Instagram users are typically between the ages of 18 and 34. Knowing the average ages of users for each platform can give your business insight on who your target audience is and what platforms you should be on.

What percentage of Instagram followers see your posts?

Only about 7% of your followers will see your post. The Instagram algorithm prioritizes your posts from accounts that interact with you the most. It is important to constantly be growing your following to maximize user traffic on each post since most of an account’s followers won’t even see the post.

How to Establish Your Perfect Brand

July 10, 2020/in Branding, Social Community Management, Social Media Strategy /by Bright Age

Determining your company’s brand can be an intimidating task if you don’t know how to approach it, but it is one of the most crucial parts of marketing. With a unique and effective brand identity, you can develop a social media management strategy that leaves buyers with a good impression and keeps business rolling. In order to establish the brand that is right for your purposes, you need to understand your audience, mission, and brand personality. Let’s take a look at each step in establishing your perfect marketing brand.

Establish Your Audience

Before you can create a compelling brand, you must determine your audience. While it might seem strategic to aim for a large range of people to make the most sales, you’ll have more luck if you get specific about who you are targeting. Consider things like age, gender, location, and education. Once you know the basics, dive deeper. What does this group of people care about? What are their hobbies and lifestyles? The more detailed you can get about your audience, the better you will be able to create content that tailors to their interests.

Know Your Mission

It is equally important to know your company’s mission – why do you exist and why should people care? Your mission is the driving force for your content and the reason people come to your company. In fact, trust in a brand’s purpose is increasingly crucial to customers. One study found that 85% of consumers want brands to solve their problems, and 80% of consumers want brands to solve society’s problems. Marketing is no longer about selling a product, but selling the purpose and values behind it as well. A brand development agency like Bright Age Digital Creative Agency can help you determine how to communicate your mission to the appropriate audience, so that your content appeals to the needs of your consumers.

Determine Your Brand Personality

Once you understand the basics, you have the tools to refine your brand personality, which largely comes across in the kind of culture or emotional appeal your company pursues. Some possible personalities include compassionate/sincere, enthusiastic, sophisticated, informational, or funny. Whatever you land on, your brand personality should be consistent with your target audience and core values.

One of the primary ways to get this personality across is through your marketing voice. For instance, Geico’s funny brand personality consistently puts out humorous social media posts, which is modeled perfectly in this Instagram post.

In addition to a fun photograph, Geico’s caption is simple and silly, using colloquial language with a funny hashtag. Whatever your brand personality is, make sure that your word choice, tone, and visual style match it.

Part of your brand personality also involves a strategy for engaging with users in comments and DMs. For instance, will you respond to an upset user with helpful information, a witty comeback, or no reply at all? Each of these responses have their own strengths, so it is important to find the one that works best with your brand. A brand development agency can help you with this tricky social media management by quickly and professionally engaging with users on your behalf. Galaxy Theatres provides a good example of social media interaction. With an enthusiastic brand personality that cares about their customers’ movie experiences, they efficiently respond to questions and criticisms with a friendly tone and helpful information. These comments come from a Facebook post about a popcorn pickup deal during COVID-19 closures.

Find What Sets You Apart

The internet makes every competitor available at a person’s fingertips, so you need to make it clear why your brand is the best choice. It is important to observe what other companies in your industry are doing and understand why your company is unique in comparison. The SWOT analysis is a helpful tool that guides you through your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can help you determine what you’ve done well so far and what needs improvement in order to boost your brand.

Your brand is your reputation, so make sure to revisit these steps as your company changes over time. Spend time thinking about your brand, and don’t be afraid to narrow in on your mission and audience. A brand development agency like Bright Age will help you in all of these steps and take the work of social media management off your hands, so you can get back to the company mission you’re so passionate about.

The Importance of Speeding up Your Social Media Response Time

July 9, 2020/in Social Community Management, Social Media Management /by Bright Age

Often times, brands don’t take into account the importance of responding to potential and existing customers is on social media. People will ask questions, express their concerns, or comment on something pertaining to a brand, and they expect to receive a response in a reasonable amount of time. Whether this be by responding to public comments, answering direct messages, or operating support services from a live chat box, customers’ overall satisfaction increases when they are responded to in a timely manner.

Having a quick response time is an important factor in social media community management. With nearly 249.7 million active users on social media in the United States alone, online communication plays a huge rule with how consumers engage with brands. That number is expected to increase to 257.4 million by the year 2023, which makes social media response time even more crucial when it comes to keeping customers satisfied in a competitive market.

What Consumers Expect from Brands

Consumers typically have high expectations for the brands they choose to interact with. How quickly a brand responds to the consumer can sometimes make all the difference when it comes to customer loyalty. When reaching out to a brand on social media, 79% of consumers expect a response in the first 24 hours. On top of that, 40% of those consumers expect a response within 1 hour. The expectations consumers have for businesses to engage with them is clearly high and responding to a customer’s interaction can make all the difference.

How to Speed up Responses

In a competitive market, brands responding to customers at their own convenience simply will not cut it anymore. A customer can easily move on to the next brand in the industry if their attempt at an interaction goes unanswered for longer than they are willing to wait. There are a few ways to speed up response times and create successful social media community management.

Constant Social Media Monitoring

The best way to ensure a quick response time is to always be available online for customers to reach out. Bright Age ensures a 24/7 Customer Care system to make sure every customer gets their questions, comments, or concerns responded to as quickly as possible. Every customer gets a personalized response in a timely manner that is constructed to satisfy the customer and build the brands reputation. A constant social media monitoring strategy is the key to ensuring no customer gets ignored.

Being Available Across a Variety of Platforms

Every customer is a unique and valuable individual, and many prefer to engage with brands across varying platforms. If a company consistently monitored their social media in only one online location, it is possible that many customer responses would go unanswered which would negatively impact the brand’s reputation. Not responding to customers in a timely manner, or at all, shows that the brand does not care enough about their customers to make their concerns a top priority. A brand with excellent social media community management will be responding to customers on not only all platforms the brand is on, but also via email, phone calls, and possibly live chat boxes. This gives customers the ability to choose which way to reach out is the most convenient for them and ensures that customer loyalty is highly valued by that brand.

Responding to Negative Comments

It is incredibly important to have a quick response to negative comments because it shows that the customer’s experience is a top priority for the brand. GoodRx responded appropriately to a customer’s comment on a Facebook post who had an unpleasant experience with GoodRx.

GoodRx’s quick and apologetic response ensured that the customer is well respected and valued by the brand. Although the customer had an unpleasant experience, GoodRx maintained its brand reputation with this customer by showing their support.

A brand’s social media response time shows a customer how much they are cared for. Brands with the quickest response time have greater customer loyalty and better brand reputation. Bright Age ensures efficient social media community management to set brands up with an excellent customer service system to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Using Social Media to Drive Sales During COVID-19

May 8, 2020/in Social Community Management, Social Media Agency /by Bright Age

During a crisis, 55% of Americans turn to social media for information, as well as a way to connect and come together during a time of worry. Social media plays a huge role when it comes to having a crisis communication plan, as brands need to strategize their next steps during this time. COVID-19 has created a time of uncertainty for everyone, but by driving people into their homes, social media marketing has been on the rise. Brands typically tend to struggle during tough times like these, as they don’t know which approach to take in producing appropriate content. Managing a variety of social media accounts during a time of uncertainty can be extremely overwhelming, but Bright Age is here to help you!

Using social media to market your brand during a time of crisis is beneficial since in this case, the public is constantly refreshing their social media accounts looking for posts to engage with, as that is one of the few interactions they can receive. Since there is a large demand for online content, this gives brands an opportunity to utilize their social media strategies to steer customers towards purchasing their product.

Let’s look at a few ways to use social media to drive sales during this time!

Demand for Content

With the public in self-quarantine, there has been a significant increase in social media use. This provides a chance for brands to create a large amount of content, showing that the brand is supportive, yet continuing on in a positive demeanor to sell their product/services. Producing content that followers can engage with is an important strategy as it will steer the follower to be intrigued and eventually continue on to the website or account to find out more about the brand and its products. Keeping your social media presence known during a time of crisis and producing more content is important for followers to keep your brand top of mind.

Social Media Listening & Monitoring

Due to the increased number of users active on social media during a crisis, having an updated social media monitoring and listening strategy is a beneficial resource to have in your back pocket. Monitoring audience on different social media platforms is important in order to understand what your target audience is looking for and to create a post referring to your customers’ needs. By doing so, your customers will acknowledge that your brand is attentive and actively listening to their requests. Social media monitoring is important to engage with your following and to increase the maximum amount of potential customers reached.

Support your Community

By supporting your local community, it allows the locals to see your response to the situation. Having a positive, influential message shown through your social media platforms, aimed to support your local community and the people in it, creates a relationship between the community and the brand. Locals will want to support a brand who is showing their efforts to assist the community, as well as its employees. One of our clients, Galaxy Theatres created a promotional campaign, where customers are able to purchase a giant $25 bag of popcorn and receive a complimentary $25 gift card, being featured at 12 out of their 15 locations. This campaign allows Galaxy Theatres to maximize their efforts in receiving a profit, while also being able to support their local community.

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During a crisis like this, it is unpredictable as to how long it is going to last. This unprecedented crisis has created a need for social media marketing, as now it is important to keep producing content to post on different social media platforms to get followers to engage with. Social media has become the only available solution to interacting with potential customers. Contact Bright Age today, as we can assist you in keeping your social media presence prominent within this time of uncertainty!

The Key Elements for Providing Social Media Customer Care

April 20, 2020/in Social Community Management, Social Media /by Bright Age

Social media has grown into a powerhouse for businesses all around the world. Social media around the world and its reach is at an all-time high. This is all thanks to technology advancements that have happened within the past decade. Brands now use social media as their main source for customer service, digital marketing, boosting brand awareness, and engagement. Satisfying customer needs is an essential part in maintaining a brand’s image, which is why social media customer care is so important.

Customer service now is a lot different than it used to be. Although the same goal exists, which is to satisfy customer needs, it is now much more approachable and efficient due to the advancements in social technology. In fact, 67% of consumers have engaged a brand’s social media for customer needs, which is obviously a lot of exposure for a brand. Ultimately, the main objective is to develop an inclusive community via social media. One of the key elements to achieve excellent social media customer care is making sure to reply to followers as quickly as possible.

Traditional forms of customer service, such as telephone and email, and even more outdated, by mail, are not always available 24/7. However, social media is not only a lot more efficient, but in certain way it is a lot more user friendly for customers to get their questions answered. As a result, 42% of customers expect a response on social media within 60 minutes. Of course, for a growing brand this seems like an impossible task. At Bright Age, our team of marketing specialists see this task as an opportunity to help maintain your brand image. Word-of-mouth is one of the simplest ways of marketing online. As a result of good customer service, the community will feel more obliged to give positive feedback online, which others see and often make a decision to go with your brand over a competitor. For example, GoodRx, a client of Bright Age, showcased a positive review on their Instagram, which thousands of other potential customers can see.

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This is an excellent way of promoting social media customer care in a way that is refreshing for the community to see. It also forms a sense of reliability for the brand in a subtle way.

Another key element in providing social media customer care is making sure each and every person in the community is being heard. All forms of feedback, questions, and comments need acknowledgement. Just as no business would leave a customer unattended to in a store, it should be the same on social media. When responding to customers online, it should sound personable, not like a robot. If you can, always greet them with their name. This is an easy, personable way to reassure customers that they are talking to an actual person. If they are simply asking for more information or asking where they can find your other social media pages, providing links is a great way to help direct customers in the direction they are trying to go.

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As with everything, there is a line to draw when it comes to customer care online. Knowing what to post is crucial, considering people may interpret things differently. Of course, the hope for any business is that every review, comment, and remark is a positive one. However, some negativity is inevitable. The key is knowing how to combat negativity with positivity. For example, when a negative comment is posted, many businesses may feel inclined to defend themselves. However, this may not come off well to the community. The saying “the customer is always right” is certainly applicable for social media customer care. If someone posts a negative comment or review, it is possible that hundreds, even thousands of other customers will see this. An example of a positive response to a negative comment would start with a sincere apology, and end with a phone number to assist the customer better. Going back to the line to draw when knowing what to respond with, it is always better to leave the ball in the customer’s court, which is why giving a reachable phone number is a good idea when resolving a conflict.

When consumers need to ask a question or solve a problem, they turn to the digital world to get help, which is why social media in customer service plays a huge role in the success of a brand’s advocacy. Monitoring customer service can be tricky and hard to manage with a growing business. That is why digital marketing agencies such as Bright Age exist to help you manage every aspect of your business. Our specialists use social media management tools to assure the customer care needs are organized and settled efficiently.