Siemens release their Social Media Do's & Don'ts

The social media or social channel is a new way of interacting with customers, which means that most firms are on a learning curve with it. To assist companies, Ross Sedgewick, senior director, global marketing for large enterprise solutions, Siemens Enterprise Communications has come out with these “Don’ts and Do’s Social Media for The Enterprise."

1.DON’T: Assume customers won’t notice your absence in social media channels

DO: Keep current as communication channels evolve

Customer contact channels never stand still...neither should you! A recent Yankee Group (News - Alert) study revealed that 70 percent of consumers want to be able to leverage social media sites to see real-time availability of company experts in area such as billing and technical support. Customers are searching for you online, so be readily available.

Also, being present with new media not only gives you the opportunity to serve customers where they are congregating and communicating, but being early or first in your industry allows you to differentiate yourself on customer service and accessibility.

2.DON’T: Miss out on conversations with your customers

DO: Identify where your customers are communicating on social media, and target relevant corporate or public outlets for monitoring

Take advantage of powerful automated tools that monitor, filter and notify of customer, stakeholder and prospect activity on social networks or community sites. The filtering criteria can be customized based on your objectives and highly tailored to your business needs. The same Yankee Group survey uncovered that 67 percent of employees need more tools to track and manage their social communications for business purposes.

3.DON’T: Cripple your contact center by keeping communications methods silo’ed

DO: Leverage the effectiveness and efficiencies of your contact center via integration

Leverage the skills, resources and processes by integrating key social media outlets with your contact center technologies, tools and processes. As volumes grow, using ad hoc methods or dedicated personnel may be inefficient and ineffective. Better to build in social media tools from the beginning and allow them to become part of how you do business.

4.DON’T: Let employees’ social media usage become a liability for your business

DO: Train employees on the subtleties of effective social media interactions

Social media interaction is somewhat different than e-mail, voice or face to face. Remember, social media conversations are usually in the public domain! Enforce company social media guidelines and keep employees educated.

Often it can be wise and effective to move and morph a social media dialogue into a richer and/or more private media e.g. voice, e-mail and chat. Communication that begins in a social networking forum should be moved to phone or e-mail for ongoing conversations.