Socially Challenged?

The face of the web has changed dramatically in the last few years and now presents a landscape which
is pretty much unrecognisable from the web 5 years ago. Today the web not only presents a place where
people can look for information and shop, but also a place where people socialise, connect with friends,
look for conversations or leave comments and opinions themselves.

This changing web environment has not yet finished evolving and it seems ridiculous to think that the
speed of change continues to increase- but it does! The social evolution is happening now- and is having
an impact on companies throughout Ireland whether they ‘do’ social media or not.

Social media empowers consumers. It empowers your customer. And customers are becoming so used
to having the ability and the power to comment and provide opinion that they are actively doing so
anywhere they can! So much so that we have seen the rise of customer reviews in use across
Ecommerce websites, the birth and growth of Yelp and Foursquare, Facebook business pages... the list
goes on.

However one common misconception amongst many companies is that if they don’t do social media,
then they can prevent customers from ‘saying bad things’. Unfortunately, customers will leave
comments, good or bad – you just can’t see them!

It is therefore an absolute must for all Irish businesses, especially those in the business to consumer
arena, to be aware of this shift in the online landscape and indeed in consumer behaviour itself. An
awareness of social media and its impact on your brand or business can in itself deliver fantastic value
for money – even if you decide not to undertake social media marketing.

How many of us know who is mentioning our company name online? Unfortunately the answer is not
enough! Monitoring what is being said about your company, by whom and how frequently (buzz
monitoring to give it its formal title) can be enough of a social media effort to allow you to get an insight
into your customers mindset, and deal with previously unknown service issues, customer queries,
complaints or accolades!

With Visa Europe predicting that Irish consumers are set to spend a total of €356m online on gifts in the
run up to Christmas, with an average spend of €172 per shopper, can your company really afford NOT to
listen to what your online customers are already trying to tell you?

Jill Culbertson