Social Media + Consumer Opinion + Brand = opportunities brands have to join the conversation

Reviews, suggestions, and conversation between consumers and brands are core business of social media. It’s an easy doing right now posting one’s opinion on a product, service or idea, using blogs, wikis, conversation platform, and obviously product review tools included in e-commerce platform. Which means there are negative and positive opinion posted on what companies are selling. And which also implies companies may be scepticals about social media since they don’t get the hand over the message but only become part of the discussion. Yet, as Joshua Porter explained why brands shouldn’t fear product reviews, companies shouldn’t fear social media because it’s in fact a huge opportunity to develop product/ service range, increase customer care quality and quicken innovation. Here are some thoughts and ideas about how to challenge consumers and turn their requests, suggestions, arguments, and negative opinions into interesting points to enhance your brand equity and customer loyalty.

The major point is that there are no negative or positive consumer opinion but interesting insights and communication misunderstanding. Never treat consumers as blackmailers, troublesome people or “brand crushers” but as demanding consumers and communication advisors. And above all, they’re tacitly allowing/ requesting the brand to take the floor. And here’s your opportunity.

When consumers invite you (the brand) to join the conversation (if they’re not speaking of you, you may really assume your product is worst than ever or not worth mentioning) think of these following points:

• They would pay attention to what you say: be simple and clear and if you don’t feel easy about space given to express yourself suggest to move the conversation to a more adapted place. But keep it accessible to everybody, you’re not the one who set the rule of transparency (you should have requested that conversation a while before to set your own rules, including public or private conversation)
• Request more attention and invite customers to engage more with you: people have made their mind and want you to improve yourself while writing negative opinion? great news, you’ve found new members for your innovation team as free field consultant (which would cost you so much that you couldn’t afford it by yourself)
• Ask consumers to become your brand ambassadors: when people express their love to your brand, take that act into account and invite them to engage more with your brand, starting by sending them early information, specific news, easy spreading material, and including them into your fan CRM program (if you don’t have one, you should tink about creating one) before engaging them completely in your CRM program as ambassadors
• Ask people to continue speaking: don’t let consumer giving a one-shot opinion, request him to follow-up his thought or idea and invite other platform users to join the discussion

Last thing is you have to keep in mind when you join the discussion, you must understand your position means you should lead the conversation now since you’re the big boy out there.

Hope it would be useful. Feel free to add your opinion.

To read more on that topic:

• Social Media + Consumers = Butter kicker to improve communication, innovation, products, and customer services
• Review of the Internet news of the Day
• Social Media + purchase = Leveraging social media to close the deal?
• Connecting + Consumers + Brand = Building web strategy to create intense relationships
• Google + User Experience = What can you learn from Google on Social Media