Are You Listening?
Word of mouth continues to be the single most powerful advertising from known simply because we as consumers would prefer to trust the words coming from our friends and families over that of an ad carefully scripted and developed in a way to encourage the consumer to buy even more.
Negative opinion on a product can do more harm to a brand more quickly than all the good will they have put forth in the past. Take for instance the case of Nestle who after accusations by Greenpeace about palm oil and orangutans faced an onslaught of angry consumers who took to the social networks to voice their concerns.
Instead of listening to the concerns of their customers and addressing the complaints in a reasonable and timely manner Nestle appeared to try and cover up the issue, censor its Facebook page and generally ignore the genuine complaints brought forth by its customers.
Nestle to their benefit did have a place where their customers could visit and sing the praises or shout the failures and certainly they heard all of this but where the problems happened is that Nestle didn’t care enough to actually listen to any of it.
Is your brand listening to what those around are saying or does it merely hear what is being said? And before you say listening and hearing are one and them same let me explain what it is I mean.
For me the act of hearing is to perceive the traditional and digital noise taking place all around and allowing it fall away without taking action.
While, the act of listening is to hear the entire amount of traditional and digital noise taking place and then take appropriate action based upon what has been heard.
Social media is a powerful tool that can allow a brand to monitor noise and when appropriate or needed jump in and engage the customers complaint before it turns into a full blown public relations nightmare or engage with the customers to simply say thanks for the compliment.
The simple act of listening to a consumer and taking action based off the noise heard is what can make or break a brand in the eyes of every current and potential customer. Social media is word of mouth for the digital age, and word of mouth is no longer local it has gone global where any wired individual can hear both the good and the bad about your brand.
Maybe it’s time you now pose the question to yourself, your company or your brand; Are we listening to all that is being said about us or do we just hear what is being said?
Nestle Fail:
- Another Nestle social media fail
- Fail: Nestle’s Social Media PR Blunder
- Nestle fails at social media
- Nestle mess shows sticky side of Facebook pages
Brand Monitoring:
Flickr photo “Talk, I’m Listening…” by Dude Crush
