Social Media & Customer Feedback

A thought occurred to me today as I wanted a few commercials about some well used products. These companies spent time and money asking people to “Like” them on Facebook or add them on Twitter, because social media is a huge buzzword and companies are doing whatever it takes to utilize these free forms of marketing. There’s certainly no denying that more free marketing is better.

Indeed, someone that “Likes” them on Facebook is probably going to think about them a little more often, which may make them more likely to purchase them in the future. But it also may not, for reasons that most companies seem to ignore: Unless they’re in the process of purchasing, they simply do not care about your product.

So many companies seem to have this dream idea that customers are madly in love with their products to the point where they are actively engaged in the company’s wellbeing. This is simply not the case. Even the most loyal of customers is unlikely to think about your product very often, and when they do it is likely a passing “oh yeah, I like them” rather than some strong feelings.

Twitter and Facebook, then, are likely going to have very little effect. Consider the following: Twitter – People that add companies on Twitter likely add a lot of different companies and are following hundreds if not thousands of people. That means that every minute they are subjected to something like 20 new Tweets, over 1,000 Tweets an hour.

It is highly unlikely they are going to click on your links or read your Tweets unless you Tweet extremely often, but if you Tweet too often you are going to annoy the customer that is hoping to read Tweets from their friends instead, and you will probably be unfollowed. Facebook – There are essentially two types of people on Facebook: Those that rarely “Like” anything, and those that “Like” everything. The former is unlikely to respond to your requests to like them, the latter is likely to forget they ever liked you in the first place and rarely take a look at what you have to offer.

That is not to say that social media is necessarily “bad.” Indeed, it has its uses, and it is essentially free advertising so there is certainly no harm. But the degree to which companies seem to believe that these social media sites are going to vastly increase their customer loyalty and satisfaction is unfortunate, because while these sites are certainly interesting, they are not used in such a way that most companies are going to experience any changes.