Customer Experience

By Liam Dowd - July 8th, 2014

How to target Facebook customers, social TV, Twitter query response and mobile social behaviour

On target with Facebook

A new infographic from Qwaya offers some great insight if your corporation is attempting to build its profile on Facebook. As Qwaya explains: “In this infographic we’ve outlined all the options you currently have when building a target audience on Facebook. Hopefully it can help shed some light on the opportunity that awaits when trying to reach the people that really matter to your business.”

Social TV

Social media has transformed how consumers watch television. According to new research from YouView, just under a quarter (27%) of respondents actively avoid social media when catching up on their favourite shows. However one in seven get show recommendations from their social networks, with 16% engaging in discussions over their favourite social media channels.

Susie Buckridge, director of product at YouView said: “There has never been a greater choice of TV available to watch and more ways to watch it on, so it’s interesting to see how viewers are clearing a path through the maze of shows being aired. Whether taking recommendations from social media or being influenced by family and friends, it appears the personal touch is the key to helping decide what’s worth turning on and what we should just switch off.”

Brands have known for sometime that social media has an influence far in excess of the social channel itself. Today, social media has the power to influence viewing and buying habits.

Tweet for customers

According to the Multichannel Customer Experience Study, carried out by software solution company Eptica, retailers continue to perform poorly when it comes to responding to Twitter enquiries. Just a third of leading brands including Currys, Waterstones and ASOS only effectively responded to enquiries via Twitter. Email continues to be the most effective way to engage with a UK retailer with 63% of questions responded to according to the study.

Says Olivier Njamfa, CEO and co-founder, Eptica: “The retail sector has been revolutionised by the expansion of digital channels, meaning retailers have to answer more questions, across more channels, than ever before. However, our study shows that, while some retailers are leading the way, many are failing to deliver fast, accurate responses and consistency across channels.”

Retailers in particular should clearly understand that multi-channel connections with consumers are now the norm. However, studies like this indicate that corporations in the retail space are not evolving their customer communications – instead relying on traditional channels such as email and their websites. For retailers to thrive they must rapidly develop the social aspect of their customer engagement.

Mobile behaviour

The use of mobile device to access social media networks has been constantly expanding over the last few years. According to the latest mobile behaviour report from Exact Target, Only 53% say they liked or followed a brand on social media from a mobile device in the past six months. Also 46% of consumers report that brands don’t provide meaningful content on social media.

“Using smartphones and tablets to peruse social networking sites is common; 75% of consumers do this at least once a day on their phones, and 64% of tablet owners use a tablet to access social media at least once a day,” the report says. “While social media is a common destination for the majority of mobile users, liking and following brands on social media using mobile devices isn’t as common. Also, 53% of consumers say they’ve liked or followed a brand using a mobile device in the past six months, as shown in the chart below.

“Females are significantly more likely to like or follow a brand on social media to receive coupons or deals (71% do so, compared to 63% of consumers overall); males are significantly more like to want quick access to information (67% like or follow for this reason, compared to 58% of consumers overall)."

Finding meaningful content on branded social media properties can be a struggle, 46% say. And 36% say they don’t need quick access to info, and 32% say they don’t need to be in the loop. Brands need to clearly express the value of liking and following their social media properties, and deliver on that promise.”

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.