[ digital. marketing. speak. ] by Vlad Gorenshteyn

Social Media Update 2011-12-19

Today’s social media update is brought to you by Facebook and the update is…um…not so social.

Facebook began rolling it out a private messaging features for Facebook pages which allows admins to communicate with customers directly.

IMHO, this feature defeats the whole purpose of social interaction. For example, if a customer has an issue with a product/service or wanting to know on a status update, chances are that the same or similar issue exists with another customer and so the public post serves to 1) allow other customers to say “hey I have a similar issue…fix it!”, and 2)create a feedback loop for the company to address

In the example above where Jack Smith is asking for an order update…while a brands’ wall is not the best place for this question, the customer is either 1) unaware about the proper channels where such a question can be answered (brand’s fault), or 2) prefers the wall as a communication medium. This presents an opportunity for the brand to:

engage the customer and highlight their glowing processing times
respond to the customer and educate them about the place to check this sort of thing (order status page)
gauge whether other customers are aware of the order status page and whether similar issues exists with other customers or elsewhere in the company’s ecosystem
thank the customer for their order and brand loyalty
give the customer options to take the conversation to another medium (e.g. email, etc.)

So, to me this feature (though useful in a few limited scenarios) is largely anti-social and will not provide too much value to community managers.

Any community managers out there that agree/disagree? Please post your feedback below…

(via thenextweb)

Source: thenextweb.com