Social Media

Study shows 7 in 8 social messages to brands go unanswered

Apparently, as a whole, brands are bad at social media. It has become a megaphone, not a listening post, so the few that pay attention will score big time.

Dawn Brotherton, Senior Staff Writer

Published

September 21, 2015

Why are you using social media as a business?

Why does your business have a Facebook page? Or a Twitter account? Most probably, you want to build your brand, promote your product or service, and reach new consumers. When you make a post, do you ask people to share it? If you expect your customers to advertise for you, what are you doing for them on social media?

Sprout Social Index recently found that 7 out of 8 social messages to brands are unanswered.

Read also: The psychology behind social media sharing may be holding you back

Think about this: Your receptionist only answers 1 phone call for every 8 that your business got. Eighty-eight (88) percent of the time, your phone goes unanswered. You’d lose business, right? Guess what. In today’s social media craze, you’re losing business by not responding to your customers.

Number of messages up, response rates are down

According to their data, in the first two quarters of 2015, the number of social media messages to brands increased by 21 percent. Even so, the response rate declined by 2.5 percent. If customers did get a response it took longer to receive it. Research found that it took over three days to receive a response.

If your business is engaging with customers through social media, you need to make sure that you have a balanced approach. Yes, it does take time to weed through the messages and make appropriate answers. Where do you think your customers will go when you don’t respond to them? Just as if you didn’t answer the phone or an email, your customers will go somewhere else to get answers. They won’t wait around for you to remember to answer their questions.

It’s time to retool our efforts, people

How can you develop a better approach to social media engagement? You need to plan your social media strategy. Pay attention to what your customers are asking and why they are reaching out to you. If the questions are repetitive, you know you need to provide more information. If they need customer service, you need to make a point to address those needs.

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Instead of just shouting your own message to your customers, you should actively listen to what they’re asking and give answers. Your brand depends on balanced engagement through social media.

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Written By Dawn Brotherton, Senior Staff Writer

Dawn Brotherton is a Sr. Staff Writer at The American Genius with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is an experienced business writer with over 10 years of experience in SEO and content creation. Since 2017, she has earned $60K+ in grant writing for a local community center, which assists disadvantaged adults in the area.

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