Rules of Engagement V.1, social media style
The Times today has an article about Comcast’s social media monitoring and engagement guy, Frank Eliason. Frank apparently follows comments, mostly negative, and actively responds to complaints, usually surprising people in the process. The piece is a bit overly cheery but it brings out some basic points for an engagement plan:
- You have to dedicate resources, in this case a full time community manager who is practically 24/7
- They have to be empowered to make promises and successfully execute on them
- There will be negative responses to being monitored, in this case some found it creepy
- People warm up considerably when they realize a real human is listening to their rants
- This is a very time-consuming role that requires a commitment of resources
The ROI for this kind of thing is not easily quantifiable. In this case a relatively positive article in the Times seems a pretty big win on its own.