We can’t deny that social media has become an integral part of businesses' marketing strategies. However, it has also brought businesses their fair share of challenges. One of these involves managing the comments left by their audience and customers. Now, the question is: Are unanswered comments on social media harming your brand?
In this article, we’ll walk you through exactly how unanswered comments harm your brand, as well as some strategies that you can do for social media management.
The Effects of Unanswered Comments on Social Media on Your Brand
We understand that managing your social media posts is overwhelming. Even responding to comments can be difficult and draining, no matter if you’re getting a lot of engagements or not.
However, disregarding these comments can affect your brand and its social media presence negatively, building a bad reputation for your customer service. This is most especially if we're talking about several social accounts. To state a few, it can lead to:
Poor Brand Reputation
When customers take the time to leave comments on your social media posts, it's a sign that they value your brand. They want to engage with it further, and continue doing business with you. Without a response, expect that it will reflect poorly on your reputation management.
As such, it is crucial to respond to their comments in a timely and appropriate manner. When businesses neglect to acknowledge and answer these comments, it sends a message to people that you're providing unsatisfactory customer service. This can lead to poor brand reputation and customer dissatisfaction, potentially pushing them to switch to a competitor.
Loss of Trust
Customers often turn to online reviews and ratings before availing of a product or service. If they see several unanswered comments, it can create doubt about the quality of the things that your business is offering, as well as the efficiency of your customer support.
This loss-of-trust effect applies to both potential and existing customers. Potential customers who are just starting to take an interest in your brand will start looking into your social media accounts.
If the first thing they see are unanswered comments, it will evidently affect their first impression. You’ll come off as unresponsive and untrustworthy, affecting your customer relationship management.
Meanwhile, existing customers may view unanswered comments as a sign that your company has poor customer service. This may lead to them looking for other brands that are more responsive to feedback and concerns.
Missed Opportunities
Customers may leave comments that can provide valuable insights into their needs and preferences. They may point out a certain flaw in your products and/or services, suggest improvements and new features, and offer a possible partnership or feature.
Consequently, you may miss out on several opportunities to improve your offers and meet your customers' needs.
Poor Social Media Performance
Being unresponsive to social media users will affect your brand's overall social media performance.
You'll encounter declining social media analytics since less and less people will want to engage with your posts. Unanswered comments will also affect your posts' reach and impressions, and will eventually make you lose social media followers.
If your business has multiple accounts, then just imagine how poor your social media campaigns will perform. You'll have to compensate with heavy social media efforts, which means having to spend more money and time online.
Types of Comments You Can Get on Your Social Media Posts & How to Respond
You will get different kinds of social media comments, each having different purposes and messages. To get an overview of each type and how to properly respond to them, take a look at the three main categories of comments below:
Positive Comments
Positive comments refer to those that express appreciation for your brand. These include unsponsored promotions, brand shoutouts, and anything involving a positive message for your brand. These usually come from customers who are already satisfied with your services.
Now, responding to positive comments is as easy as acknowledging them. Say your thanks, return the appreciation, and wish them the best. A simple “Thanks for this. We appreciate your support!” will do.
Negative Comments
Of course, if we have positive comments, we also have negative comments. These include harsh criticisms, bad reviews, false claims, and anything else that can harm your brand’s reputation.
Most of the time, these kinds of comments come from dissatisfied customers with unresolved issues. They can also be former customers who have already decided to switch to a competitor because of their negative experiences.
No matter how bad these comments get, you can’t just delete negative comments. You also can't simply let them be, thinking that they aren’t worth your time. Instead, you need to:
- Acknowledge the customer’s poor experience by apologizing and making necessary resolutions
- Ask for more information about the customer’s issue
- Reply to the customer with your company’s contact details and offer help, or directly reach out to the commenter
- Improve the issue resolution and escalation system
Be patient, and avoid being passive-aggressive to the user who left the comment. Equip your company with the best customer support team to ensure that your team will handle all negative comments professionally.
Neutral Comments
Next, we have neutral comments. These comments are neither bad nor good. The list includes users tagging their friends on your post, announcing a purchase, and product inquiries. Expect these to come from potential and new customers.
Since neutral comments will come in a variety of messages, there is no one-size-fits-all response. Just view the comment as an opportunity to engage with your customers, build new relationships, and give a positive brand image.
Strategies to Manage Unanswered Comments on Social Media Accounts
Avoiding the negative impact of unanswered comments is more than just replying to the customer. Your business needs to have well-thought-out strategies to ensure consistent responses throughout your social media channels. Below are some practices that you can look into:
Maintain Fast Response Times
One of the most important strategies for managing social media comments is to maintain fast response times.
Unless the customer only commented to tag a friend, they usually expect immediate replies from your brand. Whether they’re waiting for you to acknowledge their loyalty to your products and/or services, or they need a resolution for a relevant issue, try to respond as quickly as possible. Doing so will make the customer feel that they’re heard and valued, giving your brand a positive reputation.
Since, realistically, you can’t respond to every comment within seconds, you should establish a timeframe for responding to comments. A good rule of thumb is to keep your response time within 24 hours.
You can also take your social media calendar into. In line with content creation, schedule social media engagement posts and set your timeframe from there. In this way, you can be on standby for every new engagement you'll get.
You should keep an eye out for urgent comments, though. Respond and solve complaints as soon as possible to prevent customer dissatisfaction.
Create a Standard Response Protocol
Another strategy that will help is implementing a standard response protocol. It refers to a set of guidelines that businesses follow when responding to comments or messages on their social media platforms.
A standard response protocol typically includes the following elements:
Following a standard response protocol can help businesses maintain a consistent social media presence.
Furthermore, your protocol should include a tone of voice and language. Choose one that aligns with your brand's values and personality. This will contribute to creating a cohesive brand image across all social media platforms.
Use Social Media Management Tools
Social media management tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social are handy in managing comments.
Platforms like these offer automation features, which can set up notification systems and automatic replies. Combined with marketing efforts, you can only expect the best for your social media platform.
A social media management tool will also allow your business to monitor comments across multiple social media platforms. In this way, your brand can respond promptly, and track engagement metrics easily. The data they’ll collect will help you identify trends in customer feedback and sentiments. In turn, you can use them to get valuable insights into the areas of the business that need improvement.
Look for free and paid social media tools online, and choose based on your budget, goal, major social networks, target audience, and social media metrics, among many others.
Train Your Staff
Training your staff plays a critical role in managing your social media comments. To effectively handle different kinds of messages and concerns, you need to acquaint your employees with your response protocol, the necessary customer service skills, and social media etiquette.
It's necessary to give them a proper orientation about social media marketing. Your staff should also know how to identify urgent comments. This will make it easier for them to sort out priorities in terms of social channels.
Take Your Time in Social Media Planning
Dealing with unanswered comments is a part of social media planning. Thus, it's just right that you take your time in formulating an effective social media strategy during this stage of content creation.
To start, plan your social media post. Strategize about what image it will come with, and which project management tools you'll need. You should also plan the best time to post on social media for the most reach.
From there, try to predict the possible comments that you'll receive, so your staff can prepare the standard response protocol they'll refer to. The only thing left to do once it's time to publish content is to have your social media management team on standby.
Have a Reliable Social Media Management Team
There’s no better way to keep your business away from unanswered comments than having a reliable and professional social media management team. You'll get social media services designed to handle all social-media-related matters for you.
The team's role will revolve around publishing social media posts and content moderation. Hence, not only will they respond to comments, but you can also count on them to:
- Address and handle concerns
- Publish social media posts
- Curate a social media content calendar based on your needs
- Schedule social media posts or wherever major social platform you prefer
- Monitor social media metrics
- Prepare social media reports
- Use and handle social media software
- Reach out to social media influencers for more brand exposure
- Run social media ads
Having social media marketers on your team will take a lot off of your plate. They will engage with your customers for you, so you can focus on your other operations. This is most recommended to brands with multiple social media accounts.
Worried about incurring additional costs? Outsource digital marketing experts to the Philippines. With a dedicated social media management team, not only will you have professionals engaging with your target audience for you, but you can expect an overall positive outlook on the top social media platforms.
Provide Excellent Customer Care
Providing excellent customer care is a vital strategy for ensuring that social media comments and inquiries do not go unanswered. By prioritizing responsive and thoughtful engagement with your audience, you can create a positive impression of your brand, building trust and loyalty among your customers.
Excellent customer care involves training your team to recognize and address customer needs promptly, using a tone that reflects your brand's values and personality. It also means leveraging tools and technologies, such as automated responses for common queries and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to track and manage interactions efficiently.
If you want to skip the hassle of training and investing on new tools, outsource customer care to the Philippines. This strategy not only elevates the level of customer engagement on social media but also allows businesses to focus on core operations, confident in the knowledge that their social media presence is managed by skilled professionals who can foster positive customer relationships and enhance brand loyalty.
Prevent Unanswered Comments on Social Media With 5-Star Customer Care
We understand that you have a lot on your plate, and keeping an eye out for every comment left on your social media accounts isn’t at the top of your priority list. That said, you should definitely outsource social media management to experts in the Philippines.
At ManilaPros, we offer full-service, five-star customer care for retailers. Our customer care services include social media management that will help you keep your comments on your social media in check, as well as stay on top of your customer's messages and inquiries to help you maintain good custom relationships.
Book a call with us today to learn more.
