By Anne Carlantone
The other day, I was really stressed at work. That’s not unusual for anyone, but the source of the stress was much different than it would have been years ago. The source of the stress was not my boss, my client or even a reporter – it was a less-than-happy Facebook fan (or “liker,” as we say now) of one of my clients’ brand pages! I felt an urgent need to help set things right for this person, not only because it’s in my client’s best interest to do so, but because this person is very active on the page and, in a way, I feel like I know her.
As professional communicators, identifying our audience is half the battle. We spend a lot of time discussing our “targets” and analyzing who our clients’ consumers are. We spend time on focus group research, segmentation studies, etc., and those things are still important. But I don’t think anything has ever “connected” us on a personal level like social media has.
For instance – when a client’s product is placed in a magazine article, we know that a huge number of people are seeing it, but we can never really be sure what the reactions from the readers are. On the other hand, if it’s featured on a blog, there is generally a long list of personal comments to give us an idea on how the product is being received and a reaction to how it’s being presented. As we grow in the management of Facebook pages for our brands, I am constantly amazed at the valuable information we get from the people who “like” our brands…in a matter of minutes. None of this is scientific by any means, but it’s real-time, and well, “real!”
And in turn, as professionals, we feel even more accountable and invested in our clients’ products. If a product isn’t working out for someone, or if there is a problem with product availability in a particular market, they let us know, and we genuinely want to connect them with the information they need. We’re not just discussing our targets…we’re truly interacting with them.