Do you get frustrated when you tweet or facebook a brand and they ignore you?  I get frustrated too.   Social Media is not a one way street especially for brands. If a consumer tweets a brand, good or bad, the brand needs to respond in some form or fashion.

Many times, I will tweet an article about a brand and tag the brand with a positive congrats or message—–>crickets.  It surprises me every time.  Not all brands, but a lot of them are totally missing the boat.  I’m not saying I need an ‘atta girl’ every time I mention a brand, but a favorite would be nice. According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, 90% of consumers would recommend a brand after interacting with them on social media.  Ninety percent, people! On the flip side, brands fail to respond 75% of the time on Twitter and 85% on Facebook.  This unacceptable.

Look, I’m the first one to tell you that social media management is not easy and I do it for a living.  I constantly stay on top of my client’s accounts all day, every day, so as not to miss a customer interaction.  Brands need a person or team dedicated to this everyday as well.  Social media does not take time off, ever.

The marketplace is so competitive now and brands can’t afford to overlook anyone.  There are brands doing this very well, Southwest Airlines, Garrett’s Popcorn, Chipotle, etc and they have huge social media teams that monitor their social media 24 hours a day.

For those brands who are not monitoring, they are really missing a key component to the B2C relationship.  Consumers are human and they want to be treated like a human being even by a brand. If a brand can accomplish this well, they will build loyalty with the customer.

For those brands spending millions of dollars on ads and marketing…as this article will tell you, it’s about loyalty.  Ads don’t create loyalty. If you want loyalty, thank your customers on social media.

Have you interacted with a brand on social media? Was it a positive or negative experience?