How Social Customer Support Brings Social Media Beyond Marketing

16.05.2012
"We hear about the marketing side of social more often because so many brands have flocked to Facebook and Twitter to try and do the land grab and get as many customers as possible," says Chris Carfi, strategist for , a company that partners with enterprises to implement strategies and programs for engaging with consumers, partners and even employees.

"It may not be as sexy, but a lot of the really cool stuff is happening in other areas," he adds, referring to social media efforts in customer support and product departments, to name two.

Today's consumers post more than 1 million social messages every 60 seconds. In addition to talking about what they do in their personal lives, they're sharing thoughts, comments and complaints about the companies with which they interact. Smart companies are listening to these conversations and using social media for much more than marketing.

Author, speaker and consultant is known globally as an expert in customer management and has worked for clients such as American Express, Apple, Coca Cola and the Government of Australia. He says there is a huge retool going on in corporations to pull social contacts into their operations and treat them like they would any other channel.

"From a broad perspective, social is a lot more than just a channel. We use the term channel, but the first thing I advise is to have a strategy," Cleveland says. "There's marketing aspects, operations aspects and technology considerations, so social is more than a channel, but ultimately you need to bring it into your operations."