Social Media Is More Than Just Social Media

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing Gabrielle de Papp, Vice President of Corporate Public Relations for Neiman Marcus, speak about emerging trends in her industry and how Neiman Marcus is working to connect with a new generation of shoppers.

Among the topics she discussed was the idea of social media encompassing aspects of almost every position in a business. On social sites like Facebook and Twitter, brands are working with and responding to aspects of marketing, public relations, customer service, tech problems, client retention and much more.

In this way, social media is much more than posting statuses and videos . This doesn't mean that you should hand over the passwords and login info to everyone in the company, but that your social team should have the latitude and wherewithal to respond to queries submitted in a timely and informed manner.

Long story short: if they don't have the answer, they should have the training and tools to find one.

The "lobby" analogy is especially apt here. Members will flock to your social accounts hoping to get answers to a variety of questions. It doesn't matter if you only set up your Facebook to post photos from events, or your Twitter account to post branch hours. You'll receive questions about poor experiences, technical issues and more. Is your team ready to handle them?

As we discussed a few weeks ago, the only thing worse than giving cookie cutter responses to people's problems is ignoring them all together.

How does your team handle in depth inquiries on Facebook and Twitter?

DeAndre

DeAndre Upshaw is a former Young & Free Texas Spokester. He's a marketing professional living in Dallas and a Beyonce enthusiast. DeAndre is the host and executive producer of The State of Awesome. Follow him on Twitter and check out his personal website.