Customer Service

LinkedIn strategy / shutterstock

Running a B2B business can be challenging, especially when you are trying to contact the right person in a company regarding potential partnerships or a joint venture. LinkedIn is a great way to avoid having to ask to speak to the relevant person and being caught up by a gatekeeper.[read more]

Shutterstock

A community manager is the person who manages the social identity of a brand, from Instagram to YouTube to Tumblr. When companies launch (or decide to perfect) their social presence, the first major decision they need to make is whether or not they will manage their accounts internally or hire an agency to do so.[read more]

social media contributions to the world / shutterstock

Most of us use some form of social media every day – and whether it’s for personal communication, self-promotion or marketing, we use it religiously. Instead of focusing on social media’s pitfalls and absurdities, let me remind you how its influence transforms society for the better.[read more]

good employees/shutterstock

Add this to the mountain of evidence that contradicts the conventional wisdom that employees’ use of social media is a drain on productivity: Among hourly workers, those that use five or more social networks are more productive and better at handling customer transactions.[read more]

Tricia Gellman

Tricia Gellman, senior director of product marketing at Salesforce.com, discusses the role social is playing, should play, and will play going forward in order for businesses to provide the kind of service customers expect to receive from companies they frequent.[read more]

customer relationship management / shutterstock

Customer retention is a critical issue. It seems the two strategies for most companies center around “Keep them from leaving,” or “Let’s make them want to stay.” They sound the same, but they are really quite different – and produce very different outcomes. Which strategy do you use?[read more]

Social branding case study: Chobani

The #1 Greek yogurt brand, Chobani, transcends the competition by way of high-quality active cultures and a strong social presence. Consumers are CHObsessed. The Chobani brand demonstrates the ideal way to build a social presence: enthusiastically and organically.[read more]

brand reputation / shutterstock

It’s no secret that social media can break a brand’s reputation in a single Tweet or Facebook post. How can YOU make sure you either avoid this or take control of the situation straight away? You need to use a tool that allows you to monitor your business's mentions on Social Media.[read more]

Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com

Consumers are heading to Twitter with customer service issues, and when they do, 32% expect a response within 30 minutes. What are the risks of not being there to respond, and how can a brand set-up an effective response strategy on the micro-blogging channel?[read more]

organizational mobile apps

If you’re like me, the more programs and mobile apps claim to help keep your small business productive, the harder it is to find the time to sift through the clutter and determine which are worth a closer look. So I’ve done the research for you: here are my top five organizational mobile apps.[read more]

social media management tools

Social media is one of the most effective ways for you and your business to get more traffic and generate new leads. Having a presence on all the major networks is a business necessity these days. But what tools are the social media gurus using to manage these multiple accounts?[read more]

email marketing no-no

Brands can’t serve customers well by assuming they all want the same thing. Ask them. Or look at the analytics of who’s opening the emails. Technology makes it so easy to customize email marketing. It’s easy. It works. And it’s essential to good customer service.[read more]

Brands, avoid Facebook hate / shutterstock

Once a user ‘Likes’ your page, your brand will slot nicely into his or her stream of Facebook content. But how can you keep those ‘Likes’ and make sure your fans are engaged, not annoyed? A recent study by Lab42 found 73% of social media users ‘unliked’ a brand for one of three main reasons.[read more]

reputation management

To defend their name, many businesses pursue legal action or hire some “specialist” in reputation management to go on the offensive. But the bottom line is that when something negative is said about your company online, you are more than likely stuck with it. So what do you do?[read more]

chainat/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Many business are still sticking to the traditional phone support or, if you have a physical location, in person support methods – both of which are still effective but make me cringe a little when those are my only options as a customer.[read more]

email/shutterstock

The ROI of email is still around $44.25 for every dollar invested, and customers who read emails from brands spend an average of 85% more while shopping. Investing in improving the content in your email outreach efforts may be the sharpest marketing decision you makes this year.[read more]

A meaningful social signal can deliver a whole lot more than just marketing exposure. Integrating social media into multiple functions of your organization can benefit operations and yield a distinct competitive advantage.[read more]

Conversions vs. traffic

Even the most brilliant SEO strategies will be for naught if the site itself fails to entice customers to actually buy. Slice and dice your site traffic analytics all you want. But at the end of the day, what rings the cash register is actionable solutions you can use to improve your customer experience.[read more]

social media 2.0/shutterstock

The SEC decision to allow social media to be used as a channel of communication for companies marks the beginning of the transition to Social Media 2.0. A social media savvy audience uses the medium to suit itself. Platform loyalty is no longer a requirement. This also makes it harder for marketers whose social media marketing revolves around a platform-specific presence.[read more]

Facebook threaded comments

You’ll have heard by now that the Facebook threaded comments feature recently started rolling out, allowing users to reply to specific comments in a thread. However, we would advise caution before deciding to opt in. What impact will it have on those who use third-party management tools?[read more]