questions they’re asking. As an official rep- resentative of your organization in social media, you have the ability to provide in- formation, guidance, recommendations, clarifications, corrections and more. In other words, by listening first and identify-
ing good engagement opportunities, you have the ability to provide value with any of the content you put out. Social media provides a great opportunity for you to harness your expertise and share it with the audience. The key is to provide value for both the audience and your organization. Your audience relies on
you: It’s important to remember that in social media, conversations are happening in almost real time. In order to be a reliable source of information for the community, you’ve got to be an active mem- ber. Make sure you’re able to ded- icate the time it takes to update content, answer questions, and offer information to the commu- nity. When you speak, they will listen, as long as they know they can depend on you being there. In order to make it a two-way con- versation, you’ve got to interact. Don’t shy away from nega- tive comments: One of the
questions I get asked frequently is, “What if someone says something bad about us?” Typically, I’ll ask that person what they would do in that situation. “Just delete it, and block them,” they often say. Many times, that’s the wrong answer. When you have a healthy dialogue, not
everyone is going to agree. There are peo- ple who don’t like you or your products and have no problem letting you and everyone else know about it. The conver- sations about your organization are hap- pening with or without you, so why not look for opportunities to interact and turn negative comments into positive ones? You may hear a complaint about how
the new model of the product is not as good as the older version. Why not use that as an opportunity to highlight the improve- ments of the newer model? There are prob- ably aspects of that new model that make it better. Maybe the horsepower is reduced, but the fuel efficiency is better and the emissions are lower. Remember, when you share the update, you’re sharing with the entire community. Again, the “value” of any
OUTDOOR POWER EQUIPMENT MAY 2011
23
