It is clear that in 2014, social media has a huge role to play in cultivating the relationship between companies and their consumers - there is evidence, for example, that around two thirds of Millennials engage with brands via Facebook in some way. Generation Y expects a greater level of co-operation and communication with brands than any before and this will only become a more prevalent feature in the marketing machine.
However, surprising as it may seem, some companies are simply not utilising the power of social media and therefore are missing out on valuable interaction.
Compare, for example, the Twitter feeds of 2 mobile phone operators here in the UK: My own provider Vodafone (17% market share) and Tesco Mobile (7% market share). Vodafone treat their Twitter feed as little more than an alternative avenue for advertising or customer service, with Tweets typically looking like these:
Tesco Mobile have a totally different and far more relevant approach. They have received media coverage thanks to the sense of humour on display, and take a much more fun and friendly approach to interacting with their customers. Many of their Tweets have links to current affairs and are not even relevant to their products and services (the first Tweet relates to reality TV shows – The Voice being a singing competition, and Splash diving):
Tesco are rewarded for this with 55,000 followers which, while less than Vodafone UK’s 97,000, is a good number and much better in proportion to their overall market share. This gives them several benefits including a large audience for direct sales messages and learning more about their user (and potential user) base. It is probably fair to say that only one of these companies is harnessing social media to its full potential!
They certainly have me thinking about which ‘The Voice’ judge I would duet with – it has to be Tom Jones right?
