“Customers aren’t happy, they’re complaining on social media. How are you responding?”

“That’s not Marketing’s job.”

But wait, if social media is part of your overall marketing strategy and your customers are talking about you on social media, doesn’t it make sense to respond to them? That IS Marketing’s job. Forbes declared as recently as April this year that social customer care was the new marketing.

If you’re not listening or responding to people on social media, you’re doing it wrong. Marketing TO people is outdated. I’m not talking about trolls or people who spam your account with comments. I’m talking about legitimate complaints and praises.

Last year, Twitter conducted a study where they found that customers are willing to spend up to 20% more when a business has responded to a customer service tweet.

In various other studies, social customer care was found to increase customer satisfaction and decrease customer churn.

It’s high time that you let go of the idea that Marketing is only for blasting out announcements. If you develop products, sell services, or manage customers in any way and your paying customers are on social media, you need to be listening and responding to them.

End of story.