SA corporates’ social media fail
Johan Jacobs, research director at technology research group, Gartner, says not many companies in South Africa know how to extract value out of social media.
The group says that by 2013 more than 35% of all customer service interaction will be via self-service – up from 20% in 2011. And by 2015, that figure should be up to 50% said Jacobs, who was speaking at an event in Fourways.
By 2015, more web customer service requests and issues will be dealt with by other people in a community, than by the servicing organisation, Gartner said.
The group noted that broadband in South Africa is becoming more available and less expensive. Jacobs highlighted the DA’s ambitious targets for broadband in the Western Cape within the next few years, to go along with government plans for connectivity in Gauteng.
The Gartner fellow expressed his dismay that a number of large South African corporates – including power utility Eskom; telecoms provider Telkom (TKG); and airline group SAA – had either very little social media presence, or nothing at all.
“Telkom has a presence (on Facebook), but it says that no information is provided,” Jacobs said.
He further cautioned that the social world extends beyond Facebook and Twitter, “it’s far bigger than that,” he said.
Gartner underlined the value and importance of social media monitoring tools in developing a social media strategy; including having someone listening to what is being said. “It’s knowing what others are saying about you over social platforms,” Jacobs said.
The second step would then be to extract the value of that information, before providing a response.
Jacobs advised that when a company decides to respond – whether publicly, privately, or not at all – it provided a means of increasing product value.
He encouraged firms to utilise social analytical tools to distinguish between value, and “the noise.”
“We are not going to embark down a social path to make new friends; we are going to embark down a social path so that we can be where our customers already are. All business relationships are economic,” Jacobs concluded.
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