Is Listening and responding to your customers on Social Media necessary? Well, almost everybody would say ‘Yes’. But, do brands actually practice this? Many marketers in haste to gain the social media advantage create a Twitter or a Facebook account and proclaim “Mission Accomplished”. They forget that actually the mission has just started. Just tweeting a day is not enough today; marketers should interact with their customers more often, engage with them, answer their queries and respond to their complaints.

One may ask ‘What worse could happen even if I do not engage with my customers often and even if I do, does it carry any advantage?’

Let’s look how important it is to listen and respond to your customers and why does it matter.

In October 2013, a disgruntled Air France customer wrote a blog (Ref: http://jayharishshah.blogspot.in/2013/10/one-night-in-paris.html) describing his agony and posted it on the Facebook page of Air France. The buzz started on the tunes of the same guitar which United broke (Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo#t=0) four years back. Similar to United, Air France chose not to respond to the post unlike other customers who read through the post, re-posted it ad tweeted it on their twitter accounts. Air France had to pay hefty price of not listening and responding to the customer. The post eventually went viral and Air France went on to find covers to hide themselves. It was a week later, when the brand was destroyed and defamed by customers through various social media channels, Air France replied back. But till then, the damage was done.

What if Air France would have responded and apologized to the customer as soon as they knew about the post? Could that have made any difference? I would say, an obvious ‘Yes’. With the open forums such as Twitter, the marketers should be cautious of every step they take towards building their brand online.

The formula that leads to success in the social media scenario can be as simple as following the below mentioned points.

• Before going online, have your social media policies in place
• Go online when you are ready to do so
• Engage with your customers: respond, appreciate and thank them for their posts
• Identify your social media advocates
• Set dialogues with you customers

Weather to choose to listen and respond to the customers or ignore them defines the future of the brands.