The Social Enthusiast

 Hi, there, folks!  This week, David Finch and I are acting as your intrepid correspondents from Blog World Expo, one of the largest blogging and new media/social media conferences in the U.S.  

This morning, I attended a panel on social media monitoring with Connie Benson, Amber Naslund of Radian6, Margaret Francis of ScoutLabs, Nick Coudas of Sysomos. 

It was a great question and answer session, and during the session I asked the panel about something that’s been pressing on my mind lately in regards to social media monitoring.  

There is a strong tendency, when a company begins monitoring social media references to their brand, to focus almost solely on the negative mentions.

It’s often a case of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," and it often results in a social media engagement effort that spends all its time trying to please the unhappy people and none at all acknowledging, encouraging and rewarding the people who are talking up your brand to their friends.  

A reactive stance feels safe. But "safe" isn’t going to get people to love your brand.  For that, you need sexy. Being a brand that other people brag about is sexy.  

While I agree that it’s better to listen carefully to negative feedback (because it’s great research to identify opportunities for improvement your product or service offerings), there are two problems with this situation.  

The first problem is, social media can’t fix product or service problems.  You can make the unhappy folks feel heard and valued, and that does help buy you time to address the issue.  But fixing a tangible quality issue with the experience you provide your customers is not within the scope of what social media can do for a brand.  

The second problem is, it puts you into a reactive mode of operations that forces you to ignore your company’s greatest strengths, its previously undiscovered benefits and its stalwart but unheralded ambassadors.  

If you’re using social media monitoring tools, it’s important to be careful not to get your attention so caught up by what’s wrong that you miss the opportunity offered by what’s going right.  

So what about you?  How do you go about avoiding a reactive, "band-aid" focused approach to engagement and promoting a proactive, cultivational approach?