Stan's prediction for 2017 -- Brands should look into daring community management

Happy new year 2017 readers! I truly hope that you all have had an amazing holiday period and are settling back into work well. Looking into 2017, I was wondering what would change in the industry -- I mean, 2016 was a great year and content was amazing, but something bigger must surely be coming.

For me, 2017 is going to rely heavily on content management. Brands need to stop with the generic responses to consumers on social media. We have all seen the consumers posting their dissatisfaction towards something and 9 times out of 10, the brands will have a generic response that say something along the lines of “We are really sorry to hear that, we take your feedback seriously so please contact a team member on 9455 XXXX to discuss further”.

Realistically speaking, we as consumers know we are handed off and are left unsatisfied after getting such a generic response. Also, most brands seem to have this invisible wall up where they are hesitant to go out of the ‘safety box’ to reply to consumers. Social media is a place where people like to have fun -- Many times we like to ‘troll’ brands because we have nothing better to do. Mostly, you get the generic “haha hilarious” or sometimes not get a response at all.

This is something that I personally feel brands should start changing. Community management can be a fun and creative space for brands to market to their consumers. Instead of being afraid and staying in the ‘safety box’ that I have mentioned above, try something daring and out there (within reason of course). But I really think that we as consumers can really relate to those kinds of things and can lead to some sort of attachment to the brand because of it.

I am going to leave you all with this screenshot of a Twitter thread between Wendy’s community manager, Amy Brown and a consumer. She isn’t afraid of leaving the ‘safety box’ and responds in a way that some might see as unprofessional, but others might see as genius. For me personally, I think it is pure genius -- And I think for brands to excel in 2017, they should start looking at community management not just as a ‘crowd control’ space but rather a marketing platform where they can benefit from.

Twitter account of Katy Wellhousen @KatyWellhousen

Stanley Ritz Kurniawan

Current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School