Facebook For Business: Big Brands Disappointing Their Customers

Although 48 of the top 50 brands in the latest A.T. Kearney Social Media Study have Facebook pages, the way they use these pages is falling far short of what customers expect when it comes to social media. The study of how the top 50 brands used Facebook showed that 94 percent landed users on a one-way communication page -- 65 percent on a company-created tab and 29 percent on a company-only wall. In addition, 38 out of 50 allowed only company posts on their Facebook walls.

When consumers did contact businesses via social media, 27 out of the 50 companies never responded, and only four out of 50 companies responded to more than one-fourth of consumer comments.

Why it matters to your business: Corporate America's loss can be your company's gain. Get the edge over your bigger competitors by using social media for its intended purpose -- as a two-way communications street. A.T. Kearney found the most popular type of posts from companies were "personal postings," which didn't contain any promotional content. So get personal on your business Facebook page and watch it pay off.

Comments

[MadeAsHello]

11:19 AM on 02/26/2012

Corporations will use and do anything to get your information and money. It is a joke to 'Like' a company on FB (or communicate via Twitter), ALL large conglomerates are deceptive, outright lie, and fool use with marketing to make it seem they are on our side and do good for us and the environment. Unless they have coupons run and never believe their marketing...such a joke.

[bogey1]

11:36 AM on 02/26/2012

it's all a ruse to get the info they want so they can use it and sell it, while pretending to 'care' about customers

when the customer is useful to the corporation, the corp will bend over backwards to accommodate (e.g. sales, info, etc.) but if you want support AFTER you bought their product or AFTER they have your info., you get some guy 10,000 miles away who doesn't speak English

[Independent4America]

01:50 PM on 02/23/2012

Facebook is for friends and family. I can't think of any big corporation that has ever treated me as a friend even if they are "people" when it comes to buying political favors and influence. Do your friends try to squeeze as much money as possible out of you? Do your friends ignore you when you have a problem and do they break their promises and commitments to you? Do your friends qualify what they say they'll do for you with pages of fine print exceptions and blanket denials of responsibility? Or the very one sided we can change the contract anytime anyway we like but you have to stick to it however it is changed. If they do then you need way better friends than these corporations. Even if corporations really were people they would be the totally lacking any integrity kind that you should avoid at all costs.

[Ani Oko]

05:25 PM on 02/24/2012

Good point you made. Here is a B2B social network www.ziliot.com I suggest you join to connect with companies

[jeb50]

01:36 PM on 02/23/2012

I don't trust ANYTHING related to FB.

[RayHorsleyConsu]

11:50 AM on 02/23/2012

I personally reject any offer of a company to connect with FB. If they ask I don't trust their motives. I will also not read or comment on anything tied to FB. One of my best achievements of 2011? Leaving FB.

[Sally Tallywhacker]

01:37 PM on 02/23/2012

Ditto.