Community management — when it comes to community management, many in the social media marketing industry may actually see this as customer service. In my years of working in this field, I’ve seen many start off doing some form of community management, only to see it as a kind of “customer service” job and then try to move on to other things, like strategy and planning. It’s hard to find someone like this from an ad agency, because most junior executives doing this will not see this worth investing their time in to growth. I’ve always enjoyed the real-time response that you can get from having a conversation with someone at the other end of the social media channel, and I particularly enjoy having such conversations by replying as quick as possible to surprise your customer, and also responding at weird times that they do not expect brands to. It might also be the thrill of being able to help a customer and convert them into a loyal fan at this touchpoint. At Xiaomi, we term this as building a good friendship with your fan, and in my one year here, I’ve met so many of these fans online and have established this very interesting relationship with some people i have not met before, but bonded together by a common passion to this brand. You must love the brand, love the products, and believe in them. Being able to speak confidently to your fans, knowing that you have the best products in hand, really helps. You can focus on building the relationship rather than worrying to cover up for your product shortfalls. We are transparent, and acknowledge our shortcomings and at the same time do not shy away from our achievements as a small startup underdog.

In the world of social media, be it on Facebook or on Twitter or any other emerging channel, there is no switching off. Once you launch, your customers can come to you at any time. Here are 4 points which I feel are important principles that should be applied to any branded account on social media.

Many queries are time sensitive, and for these, it’s always good to be able to respond these within the hour. Being able to respond timely lets the customer feel that you’re always there for them. Yes, this means even on weekends. The best way is to actually build a team that can take shifts beyond working hours. You work in this industry, so there’s no escaping. Social media marketing is not a 9 to 5 job. And actually, because you can always respond on-the-move, you don’t have to sacrifice large amount of time outside of working hours to do this. Make it a habit to check your brand page frequently, just like how you would check your own personal social media account. It doesn’t take up a lot of time, and it adds a whole tonne of value to your customer when you help them when they most needed it.

Always be transparent, honest and truthful to your customer. Stopping short of leaking trade and company secrets, do go to lengths to explain to your customers how and why you conduct business a certain way, or educate them about your product. We tend to fall into the trap of having deep understanding our brand and products, and assume that many others have the same knowledge as us, when they don’t. Such conversations can often be repetitive, but such conversations should not be “canned”. We can reply with key points, but always craft the message differently with a personal touch.

While being honest and transparent, do not write or speak like a press release. You are talking to a human, so it is very important for them to realise that they are communicating with another human being at the other end. You probably hate it when a computer system replies you and almost never gives you the answer you need immediately — so don’t do that to other. Once you are armed with knowledge and understanding of your brand, the community manager or user interaction specialist should be able to craft thoughtful replies easily and quickly.

How would you reply your friend or family when they ask you for help? That should be the same mentality that you apply to your customers as well. You go to extra lengths to make sure they understand, and follow up till their problem or query gets solved. You don’t patronise them and direct them to customer service, you help them at that very touchpoint. How would your granny feel if she asked you to set up her Facebook account and you told her to email CS for instructions?

Arm yourself with all the knowledge and correct information you need, and you will not fear being engaged in deep conversations with your audience. Also, empower this person to be able to make the right decisions. Unless the situation is very grim and serious, there really is no need for multiple levels of approvals and checks just to reply. You’ve hired the right person for the job, so have trust in them to do it well. They will learn with experience.

The problem comes when you’re an agency handling this (and community management is usually left to the juniors), and even if this is done in-house, nobody really has the passion to carry through with this. Finding such a person is not easy, and probably him or her is difficult, but this is truly an interesting job that is different and challenging every single day.