Time as the Social Competitive Advantage

Let’s say we are sitting in a Imagerestaurant having lunch.

You ask me, “how was your weekend?”

Then, I sit there for 20 minutes, saying nothing. Finally, I say “oh, it was great, we went to the beach.”

That would be pretty awkward, right?

The expectation is that you would get an immediate response.

In fact, the longer the interval between your question and my response, the less “social” our experience would be.

It’s quite possible that my behavior would be labeled as “anti-social.”

The Importance of Time In Social Interactions

Now, let’s take this to the level of a global brand. One that wants to have a “social relationship” with you, the customer.

You ask a question via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or email.

How long does it take for a response to come (if it does at all)?

You know that time matters.

A quick response means, in your mind, that the brand cares.

A long time (and yes, that’s subjective) means they don’t (at least that’s our perception).

What This Means For Brands

Being Social@Scale is not just about having more employees using Social tools and technologies.

It’s not just about monitoring and listening, it’s asking yourself…”if this were a 1:1 or small group interaction (that is, a ‘social’ gathering), what would the proper type and time of response be?”

Then doing that.

The challenge is to coordinate all of the parts of a global enterprise to act in a unified way to mirror and match the timeframe of a truly social interaction.

As volumes go up, response times are going to have to go down.

The brands that respond faster and in a more relevant way (not just “hey, thanks for your message) are going to have a competitive advantage in building the relationship with their customers and clients.

Image: StanOd/Shutterstock


Jeremy Epstein
http://socialmediatoday.com/