Ask and answer these questions: Is the brand integrating the consumer’s voice into the organization? In what areas are consumers being integrated and engaged, and how much? In this part of the social media plan, visit all the active social media accounts for the brand, product, or service. Visit each account and scroll down the posts. Who is talking? Is it only the brand or are consumers responding? When consumers do respond, does the brand respond back? Is the brand fixing customer-support problems via social media? Has the brand ever considered or used consumer product or service ideas given in social media feedback? Conduct this research and then report findings in these areas:
1. List all brand social media channels with account names and active brand participants.
2. Gauge the interaction by quantifying brand versus consumer posts.
3. Provide example responses in each category: customer support, product/service ideas, promotions, and appreciation.
4. Explain any evidence that the brand has acted on customer social media contributions such as improving the product or service or using brand content. 5. List possible social media channels where the brand’s consumers are active but the brand is not.
The distracted consumer is a marketing problem, but also a human one. In the book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr presents research arguing that the internet is physically changing our brains and reducing attention spans.39
How distracted are you? Do you find your attention span waning?