Guest commentary by Sarah Yaussi

Last spring I was introduced, virtually as luck would have it, to this woman Sherry Heyl, who is a social media consultant in Atlanta. Although Heyl’s company, Concept Hub, admittedly does very little work related to real estate, I decided to sign up for her e-newsletter, thinking it might be provocative or have some relevance for our industry. To be honest, there were some good thoughts, tips, and such, but nothing I would consider truly earth shattering. That is until today.

Her post this morning was all about how some of her clients had been making great strides with their social media strategies, really understanding how to leverage the various platforms to push their companies’ messages out. But what about dialogue? That’s the whole end-game, right? To engage customers and build their trust, so they will select your company to do business with in the future.

But what happens when the dialogue is really not what you expected, much less hoped? What if instead of words of thanks, praise of a product, or inquiries, it was a stream of complaints, criticism, and general grumblings of dissatisfaction? Like it or not, this is to be expected. Social media is an open forum. There’s nothing to stop someone from putting a post on a Facebook page or submitting a comment to a blog. That’s life in Web 2.0.

It’s common sense that when something like that happens, you have to respond in a polite, intelligent, and pro-active way. And there are enough examples of social media mishaps. There are scores of them—just check out this presentation from PCBC 2009 if you want to see a few that would make you cringe—but the latest one rippling through the gossip chains in cyberspace (ironically enough), is real estate-related. The Cliffs Notes version? Horizon Realty tried to sue a customer for libel after she complained about them on Twitter. Let’s just say it didn’t go well for them. (You can get the full 411 on the story here.)

So, the real question is whether managing social media is really a sales and marketing function. As Heyl wrote:

“There is a common theme I am hearing more and more which is that social media belongs in the realm of customer service. There are many case studies out there that show the damage a disgruntled customer can do to a brand through social media. More and more brands are monitoring social media sites to put out fires before they spread and a few are pro-actively reaching their customers to say thank you or offer additional information.”

I think this is a legitimate observation. And I know I see social media mavens like Kay Howard at Lennar dedicating a decent percentage of her posts to playing a go-between between the company’s divisions and its customers. Is this right? Or should the company’s corporate head of customer service and warranty be Twittering and Facebooking right along side Kay?

It might sound a little nuts—and I certainly don’t know for sure—but my instinct is that maybe the latter is right. The way I look at it is that yes, it is a sales and marketing professional’s job to respond to complaints. They are on the front lines and interfacing with the world at large. And yes, it’s easy enough to funnel the complaint to the appropriate person. But how would that sales and marketing person know if the hand-off went as to be expected? Does the sales and marketing professional have the bandwidth to do internal follow-up? My guess is that like most of us still in the job market today the answer is no.

Now, I don’t mean that the customer service departments aren’t to be trusted. That’s not the case at all. What I am suggesting is that without having a stake in a company’s social media strategy, there’s no way to ensure that a complaint logged over Twitter is handled with the care and efficacy as one hand-written and sent to a division president. It’s about having customer service people who can provide customer service however customers are asking for it.

I’d love to hear more about how you’re handling this issue at your companies. Please feel free to comment below or send me an e-mail at syaussi@hanleywood.com.