Today, successful companies in Thailand use social media in order to strengthen their relationship with customers and the community. As a result, many companies are developing a social media sales force that in many cases, is even more effective than their traditional sales force.
Technology has changed the way people in Thailand communicate and the one thing people usually have by their side twenty fours hour a day is a cell phone. The companies that are able to successfully utilize social media literally millions of people available to them around the clock. In comparison, a traditional sales person can typically only see one person at a time which illustrates why companies are pouring big money into social media talent.
In talking with Bangkok companies, many discuss what seems like an endless series of benefits with social media. In a recent conversation with a VP of Marketing, he shared with us how his company was able to completely get rid of excess inventory by tweeting a sale. He continued by telling us how the company’s traditional sales force in their brick and mortar locations were unable to have any success in moving inventory yet when the cyber sales force promoted a “fire sale” online customers began arriving at the stores specially for that particular sale item. Interestingly, the sale product acted like a loss leader which allowed the company to sell a lot more items than what people had initially expected to buy. The success of these campaigns has actually changed the way that the company does business and it now offers similar sales every Friday.
As we continued our conversation, the VP of Marketing told me that companies need to regularly promote sales online in order for them to gain any real traction into the Thai community. A random sale promoted online when no one expects it will yield no results. “The reason people follow us online is because that is where we promote all of our sales and now that the Friday sales are a regular thing, we have built a real loyal online community. Our Director of Retail Stores also loves how our social media campaigns helps her staff our stores. In knowing more about customer behavior, we have become more efficient and this results in real savings from an operational standpoint”.
The best Social Media Managers help companies develop loyalty by sharing more than just sales information, however whats shared cannot be anything controversial or something that would reflect poorly on the company. As an example, Bangkok Executive Search placed a Social Media Manager with a company and they started sharing with the community how staff members volunteer at various animal shelters. There were many pictures that went viral and this effort not only improved people’s perception of the company, it also brought much needed financial support for the animal shelters as people began to ask how they could donate money. It was a big “win win” for all parties involved.
The one lesson companies need to learn with social media according to the top professionals is that it’s “better to give than receive”. This means you can’t just post sales while only asking for customers to give you their company money. You need to be able to share with them and similar to traditional sales, people are going to buy from people and companies that they like. If they believe your company has done great work to support animals for instance, they will likely feel you are a good company(especially if they are animal lovers). The more ways your company can positively connect with the community, the more likely your customers are to embrace you. Once you reach that point, you are no longer just the place you shop but a company they actively promote because you reflect their values.
