Social media: are you on the same page as your customers?

New research undertaken by Fifth Quadrant has revealed a possible disconnect when it comes to how businesses and customers approach social media.

A new report, titled 'Emerging Consumer Channels: Social Media, Web Chat and Smartphone Apps', suggests that although consumers and business may well be seeking each other through social media, they aren't necessarily looking in the same place.

In the case of consumers, Facebook was the number one place for customer service engagement. This was followed by online forums and communities, and then YouTube.

At the other end of the scale, consumers indicated they were less likely to turn to Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs for customer services purposes.

This is interesting in and of itself, but takes on even more importance when you consider that the leading social network offered as a consumer contact channel by businesses surveyed was Twitter.

Next up in importance from a business point of view were company blogs and websites and online communities, as well as Facebook.

So it is quite possible that businesses with the best of intentions in terms of reaching out to consumers through social media may be doing so in an ineffective way.

This illustrates the importance of knowing your customer base well through such methods as seeking feedback on products, services and overall satisfaction.

"Simply creating a new service channel then standing back and waiting for the customers to come won't work," said Fifth Quadrant head of research Chris Kirby in a statement.

"If organisations want to offer customer service through social media, they need to go to the networks that their customers use."

It is easy to find out more about the social media habits of your customers with specialised survey software.

You can tailor customer survey questions to give you precisely the sort of business intelligence you need to better meet the needs of consumers.