Firms urged to tap social media

MANILA, Philippines - Companies should use social media to better serve customers and move the business forward.

Speaking at the General Membership Meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines yesterday, Donald Patrick Lim, incoming chief digital officer of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. said that as more and more consumers spend their time online, companies should also tap social media to better serve their customers.

“Companies really have to start investing in social media. The decision makers are there. The consumers are there,” he said.

He noted that in the Philippines, where a lot of people are going online, there are about 30 million Facebook users, 14 million Twitter users and one million individuals with LinkedIn accounts.

By investing in social media through opening accounts, Lim said companies would be able to interact with customers and know what they want as well as they get feedback about the products and services being offered.

Riza Mantaring, Sun Life Financial Philippines president and chief executive officer shared the same view, adding that as most consumers conduct research through the Internet before making a purchase or availing of a service, it would be important for companies to invest in social media.

She noted though that investing in social media does not mean simply opening an account on Facebook or Twitter.

“You have to have a strategy. This may not be necessarily the same for every company,” she said.

In coming up with a strategy for Sun Life, she said the company looked at what the consumer wants and how they would want to communicate with the company.

Lim said that in coming up with a strategy, the company should allocate a significant amount for social media.

He noted that at present, most companies just spend one percent of total spending for marketing on digital platforms.

To better interact with customers and understand what they need, he said companies should be willing to spend more for digital platforms and hire people who could manage the social media accounts as well as monitor what is being said about the company.