When General Electric Nigeria held the first ever customer engagement forum on Wednesday, April 22, at Southern Sun Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, the session that ensued is of benefit not just to its customers but also the general social media public.
Moderated by award-winning writer and PR executive, Toni Kan, on hand to discuss the topic, ‘Tweet-dreams to online nightmares’ were award-winning journalist, poet and social media influencer, Tolu Ogunlesi, and lawyer, author and internet entrepreneur, Chude Jideonwo.
Participants were drawn from GE partner organisations, clients and the media.
While declaring the forum open, GE Director of Communication, Sub-Sahara Africa, Patricia Obozuwa, said the forum was the first of others to come put together by GE to understand what the customer needs to better serve them.
“At GE, we say the customer is a critical component of our business and we need to develop deep insights about the customer and his or her needs in order to meet them,” she said.
Obozuwa added that the forum would enable GE’s communications team interact with customers and clients in a convivial, informal but intellectually-stimulating environment.
Jideonwo, who is founder and publisher of ynaija.com, said that social media can aid but also hamper the work of the communications person because it has no boundaries, has no proportions and demands urgent action because it is able to alter perception in seconds.
He declared that a company’s reputation could go up in flames with a mere 140-word tweet.
“Welcome to the age of 140-word branding where you depend on only 140 words. Now, this is such a beautiful mess; it’s all a mess,” he declared.
But how do we adapt to social media? How are customers adapting, managing this social media? Jideonwo asked. He responded that, inevitably, perception problems occur.
So, how fast should companies respond to these problems?
“On social media, people don’t care whether you’re right or wrong. It’s about our humanity. Do you care enough? Do you take a measure of responsibility, which brands need to do, even on social media? They need to work better to overcome wrong,” he stated.
Ogunlensi, who is a two-time winner of the CNN African journalist prize, agreed with him when he said that while social media aids and simplifies the work of the communicator and PR practitioner, it also demands humility because the rules have changed, with the balance of power now tilting in favour of bloggers and online publishers.
“What social media demands is absolute humility, as it can’t be controlled and your big budget can’t help you when something bad breaks about your company. It’s response that matters. Companies should have social media policies. If something happens, what should we do? Many Nigerian companies are not social media-conscious and not sure what to do when things happen,” Ogunlesi said.
He was responding to some of the many questions that the excited participants who were no doubt eager to navigate carefully the double-edged sword that is social media posed at the event.
If this is an indication of things to come in the series, then GE, which is into finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance, is onto a good thing.