Comments on: What's an Appropriate Response Time to Inquirers?

By: casas rurales en cantabria

casas rurales en cantabria — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:18:03 +0000

We need to ride the wave with them or someone else will.

By: Logica Uspeha

Logica Uspeha — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:59:01 +0000

Rachel, everything depends on ours characters and habits. If I like to be inaccessible I will communicate only one time a week!
But if I can’t live without communication I will communicate 18 hours a day. Notebook, laptop, smart phone, i-Phone will help me!

By: daidamia

daidamia — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:04:38 +0000

Over time you will be able to build a steady following on FaceBook as long as you take the time to leave messages on other users’ pages.

By: Social media response times for universities | Universities and the Web

Social media response times for universities | Universities and the Web — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:19:56 +0000

[...] Reuben asks ‘What’s an important response time for enquirers?‘ (and conversation follows in the comments..). This ought to be a major consideration for any [...]

By: casas rurales en cantabria

casas rurales en cantabria — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:26:20 +0000

We need to ride the wave with them or someone else will.

By: Bradjward

Bradjward — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:38:54 +0000

Whoops. Forgot link:

“And when you walk into your office the next morning to see an inbox like this and see all the questions answered, I gotta smile. :)”

http://flickr.com/photos/bradjward/3210656148/sizes/o/

By: Bradjward

Bradjward — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:36:20 +0000

Some usability testing I did over a year ago solidified a lot of questions you are having for me.

In several usability tests on the BUForums (http://go.butler.edu/cs), I asked high school students how long they expected to wait for an answer on the forums.

The longest response….. 2 hours.

After 1 year of trying to be that person that was there for every single question, I changed my strategy for 2008-2009 and delegated most of the after-hours responsibility to my student bloggers and it’s been fantastic.

And when you walk into your office the next morning to see an inbox like this and see all the questions answered, I gotta smile. :)

I love Kyle Johnson’s comment about the ‘hidden cost’. SO true. Our office ours are 5:30a-2:30p for a student on the east coast. How often are kids looking for a college during that time?

By: Kyle James

Kyle James — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:14:58 +0000

Hey guys, Great discussion going on in the comments here. Social media is tricky because people expect immidiate feedback at all times. I think 24hrs is probably more of a realistic window to this instead of 48hrs simply because of the nature of the medium. Of course I’m also more of an advocate of using these social media platforms, specifically facebook, as a landing page with an intro to your instutiton but then driving them back to your site where you engage them in the additional conversation. It’s easier to track and you do hold more control over things should they get out of control. No I never want to limit people, but it’s good to have it should it come up.

Also just wanted to make sure that it’s stated that Social Media Comes Last. I wrote this post right before Christmas and it kind of got buried during the holiday’s but I think it’s relevant here. If you don’t have the rest of your stuff in order then trying to commit the time or resources to Social Media isn’t the best use of your time.

By: Michael Staton

Michael Staton — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:58:46 +0000

As with normal marketing, the best response time to an inquiry is immediately because the prospect is still paying attention.

I recommend a chore wheel approach. Get your team together and schedule daily management from someone, every day. The best time will be at night because, frankly, that’s when high schoolers are on it.

If you can’t respond immediately, message the inquirer directly to let them know there’s been a response. Share the link to the response using the Facebook share feature.

Social Networks, especially Facebook, come with an expectation that you live on them. More than half of Facebook’s 150 million users login every day.

Pages, as a product, has limitations as a marketing tool because it doesn’t make it’s own management easy. For instance, Pages doesn’t send you email or text updates. To boot, there’s really nothing you can do to influence Facebook’s product decisions, so don’t hold your breath for them to respond to your needs.

This is why I recommend building or procuring a Facebook App. Obviously, I’m biased towards ours, Schools on Facebook. http://www.inigral.com

By: Robin2go

Robin2go — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:04:37 +0000

@Kyle Don’t create a social media effort unless you can support it. Some people are naturally inclined to be connected 24/7. In that sense, finding someone who is comfortable in that work style is a definite asset. I don’t believe quadrupling staff size is necessary to make social media work; it is more about committing to maintaining a consistent standard of engagement. You don’t have to bend over backwards to deliver the world at 10:00pm; however, you DO need to give a quick response to let someone know they’ve been heard and will be more fully answered (and making sure they ARE addressed at that later promised time). Think about it this way: in the more traditional business sense, it’s like having someone forward the phones at night so there’s someone on hand in case the London office needs something during THEIR traditional work hours, even though it’s outside YOUR traditional work hours.