A report from Social Bakers found that few industries are performing well in terms of customer service on Facebook.

A report from Social Bakers found that telecom companies and airlines are among the best performing industries in terms of responding to customer service-related comments on Facebook. However, social media marketing campaigns are still largely missing the mark in terms of providing timely responses to customer engagement.

The study found that telecom companies respond to 60.4 percent of user complaints or feedback on Facebook, which was the most among the measured industries.

Airlines finished second, addressing 55 percent of engagement opportunities presented by Facebook fans.

These organizations are still missing a substantial amount of opportunities to build their presence on the web and improve perception among customers – and companies in other industries are missing out even more. Brafton recently highlighted a study from ClickFox that found 72 percent of consumers named reliable social media marketing engagement as a major factor in loyalty to a particular brand.

Best Facebook marketing response rates:

Telecom industry: 60.4 percent

Airline industry: 55 percent

Finance industry: 46.4 percent

Retail industry: 43.6 percent

Worst Facebook marketing response rates:

Automotive industry: 17 percent

Alcohol companies: 5.2 percent

Media organizations: 4.9 percent  

With this in mind, the companies on the low end of Social Bakers report have some work to do to make their new media marketing efforts more effective in terms of gaining prospects and keeping existing customers. Automotive companies respond to just 17 percent of all customer related engagement, and financial management services deal with 18.8 percent of responses. Alcohol companies and media organizations actually performed worse at 5.2 percent and 4.9 percent respectively.

While social media marketing offers organizations myriad benefits, one of the best uses of the channel is interaction with a target audience. Brafton recently reported that satisfying customers’ informational needs on any social platform is critical to ensure a business has a strong web presence. The channel has quickly become the web’s answer to word-of-mouth marketing. Consumers discuss brands and products, and they aren’t shy about pointing out negative experiences to their friends or followers.

Social Bakers’ report focused on social marketing with Facebook. However, a report from STELLAService suggested that companies are missing similar opportunities on Twitter. Highlighting the study, Brafton reported that more than half of customer service-related Tweets were ignored by companies despite the opportunities to improve their customers’ perceptions of their organizations.

With both Facebook and Twitter growing rapidly, in terms of overall use and the frequency with which users interact with brands, developing a strategy that allows for timely customer service can help maximize social’s impact on a company’s bottom line.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.