Finding and reading positive feedback about your institution online is obviously valuable. Whether students are giving you props on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, your own social network, or elsewhere. It’s fun to see what you’ve been doing right and what’s resonating with your audiences. And in almost all cases, it’s a good idea to engage with those people, at the very least thanking them for their kind words. How might that look? Like this:

Really simple, right? However, what’s not as simple is listening to and passing along not-so-positive feedback to the appropriate channels at your institution. I just listened to Zach West, Social Media Analyst at Walgreens on the regularly insightful Customer Management IQ podcast series and think Walgreen is nailing their social media. I believe much of the information he shared translates well to higher ed, too, and wanted to pull out the major customer service points below.

Always Listen, Almost Always Engage
Walgreens is focused on customer interaction, not “Likes,” with a goal of offering everyone a better customer service experience. As mentioned in the Johns Hopkins example above, addressing positive feedback is important so the customer knows you hear them. Thanking them and openly engaging with them helps justify their words (in their mind) and builds trust for the future by letting them know you’re listening. Have fun with it and represent your brand.

Unfortunately, public opinion isn’t always rosy. Thankfully, if you’re skilled in customer service and know how to represent your brand, you can turn these negative commentors into supporters. In practice, a situation happened when one of Walgreen’s pharmacy customers was angered by an employee who told them they could dispose of old medication by mixing it with cat litter. The customer took his frustrated stance on the matter to Twitter, where Walgreens responded by sending the person a link to the story (probably this one). From that point, there was some back and forth on Twitter and the customer eventually came back to viewing Walgreens in a positive light.

Pass Information Along Accordingly
If you’re hearing negative feedback from your audience, send it to who needs to hear it at your institution. There must be an internal process outlined for delivering this information as seamlessly as possible or it will become a burden. From a public perspective, it’s good practice to let the user know that you’ve forwarded on their concern to the necessary party. If someone says something negative about a building, that needs to be (or should be) passed along to whoever is in charge of that area. And again, let the user known that you’ve forwarded on their concern so their complaint doesn’t feel ignored.

Think About Creating a Private Social Network
In terms of social media, the big four for Walgreens are Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and a community they’ve developed on their own called Walk with Walgreens. The inclusion of a private social network is particularly interesting given that new research from the just-released 2011 E-Expectations report states that 76% of students said campuses should create their own private networks (this was also the case in last year’s report). While the demand is there, not many colleges and universities are doing it yet. Though it’s not an easy undertaking, have your internal team give the concept some thought.

Identify and Utilize the Best Tools for You
The prime example that Zach goes into is Facebook Questions. When asked by the interviewer how Walgreens is making sure their online strategies are what their customers want, he simply said they ask. There is nothing wrong with asking your audiences what they want to see, and their primarily method of choice is Facebook Questions, which he also says has seen industry-wide success. While large at nearly 1,136,000 Likes, their Facebook page is known for being interactive so Questions was a natural choice.

Aggregate Your Listening
Having regular, committed staff searching your universities name and noting/responding to issues is key. Walgreens, a giant company, has a small team that does this. They tend to the Facebook Page, discussion boards, and many ‘have their hips attached’ to their Twitter feed. The key takeaway for me is that Walgreens needs to be responsive to many different areas, just like institutions. While Walgreens has a pharmacy, photo department, beauty department, and more, institutions have different audiences and different schools to represent. Because there is varied content being brought up by different audiences, it’s important to have a streamlined process for listening.