USPS missing out on social media opportunities, says Inspector General
The US Postal Service should expand its social media reach in order to gain sales and marketing opportunities, according to a new white paper from its Inspector General. The paper, entitled “Like, Share, Tweet: Social Media and the Postal Service” says social media represents a $1.3 trillion annual economic value in the US.
A strong social media strategy could help the Postal Service to compete in the digital age, provide a better customer experience and benefit from social commerce, the paper suggests.
The paper states: “For many businesses, social media has provided new ways to generate revenue. Social sites can be effective at driving customers to companies’ websites, promoting positive word-of-mouth about products and services, enhancing the corporate brand, and increasing customer loyalty. These activities translate into increased revenue.”
Return on investment
Rival package shipping firm UPS began rolling out a “very customer-oriented” social media strategy five years ago, the white paper noted. The firm now has a team of 5-10 employees under a senior manager whose primary responsibilities are social media activity.
“It’s hard to directly attribute specific sales figures to social media, but when UPS has posted about particular products, sales for those products have increased,” said the Inspector General’s analysis, adding, “Moreover, UPS evaluates everything the company does in terms of return-on-investment. Were social media not demonstrating worthwhile return,
the social media staff and resources would most likely be decreasing.”
Strategy
The US Postal Service is already beginning to develop a social media strategy and has a small team managing the federal agency’s presence on websites like Facebook and Twitter, with 137,000 “likes” on Facebook and about 27,000 Twitter followers. A company “of similar size and scope”, Walmart, has 32m likes on Facebook and 462,000 Twitter followers by comparison.
The Inspector General’s paper recommended additional resources for the USPS social media effort, stating that the current level of funding was not sufficient to ensure an “engaging online presence”.
USPS should market its social media site details more prominently on its website, in TV commercials, on vehicles and in post offices.
It could also deliver more customer-specific content by creating local, regional or interest-based social media accounts to attract certain communities with more pertinent information.
Customer care
The white paper also recommended that the Postal Service make use of social media for more operational customer care and marketing efforts — dealing with customer complaints in order to give the Postal Service a better image and reduce customer care costs, and marketing current products and services through social media. At the moment, many customer complaints are currently either ignored or “not properly handled” through social media, the paper warned.
Social media also represents an opportunity to create all new products reliant on its technology, the IG suggested. Social e-commerce services, such as the shopping encouraged by picture websites Instagram and Pinterest, along with identification services, crowd-shipping services were among ideas raised.
These communication channels also offer the Postal Service the opportunity to “crowdsource” ideas to improve its current offerings, or develop new products, by conducting market research through social media channels — with the byproduct that crowdsourcing market research helps create more loyal, engaged customers.
“Although not a ‘cure all’, social media offers significant benefits, and many opportunities exist for the Postal Service to expand in this area,” the paper concluded.
“To do so will require a more solid foundation of resources and a distinct, agency-wide commitment. A solid and comprehensive social media strategy built on such a foundation could help the Postal Service extend its reach, cut costs, create value, and remain current as society changes.”
