Customer Support

In terms of social media, customer support is the service a customer receives in relation to an issue, question, or ordinary service request when they interact with a brand on a social media platform. At its most basic level, social media customer support could be defined as answering a customer's tweet or Facebook comment in a timely manner. Yet, as any brand interacting with the public on social media knows, what may appear as basic support on the surface often requires finesse and savvy behind the scenes to keep a brand's reputation intact and maintain a positive social perception.

Since a brand has a much larger platform from which to speak than any one customer, the customer support that a brand provides on social media is a very public conversation. Indeed, this may be the brand's most public conversation, since many customers and potential customers are likely tuned in to its every word. And, in another sense, social media customer support is also very much a conversation with two or more participants.

Most public conversation on any social media platform is largely a performance, with the participants acutely aware that they have an audience.