Social media isn’t merely a matter of selling products or services, if your business page doesn’t truly connect with your customers, you may end up talking to yourself. Here are five ways to get back to the basics and keep your customers in mind on social media.
1. Use your blog posts.
When writing blog posts, it’s important to write about topics that are likely to interest your customers, rather than ones only you care about. Once you have an article that keeps your customers in mind, you can use that content to connect on social media as well. Ask your customers their opinion on the topic, and engage with them in the comments, answering questions and addressing concerns without arguing.
Once you post your articles on your social media pages, you can gauge how well the content appealed to your audience, giving you the confidence to write an even better piece next time.
2. Use social media polls.
Of course, it’s not necessary to write blog posts to find out what your audience thinks. Sometimes the best way to appeal to your audience is the simplest way. A straightforward tool is to connect through social media poll feature. Although polls have been on Twitter for some time, they now appear on various other platforms as well.
While the approach is simple, brands can get creative in how they use poll questions to engage with their audience. You can also use them to improve your products and services as well as to get some quick feedback on a current event. Varying the types of questions and topics can help you appeal to and engage with different groups of people.
3. Involve customers through competitions.
Many big name brands use competitions to engage with their customers because they work. For example, calling for engagement on a social media post to be entered into a prize draw can result in a big buzz around your page as a whole.
Other brands engage with their customers in even more profound ways by calling for customers to send in photos or choosing a new tagline for a new product. The more you can involve your customers, the more likely they are to purchase from you in the future. If you want a way to market without customers being aware of it, competitions are a way to go.
4. Encourage customers to interact through a social media help page.
When customers have a problem with a company, they love to complain about it on social media. Research has suggested that brands must respond quickly to keep that customer. However, too many brands do not have the tools to allow the customer to explain their problem.
Therefore, you should have a dedicated social media help page that encourages customers to reach out. Remember though to do your best to provide unique solutions to specific problems. Generic responses can make a customer feel they are not being listened to. Taking charge of the complaints process and showing you care can make a significant difference.
5. Engage your customers through social media chats.
You don’t want to talk to your customers only when they have a problem. You want to engage with them about exciting things happening with your business, too. For example, Facebook Live provides an opportunity to engage and interact with your customers through video streaming. There are various ways you can use this tool from answering questions to streaming live events.
Other social media sites provide ways you can engage with your customers as well through social media chats. Twitter is best known for Twitter chat events, but other social media sites now do them as well. So, why not ask various questions and get answers directly from your audience. As ever, it’s incredible what useful information you can pick up in this way.
Everything you do on social media has to come back to connecting with your customers. Interacting through blog posts, polls, competitions, a social media help page and social media chats can promote brand loyalty and have your customers coming back time and time again for years to come.
