How #SocialMedia Can Help You Connect with Customers
Social media can help you reach your customers in exciting new ways. It’s like a pipeline of channels that serve as an extension of your traditional marketing outlets.
When social media is integrated into your overall communication strategy, it can help build engagement and generate real time feedback for your brand.
So, how can social media help you better connect with your customers?
Social Media Today wrote “25 Ways to Engage Your Social Media Following.” The article offers many tips on how to build and engage your social media following.
Some of the top tips include:
- Become a student of social media and set up your own accounts on the networks of interest so you can learn how they work.
- Sharing is key, think 80/20 rule and stay away from the hard sell.
- Think local. Connect with your local community and build a rapport with other people and businesses in your area.
- Experiment with messages on different networks. What may work for Twitter may not be the case for Facebook.
- Adding visual elements is always a good idea on any network which explains why Pinterest and YouTube are so popular.
Hubspot wrote “How to Use Social Media to Engage with Customers and Build Your Brand.”
A great tip they give is to start out listening, then interact with your audience.
- Find out what your target audience wants. Set up a keyword/hashtag monitoring stream and find out what they are saying about you, your industry, competition and more.
- Read and respond to your comments on social media accounts. This gives you a firsthand account and puts your finger on the pulse of what is happening right now with your market.
- Ask and answer questions. Social media is like an informal focus group – it’s a great way to have a conversation and generate feedback.
- Be transparent and be true – show your personality, make a connection and see what happens.
How have you better connected with your customers on social media?
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net