Social media has taken the world by storm, and these days to be any chance of succeeding in business you need to be getting involved and engaging your customers via social networks. The following looks at some of the reasons why it is smart to engage your customers on social networks, as well as a few ideas on how to do it.
Why?
Build Trust
Social media offers a fantastic opportunity for businesses to get to know their customers and vice versa, and by making your business a familiar presence on social networks it will be a lot easier to come across as more transparent and therefore easier to trust. You should still be using SEO marketing, flyer distribution, flash mobs or whatever else to drive traffic to your website, but when paired with the familiarity created through social media marketing, it can mean those customers driven to your site arrive already familiar with who you are, and therefore are a little more trusting.
Get Feedback
Social media offers one of the best ways to get feedback from your customers, as it is a whole lot quicker and easier for them to send feedback via their mobile devices than it would be to fill out a survey and send it via regular post. The better you can encourage and harness your customer feedback, the more likely you are to be able to keep them happy, so make sure you are using social networks to keep your finger on the pulse when it comes to your customer satisfaction.
It’s Instant
It is easy to engage with your customers more often on social media due its instantaneous nature, so whether you are trying to draw attention to a snap sale or make a comment on an incident that has just taken place, with social media you can essentially have real time engagement with your customers wherever they are.
How?
Give Advice
Whether you make DIY videos or offer your opinion on some of those bigger issues affecting your industry, a clever way to engage your customers via social media is to answer questions and offer advice. Engaging your customers in this way on social media will have you looking more like a leader in your field, doing wonders for your business and brand.
Promotional Offers
Just because your business is on social media that doesn’t mean your customers will automatically want to engage with you, so it is a good idea to encourage interaction a little more by offering some sort of incentive for people to do so. Whether you offer a discount voucher in exchange for filling out a survey or hold a competition via social media to come up with ideas for new products, it is well worth investing in quality customer engagement by ensuring there is more than enough reason for your customers to want to engage.
Location Based Apps
Location based mobile applications have emerged as a clever way for businesses to use social media to engage their customers, as with mobile apps your ‘known’ customers will receive an alert via their mobile device whenever they are within a certain distance of your business. This can be a great way to entice customers who you know are close by into checking out some of your latest deals and promotions, and this brilliant tactic has proven wildly successful for many modern businesses.
