The massive surge in popularity of social media platforms in the past decade has redefined the dynamics of customer relationship. Every day we see heaps of interaction happening between brands and their followers; further boosted by the continuous adoption of smartphones and easier to access mobile internet. Given the increased customer inter-connectivity and empowerment, it is crucial for brands to have presence on social media. In this article, we’ll share with you several points that can help you get the most out of this platform.
1. Respond & Interact
a. Reply fast
Consumers often turn to social media to reach out to brands whenever they want to inquire about a product or service, express appreciation for a great experience or maybe even rant about negative ones.
Obviously, the first step towards building a robust customer dialogue is to, well, respond. And it will do you well if you reply in a timely manner, meaning as quickly as possible.
b. Ask Questions
It’s not too often that brands get shout outs from customers. But that doesn’t mean that we’ll just sit there and wait for it to happen. Stir conversation by throwing interesting and relevant questions to your followers. It can be questions about your service quality, how they like your new product or something about current events. It’s really up to you.
2. Humanize the Engagement
a. Have a consistent, personal brand voice
People would engage with brands on social media who communicate like a normal person and not like a business entity. Robotic, minimalistic messaging turn audiences away. That’s why it’s important to develop your own voice according to your brand values & qualities, and what would resonate with your target audience.
Great examples are Top Gear Philippines Facebook and MMDA Twitter.
b. Personalize the conversation
Customers can distinguish if they are interacting with a bot or an actual human. They actually appreciate knowing that they are being assisted by a real person as opposed to someone giving automated or templated messages.
One simple way to humanize the exchange is by putting a name at the end of your response, for example “We are very happy to know that you enjoyed our product. Let us know how we can further improve it — Julie I.”
3. Meet Them Where They Are
When reaching out to brands, customers would normally be annoyed when they are redirected to multiple channels (i.e when you call then be asked to call another number or send an email instead). They expect to be responded to using the same medium, else they will get the feeling of being led through a series of tedious procedures. This simply means that when they reach out using Twitter, they expect you to respond through Twitter as well.
4. Monitor Social Media Mentions
Social media listening allows you to monitor real-time conversations on social media about your brand or products. It provides a snapshot of how customers perceive your brand, what they say about you, and their opinion of your products or service. This in turn gives you a good opportunity to respond appropriately and in a very timely manner. Furthermore, this can be a rich source of consumer insight that you can use to develop content and incite engagement.
Use social media effectively to nurture your customers. This is a great platform to keep them engaged and even make brand ambassadors. If you want to learn more about how you can manage your social media community better, shoot us an email at newsletter@adspark.ph
Sources:
Levy, S. (2012, October 10) 5 Tips for Using Social Media as a Customer Service Tool. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224614
DeMers, J. (2015, January 21 (Updated Mar 23, 2015)) 8 Ways to Build Trust on Social Media Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/8-ways…
DeMers, J. (2014, August 12) 7 Reasons You Need to Be Using Social Media As Your Customer Service Portal Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/1…
Fontein, D. (2015, DECEMBER 4) How to Deliver Exceptional Social Media Customer Service Retrieved from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-deliver-exceptio…
Rusine, R. (2015, May 6) 20 Benefits of Social Media Listening a.k.a. Monitoring Retrieved from http://www.business2community.com/social-media/20-…
