At this point, most businesses know that social media needs to be an integral part of their marketing strategy and content plan. But beyond improving brand awareness, a solid social media presence also helps to fortify the relationship you have with clients and prospects. Here are four key points to consider when working on strengthening client relationships on social media:
- Social media offers a unique opportunity to put the focus on people, rather than product.
As business people, we often spend too much time talking about our business, brand or products– it’s to be expected as we want to sell more. However, most people are not actually interested in knowing every gory detail of our business– instead, they want to see their own stories and experiences or learn more about topics that are genuinely interesting to them. - When your social media is more relevant, you get more traffic and engagement.
When your business publishes relevant content on social media, your brand “sticks with” consumers. For example a cake bakery that publishes recipes, responds to users’ questions about baking or posts cakes baked by users surely will have more social engagement than a cake bakery that merely publishes offers or their store locations. Give people a reason to visit your social profiles, don’t assume that people will come to see what you publish if it is not useful or compelling. You can also ask users what they want to see more of, what products most interest them, etc., as a tool to continue refining your business offer. - By responding to users on Social Media, you are taking advantage of the world’s largest instant communication channel.
Most social monitorisation tools of owned profiles offer social media statistics regarding how long it takes for you to respond to user comments or questions and most CRM systems allow the input of leads, clients and users who have commented on social media. In our offline lives, we would find it unacceptable if we went to a store to return an item and they said “sure, to return or to register a complaint, you need to cross the street and go to our other store.” The same is true online: if you respond to your customers in the same channel where they have contacted you, their opinion of your customer service and business will be more positive. Clients expect rapid solutions and they expect them in the same channel they used to contact you. Twitter is generally the preferred social customer service channel, but you can manage user doubts and complaints in any of your social profiles. - Stick with the channels you can manage successfully.
Whether it’s resolving customer doubts and complaints or publishing the most relevant content for your audience, you need to choose the right social network. Don’t open new social channels that you cannot maintain, monitor or update regularly. For example, a craft business making homemade accessories with a store in Etsy will most likely connect more successfully with its intended audience in Pinterest or Instagram rather than in LinkedIn. Likewise, a B2B outfit that offers IT consultancy to other enterprises is probably better off maintaining an active profile in LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s important to know where your audience is active and be aware of how many profiles you can successfully manage: responding in a timely manner, publishing consistently, etc.
The opportunities that social media networks offer when it comes to listening, interacting, entertaining and resolving the problems of your consumers are enormous. If you want to learn more about how you can take advantage of your business’ social media to connect with your audience and build solid client relationships, contact us.
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Client Success Manager
Alexis is our Client Success Manager at All Around. She is a Digital Marketing Specialist and Manager with 15+ years of experience in international markets. She is a dedicated client partner, ready to take businesses to the next level, with vast expertise in digital strategy, operations, project management, reporting, budgeting and negotiation.
