Summer is finally here, but that doesn’t mean you can take a vacation from your social media! Use these best practices to create and maintain effective social media all year long.
People Buy From People
ParadoxLabs believes that you want to connect with your customers on a deeper level than just completing a transaction. After all, a faceless company does not inspire loyalty or trust. Social media provides a unique opportunity to go behind the scenes of your organization and show your customers who you are. Consider sharing a brief profile of one of your employees, a testimonial from a happy customer regarding the experience they had with a specific employee, or introduce a new hire. Using Periscope or Snapchat, you could share a quick peek of a staff meeting, training, or conference. What do your offices look like? Have you done any community service projects? How is someone using your product to make something better? In the world of social sharing, it’s all fair game.
Be Responsive
Social media gives you the chance to respond to customer feedback in real time. If a customer is unhappy with your product and posts negative feedback, respond as quickly as possible to solve their problem. If possible, avoid responding with a generic comment like “We are sorry about your experience. We make every effort to ensure the satisfaction of our customers. Please contact one of our customer service representatives at 867-5309.” When you respond to each comment the same way, it’s almost as bad as not responding at all because it demonstrates a lack of effort and personalization. Address your customer by name, take ownership and responsibility for the negative experience, and offer an accessible solution. When possible, avoid placing the burden to take action (calling customer service) on the customer. On the other hand, if a customer posts positive feedback, thank them by liking, retweeting, or commenting back on their post.
Add Value Through Education
We know that offering your customers valuable content keeps them engaged. Posts with photos generate more activity than those with just text. And if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand. Create a short tutorial about how to use your product, write an article or post educating your customer on a relevant topic, or offer downloadable materials such as eBooks, guides, or checklists. Also, keep your content timely and engaging. For example, summer is wedding season; would any of your products make a good wedding gift? Can you offer a helpful gift guide based on your company’s products? What about products or services for summer vacation travel? Or let’s say you are a company who makes kitchen supplies. Try posting a video showing your customers how to make cupcakes for the 4th of July using your company’s mixing bowls, measuring cups, piping bags, and decorative wrappers.
Consider a New Platform
One or two active accounts with quality content, optimized for each channel and updated often, is far more valuable than putting your name out there on every social media platform ever made. If you do not have the time or resources to keep up with your various platforms, their existence will do you more harm than good. If a customer visits your Facebook page and sees that nothing has been posted in the last three months, they lose confidence in you and your products. However, you also want to be on the cutting edge and meet your customers where they are. Before you decide to start on a new platform, research your target audience. Which demographics are you trying to reach? Which platforms do those demographics actually use? How much time per week will you need to spend on this platform? Also consider whether you will be able to optimize your content for that particular channel. A piece of content you post on Instagram should not be the exact same thing you post on Pinterest. Contact Magento for help identifying and optimizing the best platforms for your company.
Social Media Management Tools
Depending on the size of your company and number of platforms used, a social media management tool can help you keep track of all of your accounts and campaigns. Dashboards such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social allow for close monitoring of your social media across all platforms in one place. They can help you respond more quickly to customer feedback, schedule posts in advance, and supply insight with analytics. These dashboards can also help you keep track of conversations you’ve had with customers, track untagged mentions, and allow a social media team to work together. A variety of free and paid options are available, as well as mobile apps.
Remember, the best way to engage your customers on social media is to provide optimized, compelling content that adds value and shows the personality of your company.