3.8: We're Engaged! Aren't We?
When you create business profiles on social media, you may aim to increase the number of followers through content marketing. Increasing your follower base is certainly important for your brand, but you should also focus on increasing engagement for long-term benefits.
Social media engagement refers to likes, comments, and shares on posts by other social media users. Snot all of your followers are active and many of them may forget about you after liking your page on Facebook or following you on Instagram. In this sense, engagement is far more impactful since it indicates that your followers not only see your posts, but also interact with you one way or another.
The phrase out of sight, out of mind is certainly true and is applicable in the scenario of business marketing. With the internet making it easier to reach a global audience and promote and sell products without hassles, more and more businesses are entering the market and leading to increased competition. If your content reaches them and captures their attention, they would stay with you provided that your products and customer service meet their needs. But it won’t take long for them to switch to your competitor brands if you ghost them and your content stops reaching their social media timeline.
If they often interact with your brand, the social media algorithm would show them your content on priority and ensure that they remember you. Therefore, not only should you create engaging content, but also monitor the engagement rate.
There are many different tools available that can help you keep track of customer engagement on social media including Twitter Counter, Buzzlogix, Zoho Social, and Agorapulse that can help you monitor the engagement rate as well as brand reputation across social platforms.
What If They Don’t Talk Back?
Customer engagement is a key concern for brands. The more customers interact with social media posts, the more impact your business makes in the market. This is a good sign because engagement is the driving force of ROI and makes the business profitable down the road.
However, even though business marketers try their best to attract the target audience and encourage them to like or comment on their posts, they are not always able to achieve this goal. This situation is troublesome and can make you wonder why your entire efforts are going in vain.
To get the answer, you should first analyze your current social media strategy. It’s possible that your content is of low-quality or doesn’t interest your audience. It’s also a possibility that your choice of social website isn’t right. With this detailed analysis, you may find out potential issues with your strategy and revise it to address those issues.
However, it should also be noted that defective strategy isn’t always the cause of low engagement. You may need to develop more interesting content to capture the attention. It may be a good idea to hold live Q&A sessions.
Customers are no longer interested in listening to faceless brands. They rather find the human side of brands more attractive and engage with them on social media. By introducing them to your team and interacting with them via live sessions, you can win their trust and increase engagement.
Customer-generated content can also help you in this regard. You shouldn’t only create and share your own content, but also retweet, or like, or share relevant posts by followers. For instance, if you find an interesting post of your followers discussing the niche or topic related to your business, you should consider sharing it with your follower base.
Influencer marketing can also be a good option. You can get in touch with social media influencers who have built a community of followers and ask them to promote your brand. When they endorse your business, their followers will visit your social profile and may engage with the content if they find it interesting.
Should I Still Use Email?
Some people claim that email is a feature of the past and has lost its importance over time. However, digital marketers are well-aware this statement is far from the truth. Despite the popularity of other online marketing methods, email promotions are still extremely effective.
Most consumers check their emails on a daily basis which is why there is no better way for marketers to share information about their market offerings and latest product launches. You can send newsletters to customers and leads and invite them to read the latest blog posts, visit your social media, and learn about what’s new.
Email is relevant in the era of social media because it is a helpful tool for increasing website traffic and generating or capturing qualified leads. You can also curate content and send customized information to customer groups as per their interests. This targeted information can help in building strong relationships and entice customers to interact with you.
Once they are directed to your website to get more information, there is a good chance they will go through the list of products you sell and purchase them soon.
What If They’re Upset
Businesses that value their customers work extra hard to provide them an unprecedented and memorable experience. However, they may not be able to achieve this goal every time. Despite your best efforts, some customers may still be unhappy and dissatisfied.
Unhappy customers often post negative reviews about brands on social media pages or Facebook groups. If you notice such a review, you should get ready to resolve the situation instead of losing your cool.
You should calmly listen to customers and apologize for the mistake. If it was a genuine problem, then you should empathize and assure them that the management would look into the matter and resolve the problem at the earliest. You can also send them a gift or discount voucher to make up for their bad experience.
Some customers may accept your apology and let it go, but some customers get too angry and they don’t listen to social media managers. They may continue posting negative reviews about your business and hurt your brand reputation.
In this scenario, the best strategy is to use tracking tools like Mention that keep you updated about discussions and reviews about your business. With this real-time information, you can tackle the situation and spread positive messages about your brand to prevent them from further hurting your business.
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Some angry customers post negative reviews because they genuinely faced a bad experience with your company. But remember that some social media users deliberately post provocative content against other users and businesses out of habit.
They poke fun at others and humiliate them with derogatory content. Interacting with such trolls and responding to their comments can further ignite the situation. So, you need to tactfully handle the situation.
First of all, write terms and policies for your community where followers are expected to be respectful of others and refrain from using offensive language. You can politely ask trolls to be mindful in the light of community policies. You can respond to fake posts regarding your business with facts or ignore them. You can also come up with witty responses to diffuse the situation.
However, social media trolls don’t go away easily and they may keep trying to instigate you. Don’t get into the trap and stay calm and respectful to protect your brand image.
Do the Hokey Pokey: Turn Complaints into Gold
Brands that often receive negative comments and reviews tend to lose customers and damage the reputation. But customer complaints and negative comments aren’t as bad as they are perceived.
These posts give you a chance to identify and recognize your mistakes. Your business processes or products may be harmful in some manner or fail to meet the needs of customers. Instead of treating these comments as trash and ignoring them, you should treat them as feedback and make the most of this constructive feedback to enhance service quality.
If a customer points out that the behavior of the staff wasn’t good, you should pay attention to them. Offering excuses won’t do good as it gives the impression that you don’t consider customer complaints important. You can rather arrange training sessions for team members to help them boost their skillset and improve service quality.
You should encourage customers and social media followers to offer suggestions for further improving your business processes. Also, once you implement a customer suggestion, you should post it on social media and appreciate customer feedback.
Do You Even Care?
Customer service is a challenging job. You need to listen to customer complaints and suggestions, and bear their anger while taking the blame for intentional or unintentional mistakes.
No matter what type of business you manage, effective customer service is the key to success. You should always prioritize customers and work hard to add value to them. Similarly, listening to and addressing customer issues is equally important for a business.
Customers are now aware of their rights and they don’t want to do anything with businesses that ignore them. To become an effective business leader or social media marketer, you ought to care about your customers. You don’t want to receive negative reviews due to the negligence of your team. You should develop a culture within the organization where staff members consider it their first and foremost responsibility to take care of customers and leave no stone unturned in achieving customer satisfaction.
This approach strengthens relationships with customers and creates a lasting bond.