A company’s online presence can be the difference between a conversion and being completely looked over. No matter how great your product or service is, if a customer can’t get to know your company through social media, thoughtful content, or online reviews, we’re 99.9% sure they’ll choose a company that offers more personality and a more in-depth look into their business.
Over the next few weeks, our social team will be sharing our top advice and need-to-know best practices to help your brand build a successful social presence. Follow them and we promise you’ll develop genuine, long-lasting relationships with your audience — and create a social media success story of your very own.
TREAT CUSTOMERS LIKE HUMANS, NOT LIKE CONVERSIONS.
People use social media for keeping up with trends, following brands they love, and fostering personal and professional relationships. With such a sacred space, they don’t want brands to oversell themselves or post-promotion-only content day after day. Social media posts should resonate with your audience and provide unique content value that is based on your expertise and authority.
Match your social content to the needs of your target audience and produce helpful information, solutions to critical problems, or stories that target a specific emotion. Don’t be afraid to post things to entertain, inspire, and motivate — and to showcase that your brand has real humans (not robots) working there (see Tip #3 for more on this).
MAKE RESPONDING TO CUSTOMERS AND ENGAGERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA A HABIT. AND BE SPEEDY ABOUT IT.
The worst thing you can do for your brand is to not foster the relationship with a potential customer or brand advocate via social media. So when someone retweets or shares something you’ve posted from your page, “like” or “favorite” it. If someone takes the time to ask a question or comment (either good or bad), make sure to respond. If someone says they love such and such product, say thank you and engage even more by asking, “What was your favorite feature?” This continues the conversation and shows you truly value their feedback.
Also, about 50% of social users expect a response from a brand within an hour, so don’t wait to respond.
USE SOCIAL TO SHOWCASE YOUR PERSONALITY AND YOUR PEOPLE.
Sometimes it’s hard to show a brand’s personality on a website — especially when we’re so focused on getting a potential customer into the conversion funnel as quickly as we can. Social is a great, easy way to showcase your personality and your people — whether that’s posting stats on how much coffee your entire team consumes in a week, posting pics with your dogs on National Puppy Day, showcasing customer testimonials, or wishing one of your employees Happy Birthday.
Giving your followers a glimpse into your world will prove your sincerity and authenticity as a business.
The tips in Part 1 of our Social Media Success Guide are crucial to building a successful personality for your business. If you think you’re ready to jump into the deep end of the social customer engagement pool, contact the social media management team at FoundSM to get started — and don’t miss Part 2 in our series.
Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more tips and tricks.
