Social media is the most useful tool we have to create and maintain relationships with customers. Through these relationships stem the foundation of customer loyalty. Social media allows for customers to feel attached to businesses, and for business to hear from their audience. So, here are our top 5 tips to build that connection.

 

1. Listen to the Public

As a business, you need to be concerned with the ideas, feelings, and values of the public, specifically the demographic that you cater to. In addition to your activity monitoring, you need to become a social listener. Social listening (or media monitoring) is being able to scan the web and know what people are saying about your company and your competition. You should use social listening to:

– Find where customers gather

– See what products/services are being mentioned

– Understand customers’ praises and complaints

– Take note of their interests through shares and hash-tags

2. Create a Plan

Through listening to your customers, you should discover what they like and what they’re looking for. This is extremely useful information in growing customer loyalty, and you’ve completed the first step in strengthening that. When you establish a place of meeting with your customers, you are able to stir conversation. In order to do this, make a plan of engagement that can be easily followed.

This plan can be as simple as having a calendar for your content, which allows consistent communication. Your plan should reflect your business and its goals. Making this explicit to your audience is necessary.

Defining your content, rewards, and offers are also important aspects of your plan. Customers want to know how your product or service benefits them, and after your social listening, you should be able to meet their needs and wants.

 

3. Recognize and Appreciate Your Social Support

It’s always great to have advocates of your product on social media. It’s as effective as word-of-mouth marketing, but on the web. People tend to trust what other people say– or at least want to check it out. Use this. Create value from your relationships, and people will be willing to spend. Again through social monitoring, you are able to scope out the most active advocates and build with them. These people are already invested in your brand or company, so show your appreciation. You can do this by offering special rewards for “VIP” social members.

 

4. Give A Little, Gain A Lot

As mentioned before, people want to know how your business will benefit them, and even those who are very supportive need a reason to stay. Offering rewards is a great way to retain customers and to attract new ones. Those “VIP” members can show off the rewards they have, and increase your marketing. There must be a fair trade in value between the reward given and their loyalty. Make it worth their while to be committed. Offer them something that you yourself would like, whether it be a physical/digital gift and coupons, or unique/personalized content. Give them something to look forward to because when you give a little, you gain a lot.

 

5. Keep Track of Progress

With all this activity going on, it’s important for you to measure your progress in order to determine the rate of your success. There are a number of sites and apps that will assist you in measuring response, keeping note of user-names or emails in your conversion activities, and linking them to your CRM is extremely helpful.

You will also want to keep watch of general growth in engagement and following. This is the easiest way to measure social activity, and as more people interact with your company through likes and shares, others will take notice and do the same.

 

Conclusion

So what can you take from this? What can you do to increase your customers loyalty? Well a reoccurring idea from these tips is to listen, recognize, and appreciate your customers, and they will stay. Social media is essential to maintaining the relationship that you’ve established, and now you can use it to your advantage.

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