Social media is one of the most powerful tools small business owners can use to connect with customers, allowing you to engage your audience while showing a more personal side of your business. Communicating with customers on social media enables you to highlight your expertise and nurture relationships: elements that can go a long way towards building your business.
Connecting with customers through social media is a great way to increase your qualified leads and drive profits, so the importance of social media in customer service is clear. What might be less clear is how to attract new customers using social media.
Whether you’re looking to engage new customers or increase customer loyalty, social media can be a vital tool for your business. Here are some tips on how to acquire customers through social media, and how to build their loyalty to your business.
1. Make real connections
People use social media to connect with others.
Having a business social media profile is useful for building your brand’s awareness, but engaging with people drives continued loyalty.
- Like any positive brand comments and comment back with your appreciation.
- Provide social media customer service by responding to any complaints.
- Reach out privately to people who mention you to offer referral or loyalty deals.
- Share fun behind-the-scenes anecdotes about your business or maker’s videos on your craft.
- As you build a following, create private groups so you can engage directly with your customers, answer questions, and troubleshoot problems.
Responding in a genuine way across social platforms can promote your brand beyond your immediate social network.
2. Provide real-time customer service
Attracting customers through social media is one thing, offering real-time customer service takes your brand loyalty to a whole new level. You don’t have to monitor your social media 24/7, but being available to respond to questions or direct people to someone who can help them shows you care.
Customers are tired of waiting on hold, so there’s an opportunity to improve the customer experience through social media. Being active on social media to respond to within the same day puts you ahead of the competition and encourages loyalty.
If you start to see results from your social media outreach, consider hiring a social media assistant to pay full attention to all of your channels.
3. Build brand awareness
People want to buy from companies they already know and trust, so you need to ensure they know about you. The best way to do so is by building social media profiles that enhance your brand and build awareness.
Have a profile on the social media forums that your customers use regularly. Write an engaging and authentic profile, then commit to posting regularly and connecting with people in your target market.
You may even want to consider a common social media strategy for the big companies: paid social ads. With a relatively low barrier to entry, you can test targeted local ad campaigns on social media channels that earn immediate awareness.
4. Share relevant, informative content
When people look for your company, they’re looking for information that can help them solve their problems. Your content should reflect that, to highlight your expertise and connect you with your target audience. Content that helps customers most includes step-by-step instructions, product demos, how-to videos and articles, and explanatory content.
Do you typically get asked the same questions over and over by new and potential customers? Consider using those questions as the basis for some social media posts to share with your network.
5. Consider social media listening
Social media monitoring platforms can help you monitor when your company or brand is mentioned. That helps you track how your company is doing on social media, but you’re missing out on a large portion of the audience that wouldn’t know you or tag you in a post.
If you sell make-up, for example, you can actively search social media for questions like “Who makes lipstick?” to find new customers. Make a list of keywords, hashtags, questions and phrases related to your company. Use that list to regularly search social media and respond to people’s posts.
6. Encourage social recommendations
People rely on reviews when they make purchasing decisions. Social media makes it easy to share what other people think about your business. When customers write something positive about your company, thank them and post it to your page. Embed social recommendations on your profiles. Ask your favourite customers to write recommendations or testimonials.
7. Run contests to attract leads
Use social media contests to attract customers. These contests encourage people to follow you, post on your page, share your page with others, or submit photos. In return, you’ll get new followers, boost your traffic and increase your qualified leads.
Contests don’t have to be expensive to run. Offer a voucher or a fun prize and encourage people to share photos related to your business. When running a contest, make sure to follow all local rules and guidelines.
Build your business’ social media strategy
Interacting with customers on social media helps you increase your qualified leads and grow your business. If you’re not already doing so, it’s worth it to explore ways to engage customers on social media.
By connecting authentically with your audience and sharing relevant and informative content, you can use social media to attract and retain customers.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.
