Social Media Tips to Engage your Audience

For those of us who spend most of our modern lives in front of a computer following trends, it has become very clear that social media has created a tremendous opportunity for brands to engage directly with customers. 
Depending on the budget, brands are now able to follow their customer base to the extent of understanding what motivates, interests and engages an individual.
When limiting budget is a concern, how do you increase the size of your audience, where do you focus and more importantly, how do you engage? This article focuses on the engagement side of the equation.
1. Sending the right message to the

right audience via the right channel is more an art than a science. If you don’t know your audience, you risk of talking to everyone who is listening.
If you talk to everyone, you talk to no one.  Prior to randomly tweeting, spend sometime understanding who is listening to your message.
2. Just like in any relationship, Social Media takes time to develop. Think of “Customer Engagement” as nothing more than finding the right boyfriend or partner. You don’t want to be kissing during the first three minutes of a date. Trust is a historical variable. As a brand, you need to develop trust before you can develop customer loyalty. Sending promotions prior to gaining customer respect is one of the worse ideas you can pursue.
3. Quality over Quantity is key.
I prefer to read one Twitter message that matters, rather than 10 that don’t make any difference. We are all very aware of the information overload challenge.

If your company is tweeting irrelevant facts, you are signing for a curse rather than a blessing. Timing is also critical. Tweeting past 8:00 pm results in low engagement levels.
4. Content has a very basic 90/10 rule: 90% of the content you post needs to be engaging rather than promotional.  10% can be used for promotions. You can only engage if you know whom you are talking to.
5. On an Engagement Point Scale of 1 to 100, from a Facebook (FB) standpoint, think of a “Share” as being worth 90 points, a “Comment” being worth 9 points and a “Like” being worth 1 point.  Make your FB posts be short & sweet. Try not to overdo the frequency of posting. Two to three posts per day seem optimal depending on your offering.
6. If you fail to be consistent and responsive to the demands of your followers, you are better off giving up on social media all together. It is critical to respond promptly to the comments or suggestions of your followers. Do not ever delete a mean comment from your Facebook page. This only leads to an even angrier customer. Respond immediately with courtesy and address the issue in a straightforward manner.
Studies have shown that customers who have complained and are then satisfied, are up to 8% more loyal than if they had no problem at all. I am one of them.
7. Images and video have 40% higher engagement rate than just posts. Humans are visual creatures by design. In this regard, consider Pinterest as a tool rather than another channel to monitor. If you are using video, make it shorter than 90 seconds. If you are shooting the video using an i-phone, be sure to hold the camera horizontally. Excellent audio is crucial!
8. Use your website predominantly as a repository of information. The days of engaging exclusively via website are gone.
9. Based on your offering, consider opening up a Twitter chat where experts in the subject matter facilitate the conversation. Twitter chats are a great tool for organic growth.

10. As an example of useful engagement tools, Hootsuite, the social media dashboard used by so many small businesses, non-profits and brands, has very useful apps that are aimed directly at the enterprise: MailChimp, Trendspottr, Chime.in & InboxQ are some of the most useful ones.
11. I created a useful Social Media Monitoring Tool Kit a while back. You can find it here.
12. If you happen to be in an industry where sales and customer interaction are de-centralized processes, consider centralizing your social media effort.
Given the sensitive nature of channels such as Twitter and Facebook, you can’t afford to have too many cooks stirring the same soup.
Although retail managers at different locations are key in helping you understand your customer, your social media strategy needs to be such that quick communication with your followers is Queen. If you play chess, think of the “pawns” as your local store managers. Think of a “Queen” as your centralized communication effort. Having several administrators on a Facebook page is more of a liability than an asset.
13. It has been demonstrated that bathrooms are excellent places for customer engagement. If you use QR codes, consider placing them on a bathroom door.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5-Step Plan to Reverse Diabetes

Image
Step 1: Remove These Foods to Reverse Diabetes Naturally Certain foods negatively affect your blood sugar levels, cause inflammation and trigger immune responses. To reverse diabetes naturally, the first step is to remove these foods from your diet: Refined sugar: Refined sugar rapidly spikes blood glucose, and soda, fruit juice and other sugary beverages are the worst culprits. These forms of sugar enter the bloodstream rapidly and can cause extreme elevations in blood glucose. (7) Even though natural sweeteners like raw honey and maple syrup are better options, they can still affect blood sugar levels, so only use these foods on occasion. Your best option is to switch to stevia, a natural sweetener that won’t have as much of an impact. Grains: Grains, especially gluten-containing grains like wheat, contain large amounts of carbohydrates that are broken down into sugar within only a few minutes of consumption. Gluten can cause intestinal inflammation, which affects hormones like
Read more

Does apple cider vinegar help people with diabetes?

Image
Apple cider vinegar may have various health benefits, such as supporting weight loss and managing blood sugar. These benefits could help people with or at risk of diabetes. However, scientific research has not yet confirmed them. Scientists have yet to back up the majority of the health claims around apple cider vinegar with significant clinical research. However, some evidence has emerged to suggest that apple cider vinegar may have particular benefits for the management of diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic condition that leads to an inability to manage blood sugar levels properly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 1980, around 108 million people had diabetes. Its prevalence has significantly increased over the past few decades to an estimated 422 million in 2014. This article looks at the research that links apple cider vinegar and diabetes, as well as ways to take apple cider vinegar effectively. According to scientists, apple cider vinegar has the potential to
Read more

The Dangers of Ego-Driven Spending: A Call for Reality Check

Image
In a world where status and outward appearances reign supreme, it's all too easy to fall into the trap of ego-driven spending. We live in a society where success is often measured by the size of our possessions and the prestige of our lifestyle. As a result, many of us find ourselves chasing after the latest trends and splurging on luxury items in a bid to keep up with the Joneses. But what if I told you that some of the wealthiest individuals in the world eschew ostentatious displays of wealth in favor of a more modest lifestyle? Take, for example, Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors of all time. Despite his immense wealth, Buffett is known for his frugal habits, driving the same modest car and living in the same unassuming house for decades. Similarly, tech titan Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is often seen wearing a simple gray t-shirt and jeans, despite being worth billions of dollars. And then there's Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, who fam
Read more