Social media has never been more important for a small business brand. It’s a key way to stand out in the hearts and minds of your customers in today’s technological landscape. The customer journey is increasingly influenced by digital and mobile. Social media plays a critical role in this customer experience, from customer acquisition, engagement, retention and service, to loyalty and brand advocacy.
“Think of social media as one of the pillars of your business brand management. Social media is a way to connect the dots between the customer experience, loyalty, customer service and the spirit of discovery and emotions that make shopping enjoyable.”
In 2017, social media is not just about advertising; it’s education, content marketing, displaying your passion for helping customers, giving them a sneak peek at your products, and inspiring them with customer success stories. Social media done right can elevate your brand above the competition and boost sales. Extraordinary social media content translates to a uniquely memorable brand. Are you ready for your store to be one of those magical brands?
1. Use your Social Media to Listen to Consumers
The more you know about your audience, the easier it’ll be to help them. Social media is an incredible place to find out how your customers really feel. It’s a platform built on connections and opinion sharing. There’s a wealth of information available to you, all you need to do is listen.
Social listening goes beyond looking for direct mentions of your brand or tweets to your service department. There are more conversations happening about your brand than directly with it. And that is why you need tools like HootSuite and Buffer to better engage your customers on social media.
2. Genuinely Connect with Consumers
Social media requires constant action. Your account is not there to spy on what users are mentioning nor is it a platform that lends itself to automation. To better improve customer experience you have to use your social media accounts for what they were intended.
Stop thinking in terms of conversions, revenue or returns and just connect with customers. And by connection, I mean a genuine connection. Don’t rely on automation. The automation options aren’t as sophisticated as email marketing. Automated messages are painfully apparent and do nothing to improve customer loyalty. They come across as lazy and annoying as demonstrated in the wonderful message below.
3. Customer Service
Many of your customers will have questions, require education, and want to talk with you on social media. Using social media as a way to offer great customer service really helps you stand out and provide a more awesome customer experience.
a. Answer all questions and comments on a daily basis and monitor your social channels very closely. Response times matter.
b. Provide educational tips on your products to inspire your customer engagement and curiosity.
c. Do not delete a negative comment or complaint. Answer it compassionately and with the best of intentions to help your customers.
d. Find examples of some of the best support on Twitter and Facebook to get an idea of how good customer service works on social media, and share this with your employees. Bigger brands will often have a dedicated Twitter feed just for helping customers.
e. Turn happy customers into brand advocates. If your customer service is exceptional, word of mouth will translate into sharing that experience on social media. Online brand advocacy is very valuable for your retail store.
We have shared 3 strategic ways you can optimise your customers experience using social media. If you are looking for even more resources for your small business, check out our other blog post where we’ve shared resources for small business growth.
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