How to engage customers through social media
People now spend more time in social networking communities than they do with email, and most of us use one or several social networks daily to connect with friends or share photos with family. The fact that hundreds of millions of people use social media every day makes it an incredibly powerful tool – whether it is Barack Obama using Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to attract youth support or Iranian protestors using it to share messages with each other and the outside world. But the question remains: how do businesses harness the immense power that these platforms can potentially unleash?
Social Media as part of a Customer Engagement Strategy
Creating a Facebook page or setting up a LinkedIn profile is not something you should start without a plan or an objective. When you start to consider social media as part of your overall integrated marketing strategy, you’ll start to see where you should focus your efforts. For example, are you trying to increase awareness of your current news and promotions, in which case Twitter or LinkedIn might be the best approach? Or are you trying to make the most of a single event and perhaps Facebook can play a role? If your objective is to build an active community where you engage in a two-way dialogue with customers and advocates of your products you might consider building your own community site or microsite. Once you know what you are trying to achieve, you will have a better idea of what social media platforms are relevant to you. Most importantly you will know how to measure its success, which will help guide and direct future activity.
The Power of Peer Recommendation
Social networks empower and automate the process of peer recommendation, enabling businesses to reach more customers than ever before. Nearly 88% of communications decision makers argue they use their peers as their number one choice for recommendations, so it is clear that social networking can play a role here. For resellers, this is one additional avenue to provide benefits, serve and support customers. Many rightly see social media as a means to create visibility, amplify sales efforts and engage with customers. Unfortunately, all too often their social media efforts are carried out in isolation and with limited consideration for the wider impact they can have on the business – good or bad. For social media elements to be successful they must, from the offset, be integrated with broader marketing initiatives so the process is dynamic and effective.
