social media
track mentions in blogs, videos and other social media sites, ranking them on popularity and sentiment (positive/neutral/negative) allowing you to build a picture of what opinion is on your business and if there’s any areas of opportunity or for development. Of course feedback you might get might
not always be positive and dealing with negative press and comments is part and parcel of social media activity. Always try to respond and never delete a
comment entirely – a Facebook page full of glowing remarks just isn’t believable and part of your brand and personality must include how you respond to negative feedback. Leaving the comment up for all to see
may even allow other customers to respond as well, contradicting negative feedback or sticking up for you. One of the main obstacles with engaging in
social media is time. It takes time to develop your online community, work out what they like hearing about and what they don’t, answering questions, responding to feedback etc.
Firstly make a decision about what tools
are useful for your business and valuable to your customers – there are so many social media tools you can use, and in reality only very large business have the resource to invest in them all. If you’re a design agency use Flickr to show off your visuals to attract new customers, but if you’re a solicitor, time spent building a blog about your areas of expertise is more relevant to you and more likely to draw in business.
Nominate one or two people in your
organisation to take responsibility for social media – someone who has a natural interest in it as that will come through in your communications. Others can get involved to feedback stories or take pictures – and this is good to get a rounded view of your business when out on site or at events but having a few key people leading a strategy will lead you develop your communications and really learn about your customers. It’s important to remember that return on
investment isn’t immediate on social media – and aiming for activity to immediately lead to sales and conversion is an easy way to alienate your audiences by pushing out sales messages they won’t be interested in. Monitor engagement with your activity and conversions will follow. Social media is about community and
building relationships – two way relationships. Invest the time in your customers through social media, building your brand and personality and your audience will be more engaged, loyal and will ultimately become a strong customer base.
Top 5 tips: • Build a community • Have a personality! • Don’t just focus on selling • Listen! • Monitor engagement, not conversion
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