Using social media for your business can lead you on a merry dance, swinging from feeling like a marketing genius to a cringe-inducing mess in 5 swipes.
You can either create a reputation that cultivates repeat paying customers, or you can give people fuel that they’ll use to leave you bad reviews.
At the end of the day, though, it’s a necessary evil and your customers need to hear from you…for most people social media will be the best way to do this.
So, stick with us while we walk you through some of the benefits of social media marketing when it comes to communicating with your customers and how you can use it effectively.
How to communicate with customers online
Online communication with customers can be done in many ways. You can either use emails, live chats on your website, or social media.
Email marketing is a very important marketing method and can be used to keep hold of customers that are already interested in what you have to offer. Think of an informative newsletter, keeping you up to date with your business’ latest news mixed in with some other useful industry information – hey, that sounds like our Blaze Media newsletter!
Live web chats can be good to help customers with specific problems as they happen, but some people can be put off by them if they think they’re just talking to a bot, or that they’ll have to wait ages to be connected to a real person.
Social media is a great all-rounder, and can do many jobs that email or live chats can do at the same time.
How social media can be used to communicate with customers
Businesses can use social media in one of two forms: organic or paid.
If you want to go down the paid route, then check out some of our Facebook advertising hacks.
Organically using social media for your business may sound easy but it can be really tricky at times. You need to remain consistent and know who your target audience is so that you can provide content that meets their needs and makes them save it and share it with others.
You might think that social media is only for increasing your brand awareness and encouraging links to your website, but social media can also be really useful for communicating with customers by responding to personal messages that have been sent to your inbox or left as comments on your posts.
Doing this doesn’t always increase your sales by itself, but responding to these messages quickly and politely is absolutely crucial to developing a positive presence online which then encourages sales.
For your customers, using social media this way is convenient because they can direct message you whenever a problem arises or they can respond to the content on any of your posts if an issue arises. Don’t panic if you’re a business owner, this doesn’t mean that you should instantly answer messages that come in at 8:30pm, the next morning will be just fine!
The effectiveness of social media to communicate with customers
Using social media to communicate with your customers is amazing for coming across as a relatable and personable business. You can really cultivate personal relationships with your customers and then use this relationship to encourage sales.
Use the right content and you’ll position yourself as a thought leader within your industry and become the go-to person when someone has a question to ask.
It also offers the ability for your customer and potential customers to understand what you do, why you do it and form a bond with your business. It also gives them direct access to you in a way that websites just can’t.
If the difference between a customer spending money at your business or another is simply knowing that they can contact you get a personal reply, then why wouldn’t you put in the effort to answer as many potential customers questions as you could? That’s what separates the best businesses from the rest!
You’ll also generally have plenty more people following your social media profiles than you will have signed up to your emails. So, any communications that you send out through your social media channels will reach many more people than an email would.
Examples of good social media communication
Let’s give you some examples on a few of the different ways you can use social media to communicate with your customers. There are more ways than this but these are just some of the more common ways.
First, the most basic way: an announcement. If you operate a bricks-and-mortar store and (touch wood this doesn’t happen!) there’s an emergency that means you can’t open for a few days, then you can throw up a quick last-minute post on social media to inform your customers of the closure.
This minimises the chance that you’ll have customers showing up only to become angry and alienated from your business when they don’t understand why you’re closed.
Second, the direct message. Let’s say you sell clothes online and you get a DM from a customer asking about sizing info for one of your items. You can quickly answer their question, advise them on the best product to buy and then move that customer further down the sales funnel.
If you hadn’t replied quickly and informatively, that customer could have bounced and shopped at one of the millions other clothes sellers online. Instead, they chose you. How nice!
Third, managing reviews. If you create great social media content and your business is doing well then you’ll hopefully get plenty of positive reviews coming in from your customers. Facebook reviews can make or break a sale with a potential customer so make sure you do your best to encourage the best reviews possible.
If someone leaves a review with notes for improvement, send a polite response and take the advice. You might even be able to rectify the situation for that customer and get the review moved up to a 5 star in response.
Social media marketing agency
If you want more advice on using social media as a communication tool, or if you want a social media agency to help you with your social media campaigns, then get in touch with our team at here Blaze Media today!