Successful businesses today are engaging and interacting directly with their customers, buildling an unthreatening and personable relationship through social media. If you succeed in this, you and your customer will both benefit.
A company needs to be where its customers are. Before people commit, they shop around, compare prices, read reviews, and ask for input from their social channels. A brand with a strong and active online presence has a voice, can validate and promote themselves, and convince the customer why they should choose them. They have the opportunity to engage directly with their audience, target them as an individual with relevant information, and reassure them that they care. A company with no online presence? Well, silence speaks a thousand words.
Pull, don’t Push
Customers don’t want the hard sell, or to be treated as a percentage in an annual report. Personable relationships between consumer and company are essential. Social media platforms allow brands to give a tangible feel of what they’re all about, inviting their audience to get to know their story and decide whether it’s the ‘right fit’. When the customer commits to the call to action, they feel it is their decision, which ultimately creates a more satisfied customer and reputable brand. Generate engaging content and provide authentic communication; as long as you always link it back to who you are, and it is relevant to your message!
The specific platforms of social media are almost irrelevant; they will continue to change as quickly as you can keep up. Rather than forming a strategy for each individual platform, having a core process and messaging ideology means that it is easy to roll out across all the different social media channels.
