The holiday season is fast approaching, and though the latest retail forecast showed some signs of life for the end-of-year sales rush, marketers are not breathing easy yet. Competition for limited consumer dollars will make getting customers in the door an even more crucial task than usual.
Social media outreach is one excellent, cost-effective way a company can get out in front of its competition.
Facebook and Twitter are the two social networks best suited for business engagement, and setting up accounts on these services takes less than 10 minutes. Managing the account with the right mix of sales-centric messages and general customer outreach is the hard part.
Marketers using social media for the first time are often tempted to use similar tactics as they would have in their previous mass media campaigns. But customers behave much differently and expect more from the online outreach of businesses they frequent.
Use a rough ratio of three general informational and outreach messages to one sales-centric message on both of these services. Remember, these social networks are communities in every sense of the word. Do you pitch valued customers every time you see them in public?
Marketers should rely on their offline networking experience in crafting an effective social media outreach program. Though the way relationships are formed is slightly different online, the ways these relationships are cultivated is not.
Ask customers for their opinion about your new offerings and promotions. Respond timely to complaints online, just as you would if that customer picked up the phone and called you personally. Remind customers why they found value with the business in the first place, great service and dependable products.
Social media can be daunting for those who have not used it before. It can seem like a waste of time without clear goals. But a little practice with the tools proves how easy it is to get accustomed to them, and the goals are surprisingly easy to define.
Treat the customers that interact with you online as if they were there in person in the business, and your social media outreach has a high chance of success.
