Research continues to show the value of brands investing in long-term social media programs. This is welcome news to any company considering a social media program. For the brands already participating in social media, however, it’s old news. Brands like Starbucks, Humana, Best Buy and Michaels are seeing business results from a strategic approach to increasing their participation across a focused set of social platforms.
What Comes First – Acquisition or Engagement?
While brands understandably want customers to connect through social media, engagement is the ultimate goal. This allows brands to gain feedback and ideas from customers and to create loyalty with this influential audience.
Creating a social acquisition plan and an engagement plan concurrently is important. Brands that launch an initial social media effort and then stop participating online – either while planning an ongoing program or waiting until they have another promotion – risk being seen as merely collecting customers. Here are four tips to increase customer engagement through a social media program.
Say Thanks: Most brands have skimmed the online conversation to learn who’s talking about their brand and where these conversations take place. One of the easiest ways to start engaging with customers is to simply thank them for talking about you. Saying thank you lets them know you’re actively listening which in turn encourages them to keep talking about your brand. It’s also the perfect opportunity to ask them to opt in for future contact.
Ask Opinions: Customers that talk about your brand and are interested in talking with you directly are clearly more engaged than others. Asking them for specific opinions around existing programs or potential new products is a great way to increase engagement. The key is to follow through and to demonstrate how this input is put to use.
Follow Schedules: Scheduling topics to discuss with customers is an efficient way to ensure the conversation with a brand is ongoing and substantive. This schedule, or editorial calendar, is initially fueled by promotional content including sales and seasonal content. Over time the editorial calendars evolve to reflect a more engaged audience. The calendar should also be flexible enough to allow for timely and relevant conversations based on current events and new trends.
Promote Consistently: As social media is new territory for many brands, marketers sometimes forget to leverage their presence in other channels. Mentioning a brand’s social profiles in customer newsletters, on packaging or in-store as applicable can help with social acquisition and provide insight on which platform customers prefer. Long-term brands can also connect social platforms to existing customer programs like loyalty cards to increase engagement and purchases.
These tips will help ensure that a brand’s investment of time, talent and technology in a social media program will yield results that help them reach larger business goals.
