When marketing a product or service, social media can greatly help you reach a wide network of people all at once. For many businesses, the use of social media is crucial to maintaining communication with their clients and customers. As you develop a social media marketing strategy, consider how you can use it to further add value and improve your service.
Add Value to Your Posts
Rather than just promoting your business or service to your social media followers and friends, make it a point to add value to their lives with your posts. When you come across an interesting article that might be relevant to your customers, post the link along with an insightful comment. Engage in discussions and offer tips. If you have a blog, write a post designed to help your customers get the most out of your products or services and put it out on your social media profiles. By giving valuable, smart content, you can position yourself as an expert and create a following.
Offer “Friends Only” Discounts
To rewards your followers and friends and entice more people to sign up for your social media profiles, offer “friends only” discounts. You might give people a percentage off their first purchase after becoming a friend, or invite all your followers to a special sale. Advertise your promotions on your website and pass on the word around the blogosphere. By doing so, you can keep adding value to your existing friends and recruit new followers for your business.
Increase Your Reach
The power in social media marketing lies in the ability to reach an enormous audience at once in an informal setting. To increase the number of people who receive and read your social media posts, start a campaign to get more followers. As your clients, friends, family and coworkers to sign up and request that they in turn pass on the link to their contact links. Even when only a portion of those people sign up, the combined power and reach of multiple networks can be significant.
Provide Customer Service
Social media is a two-way street: you can put out positive messages, but your customers are free to post whatever they want about your products and services. Take advantage of this feature and use your social networking sites for a very public customer service platform. Assign staff to monitor posts on Facebook and Twitter that mention your business or link to your profile. When the posts are negative, use it as an opportunity to quickly resolve the problem by responding directly to that post. Because your response is public, you can create the reputation of being responsive, quick and helpful. Stay respectful and calm even in the face of customer rage.