4 Ways to Fully Engage Your Social Media Audience

Social Media

This is part two in a two-part series about your business and social media. You can read part one here.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed ways to make your social media customer service even better. In this second part, we’ll discuss ways to go beyond basic customer service—we’re talking about creating fully engaged customers who make it more than worthwhile to lavish them with attention online and off!

A recent Gallup report titled “State of the American Consumer” contained some interesting findings, among which was that fully engaged customers are worth considerably more than your regular run of the mill customer. Gallup found that fully engaged customers represent a 23 percent premium in terms of wallet share, profitability, revenue share and relationship growth, making them an invaluable commodity.

These are just a few ways to create and retain those fully engaged shoppers:

  • Acknowledge your fans. Social media is a loud, crazy place where people are as likely to discuss their new dishwasher soap as they are to post incinerating political opinions. When those posts contain a tag for your company page, take it as an opportunity to respond directly to that customer who is now acting as a brand advocate. Share a shot of their post on your feed, thank them on their own page, make sure they know they’re appreciated.
  • Give your brand a personality. Your company is a company, it’s not a person, but it has a flare and feel all its own. Social media is an easy place to build on that and enhance it in any direction you’d want to go. For example, if you sell customized dog collars, you might want to also use your page to advocate a little for your local shelters, share dog-related information and talk about your favorite dog breeds.
  • Ask for opinions. A/B testing is vital for your company’s marketing, but it’s also nice to ask your customers’ opinions from time to time. If you’re debating a new product line or even offering a favorite in different colors, you might want to give your fans a say in the direction of your efforts. Open a poll, let them vote and share, and create ownership by actually following through with the product they’re voting on.
  • Keep customers up to date on new products and promos. There’s nothing like creating special fan clubs or early access opportunities for loyal customers, and that goes double on social media. Sharing up and coming products to help create a buzz also gives fans a feeling of being part of insider information, promos are just icing on that cake. This is one more way you can remind your social media fan base that you’re still around without being annoying or intrusive.

Fully engaging your social media audience can spell huge success both online and off. Depending on what function your social media serves in your sales funnel, that might mean more people coming through the door or a need to hire more help, or even an answering service, to juggle all the new phone orders you’ve generated.

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