Some might believe that social media is a bit impersonal when it comes to establishing and nurturing relationships with clients. But the reality is that when you know how to do it the right way, meaningful connections can indeed be made through multiple social media platforms. So how exactly is it done? Every business will connect with their target audience and their customers in different ways but there are a few guidelines you can take advantage if you are a business that is just starting out on social media. If you want to build lasting, meaningful connections with your customers on social media, take a look at these seven ways to make meaningful connections with your customers.
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- Create a Facebook Community: There are so many ways you can utilize Facebook to develop connections with social media users. While most businesses now have their own Facebook page on that social media platform, there are many other ways to build your online presence through the website. One such way is by developing a Facebook community for your social media followers and customers. It’s free for businesses to create Facebook groups and they can be secret, private, or public. The key to fostering a successful community on Facebook is by being active. Regularly post news and updates and the groups and open up the group for members of it to communicate as they please. It’s a great way for your customers to feel as though they are a part of something important and have a sense of community.
- Maintain Discussions: When you use social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter and post an update on either one of the platforms, you are opening yourself up to responses from your followers. This not only allows you to get new insights on your followers, current consumers, and potential consumers, it presents the opportunity for you to have a dialogue with them. While it simply isn’t possible to respond to every single comment you receive on social media, you can make an effort to respond to the most pressing or engaging ones. Communication is a two-way street and you can establish a healthy, meaningful rapport through social media.
- Don’t Make it All About Business: Businesses use social media to share updates about things happening within the business, information on products and services, and general news related to them and their customers. While this definitely is an important part of developing a social media presence, information about your business shouldn’t be the only thing you share online. In addition to business-related topics, get in the habit of sharing content that your target audience would enjoy reading or watching. This could include a funny meme or heart-warming video. It can be an inspirational article or informative blog posts. It’s not a bad idea to develop a content calendar to have a plan for what you will share on social media with your followers.
- Show, Don’t Tell: Don’t just tell your social media followers about your products or services. That’s boring. Instead, show them. Utilize video content to capture details about your business and your products and services. Social media users are far more engaged when they are watching video content rather than reading something. Peak their interest and keep it by producing high quality, entertaining, and informative videos that will help them remember you and what you have to offer.
- Support Something: If you are a large company, support a charitable organization. If you are a small business known locally, you can still support a charitable organization or you could consider other means of being supportive on a local scale. Sponsor a walk or a little league team. Volunteer in your community. Do something that gets your brand out there as a business with a humanitarian side. And don’t forget to be vocal about it. This certainly doesn’t mean that you should hop on Facebook and start bragging about what a great business you are and how you should be rewarded for helping an organization or the community. There is no quicker way to hurt your image. Instead, take photos of you and your employees volunteering somewhere and upload them on Instagram of Facebook.
- Open Up Multiple Communication Avenues: More and more businesses are discovering what a pertinent role social media now plays in communication. Gone are the days when a client would pick up the phone and call a small business or customer support. And fewer people are relying on email to get support or to their questions answered. Now, social media users and customers can turn to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms to get their answers. In order to maintain these connections, it is important that you develop several ways customers can contact you through social media. Secondly, you must be able to respond to them swiftly.
- Give Them The Inside Scoop: Giving your customers a behind-the-scenes look at the action within your company is a great way to build trust and a strong connection. People love feeling included and this is easily done when you share videos of your team creating your latest project or photos of something no one else in the public can see. This gives your company a face behind the brand and a way for your customers to learn even more about you and your team.
- [Source”indianexpress”]
