Top 5 Ways to Engage Consumers with Social Media

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5. Listen Before You Speak: Just like attending a “social” in real life, you need to mind your manners. Before you campaign to be the king or queen, learn what people are saying about your brand. Free tools, like Google Alerts, Yahoo Alerts and Twitter Hashtag Alerts, allow you to receive an e-mail every time a consumer writes a review, blogs or rants (positively or negatively) about your product or service. 

Many paid tools, like Radian6, Visible Technologies, Buzz Logic and Nielsen BuzzMetrics, allow for an even deeper understanding of sentiment and can track, monitor and point you toward the best course of persuasion over time. Many reputation management tools also allow you to track your competitors and observe what works or doesn’t work for them, so you can be sure not to repeat the same mistakes. 

Identifying your natural brand ambassadors (consumers that love your products) and dealing positively and proactively with those that haven’t had a wonderful experience will pay back many times over in word of mouth, brand loyalty and register ring.

 

4. Write To Your Fans: Brands that post social media content 20 or more times a month consistently receive five times more traffic than those who post less than four times a month(Source: Hubspot). Take into account when you are posting your content. Monitor whether certain posts delivery more engagement in the morning, around lunchtime or in the evening. How well do your weekend posts perform? Many social networks allow you to post content to specific geographic regions, such as announcing a TPR to consumers that live near locations of a specific account, thus driving more foot traffic and sales lift. They are your fans and friends. They want to hear from you.

 

3. Find the Key: Locking your best content and requiring a visitor to “like” or enter an e-mail address before proceeding enables you to track who is viewing your content. It also allows you to reward your most interested fans for participating with your brand. With a lock, the “key” is to boost your engagement rates, produce a viral effect and will allow your content to be viewed by even more consumers. Build your e-mail marketing club (e-Club) and post teaser content that encourages your readers to click through and dig deeper. Share existing assets such as TV commercials or print ads — new or nostalgic. Track your click-through rates, relevant comments, re-tweets, shares, views and many more metrics to get a better understanding of what your community responds to — and how you can help move them along the path-to-purchase.

 

2. Ask And Yee Shall Receive: The whole point of social media is to socialize. Curious what your next product should be? Ask! You might be surprised at how great of a place your community is to turn to for information. Make your fans feel special and encourage them to interact with your brand by showcasing your customers on your page. Respond to questions and comments in a timely matter, even if it is more difficult to address. Offer positive solutions whenever possible. Remember that everyone is a key influencer in social media — some just have more volume than others. You don’t want to be put on blast.

 

1. Entertain & Educate: Consumers can easily “unlike” or “unsubscribe”. They value their time and you want them to spend more of it with your brand. Create content they value — useful tips, recipes, links to printable or save to loyalty card coupons, fun facts about your history, interesting quotes and even pop culture trivia. Include photos and links. Remember the three L's:

• Laugh - Will your audience think it’s funny such as the latest Internet meme?
• Learn - Will your customer discover something s/he didn’t know like as a special deal?
• Love - Would you be thrilled to get it in your own inbox? How about a link to a sweepstakes to introduce a new product? Branded content such as an original webisode or an advergame to take up a few minutes of a hectic day? 

If your communication doesn’t entertain and educate, then you are missing a huge opportunity to connect.

(via)

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