By now, we all know that social media marketing is one of the best ways to build rapport with your audience and grow your business. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have grown rapidly and are not showing signs of slowing down.
It’s possible to use social media to share helpful content, promote products, forge connections with partners, and so much more.
When you look at how customers use social media, it becomes clear why these sites are so crucial for consistent growth. The average person spends nearly 2.5 hours on social media every day. Meanwhile, these platforms drive 31% of traffic to other websites.
In other words, if you’re not using social sites to create an engaging customer experience, you’re missing out on sales, engagement opportunities, and website traffic.
Today, we will look at five ways you can get more value from your social media marketing strategy.
Let’s begin!
Share Educational and Interesting Content
One of the easiest ways to create an engaging experience is by sharing educational, interesting, and entertaining content. People want to learn about things that matter to them and improve their lives.
Blog posts and visual content, like infographics, can captivate users and encourage them to visit your website and click the follow button on your profile. There is a good reason that 82% of successful social media marketers say they repurpose on-site content for other platforms.
I recommend reviewing your Google Analytics account so you can find popular pages. There’s a good chance your audience on social media would enjoy the same content as your website visitors.
You can convince more people to click through to your website by including tips, statistics, key points, or probing questions in your post. For example, if you wanted to share an article on email marketing, your post might read, “Are you ready to grow your email list in 2023? If so, check out our top tips!”
If your target audience finds your content helpful or entertaining, they are far more likely to interact with your brand on social media.
Go Live
Speaking of content, let’s discuss the importance of using live video to create a positive customer experience. People want to see video content more than ever before. For context, YouTube has 1.9 billion monthly users and counting.
The reason videos have exploded in popularity is smartphones. Most of us watch videos from our phones, especially when we want to learn more about a product, service, or business.
If you want to keep users engaged, make sure you consistently go live on websites like Instagram and YouTube. The type of content you create will vary depending on your product catalog, audience size, and industry.
Let’s go back to the email marketing example I mentioned earlier. The team behind an email marketing SaaS may decide to host a video where they go over the tips for their article but in person. At the end of the event, users are free to ask questions and engage with you or the face of your social media.
When you consider that 90% of people feel like there isn’t enough interactive content, it becomes clear that there’s a severe gap in high-quality videos across most industries. You can seize the moment and win over your followers and new visitors by going live and discussing relevant industry topics or pain points.
Partner with Influencers and Affiliates
Affiliates and influencers can improve your social presence and create a rewarding experience for new customers.
Influencers have a large following and promote products, services, or brands in exchange for financial compensation or free products. Affiliates are people who ask to join your program and offer to promote your business in exchange for a percentage of every sale. Both groups are given special codes that their viewers can enter in exchange for a discount or gift.
The critical thing to remember when forming partnerships is you want to make sure the people you’re working with have an audience similar to your own. For instance, a company that sells accessories for gaming PCs probably wouldn’t partner with a fashion influencer.
However, a makeup company could see tremendous benefits by partnering with the same affiliate or influencer.
Research shows that both groups can drive more traffic and sales while creating a positive customer experience. In fact, business leaders who work with affiliates say 15-30% of their revenue comes directly from these partnerships.
It’s also essential to have multiple people promote your product on social media. The last thing you want to do is rely too heavily on one creator only to find out they are switching the focus of their channel or quitting altogether.
Once you find people to represent your business on social media, don’t forget to keep track of their progress. Finding a group of people that can take your marketing and customer experience strategy to the next level will take some time, but it’s certainly worth the effort.
Invest in a Social Media Customer Service Team
Have you ever reached out to a company through its social media customer service team? If so, how was your experience? Many people don’t have the best interactions with brands when they have questions or concerns, which can lead to unnecessary friction.
One of the reasons for this problem is brand leaders do not invest in a customer service team that handles direct messages, messages, and comments. As a result, users must wait longer than they would like to get answers to seemingly basic questions.
If your audience has to wait too long, they may check out one of your competitors to see if they can answer their question. You don’t have to be a master business owner to know this isn’t good.
Now, imagine the positive experiences you can create if a support representative is there to help a user seconds after their message. The user in this situation will be impressed by the speed and accuracy of your answers, which will help them remember your brand in the future.
You can reduce the impact on your support team by using social media chatbots. These handy tools allow business leaders to teach the bots common inquiries. Using chatbots to help with customer support lets your team take their time and assist visitors with nuanced questions or problems.
Share Positive Reviews
Finally, let’s talk about how reviews can create a positive experience for your customers. Did you know that 90% of people say reviews impact their buying habits? If not, here’s another interesting fact worth considering; nearly 60% of people turn to social media to read feedback (including reviews) before making a purchase.
If your social media page has mentions and retweets that speak highly of your company or products, you’re bound to catch the attention of prospects and existing customers.
There are a few ways you can gather reviews and display them on social media.
The first way is to share when other people speak highly of you. When other users see this positive feedback, they see social proof. Social proof is evidence that your brand is trusted and respected by customers.
Another way to share reviews is to create an image that lists some of the best reviews on your website. You should reach out to the customers who left their thoughts to ensure this is okay with them. If they say yes, you can put together a well-made image that shows off your brand’s strengths.
When people see reviews on your social media page, there’s less guesswork when deciding where to shop. Your brand will stick out from the crowd, which is a crucial factor in creating a positive experience.
Back to You
There you have it! It takes time and effort to create a positive customer experience on social media, but it’s possible, regardless of your situation. The strategies outlined today will help you take the first steps and find success with your customers’ favorite social platforms.