Social media is a powerful tool with ways to connect people unlike ever before. Customers are able to interact with businesses in real time and businesses can nurture and build relationships with customers on deeper levels. Generating new business and followers is only half the benefits. Because social media is great for connections, it’s also a useful tool for rebuilding relationships. After all, there’s no better place to start than with your current audience!
Using Social Media to Build Customer Relationships
It’s not uncommon for marketers to focus on what’s next — the next campaign, next reporting period, next strategy session, or the next conversion. But it doesn’t mean your work is over just because you’ve reached your goal of getting new customers from the beginning of the sales funnel to the end.
Earning repeat customers and building brand loyalty is much easier than generating new leads and getting them hooked on your brand. Turnover is not fun to work through and can be harmful to your business. This is why building a solid relationship with current customers is so important.
Having a customer base that has good experiences with your products and services and continues to have enthusiasm for your brand will pay off in the long run. Think about all of the word-of-mouth marketing that comes with it and the continued business for years to come.
Techniques Businesses Use to Connect with Customers on Social Media
You may be running your social media with your targeted audience in mind but it’s also important to segment these audiences based on where they are in your funnel. We’ve always reiterated that each social media post should serve a purpose whether that’s to educate, entertain, share, etc.
To keep your strategy cognizant of current customers, be sure to also include loyalty and retention as one of your purposes. There are plenty of strategies for doing this from listening to your customers to creating specific experiences meant for them.
Offer Support Where Needed
Part of running a business is customer service and social media has been a useful medium for reaching out to your customers whether it be one-on-one or addressing your following as a group. Direct messages are a quick way for customers to ask you questions and, because social media is a two-way street, you can easily respond to them using your feed.
Run a weekly AMA (Ask Me Anything) session in your stories, giving followers an opportunity to make comments or ask questions. Set aside time to jump on Live and give them a behind the scenes look into your brand while addressing any concerns. You can even gather concerns or general questions and pre-record your answers in a useful video.
Going leverages all their content by taking travel questions submitted by members and creating videos with their answers along with a feature in their newsletter.
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Tap into Social Listening
Social listening is a great tactic to stay in touch with your audience base. These tools help you monitor topics or keywords that are relevant to your brand, making it much easier to tailor your content to what people are actually talking about.
You’re able to collect data on what’s relevant and modify your marketing strategy to fit the needs of your target customer. Use the information to up level your campaigns, anticipate customer needs, answer questions, provide solutions, and create content.
Build Social Rapport
People get excited when they see companies actively engaging with their audience on social media. Getting a response from your favorite brands is exciting for anyone which is why it’s just as important to stay checked in on your comments section. Dedicate time to responding to followers and engaging with them whether that’s acknowledging their comments with a reaction or answering questions.
Rare Beauty does a great job with this across all of their posts. Take a look at one of their most recent ones announcing the launch of their newest product:
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Share Customer Stories
This is also another reference to UGC or user-generated content. Not only does it help you out, it makes your followers feel seen. On one hand, you’re able to use actual people who love your brand to help grow interest and trust. On the other hand, your loyal customers are getting the thrill of being featured by their favorite companies which helps reinforce that brand-to-customer bond.
Taylor Nation (TN), the official account of Taylor Swift’s team, is great about featuring fans. With the recent kickoff of her tour, TN has been hyping fans up and building on that excitement by creating specific hashtags for fans to use at each of the concerts and creating opportunities for fans to be featured on the account.
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Build a Community
Utilize your social media accounts to create a band of followers who are passionate about similar topics and treat them like a community! Encourage conversation with posts that promote discussion, keep your community up-to-date on the latest industry trends, and even adjust your copy to reflect their atmosphere.
For example, lots of brands refer to their own communities as their “family” — it makes people feel included. Check out a few of these posts that touch on sales for the “fam”:
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It’s also a known strategy for brands to create groups specifically for their customers. Happy & Polly, for example, created a pet lover club on Facebook as a space for their customers to connect, share images of their pets, and show off their new orders from the company.
Benefits of a Strong Customer Relationship
Taking the time to build and rebuild relationships with your customers will take your business far. A happy customer can hold a lot of power and become a strong advocate for your brand. These are the people that will repurchase products, look forward to new launches, and even bring you up to family and friends in conversation. These are also people that can help provide the best feedback for improving your products and services.
While it does take effort to nurture these relationships, it’s a no brainer how worthwhile this investment is. Think of it like an apple tree in your backyard. The more care and attention you put towards it, the more delicious fruit you’ll get to enjoy in the future. Ensuring customers feel appreciated, well-loved and part of a community will maximize your marketing efforts, bringing you conversions and success.
