Social Marketing and Relationship Building

Social Media IconsSocial marketing is all about building relationships. Using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube are great additions to your customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Staying social allows you to stay in touch and engage with your customers.  Social marketing is all about strategy, listening and community engagement. All brands need to engage with their target audiences.

As with any marketing medium, the first step for any social strategy is to identify what your business priorities are and align them with the social tactics that your customers use. Once you’ve figured out what social communities your customers use, you need to convey warmth and sincerity in your social media content. Picture first the reader. Try to imagine the subject from the reader’s viewpoint. Use the word “you,” but don’t overdo it.

Know what your customers want. Before buying a product or service, people weigh the benefits that would come from the purchase against the hierarchy of their wants and needs. Many factors go into this decision – convenience, price, quality, speed of delivery and other variables. Knowing precisely what your customers want from you, what influences their buying decision is key to effective marketing and posting great social content that builds ongoing customer relationships.

Use the right information. You need to have the right information to use it well in your posts, tweets and videos. The right information means the right amount and level of detail. You need to ask yourself: Can I (therefore my customer) make informed decisions based upon this information?

Focus on clearly identifiable market segments. Marketing and communication today is all about me, myself and I. It’s a one-on-one conversation. What particular combination of factors will define a group with significantly different buying patterns that are relevant to your business? By focusing on the common denominators of your target groups, you can develop information specifically tailored to your customer’s need. This will allow you to zero in on information that your customers want and need.

Make an offer your prospects find hard to refuse. To succeed, an offer needs to be perceived as tangible, clear and appealing to your target market. In fact, the presentation of your offer is almost as important as your product or service in stimulating sales. Link your name with a strong customer benefit.

Clarity is important in getting people to accept your offer. You should leave no doubt in their minds about what you want them to do and how you want them to do it. They need to know exactly what they are going to get if they respond. Make it clear.

As with most of us, I find it much more fun to create amusing and witty posts. Unfortunately, the fact remains that they usually don’t work as well as clear, benefits-oriented statements.

The key to using social media is to build customer relationships, and keep interest and engagement to encourage continual customer collaboration.

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