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9 Tips For Generating A Customer Through Social Media
By Abinaya Harish
We've previously blogged about how social media helps with marketing efforts. Along with the growing importance of social media in B2B leads generation, Inbound Marketing* has proved to be the most effective marketing tool, according to the report State of Inbound Marketing in 2013. But just how important is social media?
- Social media contributes 14% of marketers’ total pipeline in 2013 and an additional 21% of marketers report that social media has become more important to their company.
- Facebook leads social media in lead generation, with 52% of all marketers sourcing a lead from Facebook and 74% saying Facebook is important to their lead generation strategies.
- Company blogs and LinkedIn are in the second place, with 43% of marketers generating a customer from each of these respective channels.
- Twitter also records strong customer delivery potential, with more than 36% of marketers (source: State of Inbound Marketing in 2013).
When these marketers can generate a customer through social media, why not you?
To be one among those marketers, use these 9 tips to generate a customer through social media.
Keep it simple – As long as the content is useful, simple and informative, people won’t mind following a post from your company.
Don’t spam – This is one of the biggest no-nos in marketing. Not only could this hurt your brand image but can also hinder your marketing reputation. This includes sending mass event invites and messages to like your brand from your personal emails.
Effective responses – Acknowledging customer posts or answering their questions is important when it comes to social media. It takes two hands to clap and for customer-marketer interaction to take place, inbound marketers must make an effort to engage with leads or customers on social networks. In
most of the situations, same-day replies are a must, as most users expected quick responses in this digital age.
No clustered updates – Avoid making multiple updates within a short time span, as it may be seen in the same light as spam. This could annoy your social media followers and you may lose the long-term attention of your audience.
Address by the name – If your are going to send a reply (via email) for the feedback or posting a comment, address the recipient by the name of the company or his personal name. This will build a strong relationship between you and your prospect/customer.
Highlight important posts – If your brand has any very important updates; e.g. acquisitions, sales, or features in news articles; you can highlight them in your page's timeline. This helps promote these updates rather than have them lost in a wall of text.
Private messages – People may send you private messages on these social media. You'll find that most of these messages will be customer service-related, such as enquiries, so make sure to check and reply them as promptly as you can.
Be genuine – Nobody wants to have a conversation with a robot. In every interaction you have on social media, be yourself as much as you possibly can. Personalized interactions make the other people feel like you actually value and care about their interests.
Customized images – Having personalized images for your cover picture will attract more customers to your website, particularly your landing page. If your website looks bland, the customer will likely not be interested.
Here are few examples of companies who have attained top positions in using social media as a part of their business:
Amazon loves to engage their followers with interesting questions and visual content that link to relevant products on their website. (HubSpot)
Kickstarter keeps its followers engaged with news about new projects and opportunities to invest in. (HubSpot)
Burger King does a good job of tweeting pretty frequently and actively replying to and interacting with its followers. (HubSpot)
Vogue Magazine has a consistent rhythm for their tweets that give its followers a nice stream of content. (HubSpot)
Starbucks feature a number of helpful articles about retail related companies and keeps its followers up to date on how the company is currently progressing. (HubSpot)
YouTube
RedBull is a content producer at heart and has been recognized by the digital industry as an innovator for all things content-related. It posts one to three videos per day.
Social media is the face your company shows to the world through the Internet, and it is imperative that the impressions you give are positive to both long-time followers and people that have just recently discovered your social media page.
