Having customers actively engaged with company’s social media platform is the most desirable purpose of companies joining in social media arena. How to leave your customers a deep impression and make them fall in love with your brand? Dave Kerpen wrote a book titled “Likeable Social Media” to teach brands how to use social media to achieve likeability, transparency and responsiveness in a digital marketplace. Here are some practices from Dave that you might find interesting:
· Listen first and never stop listening. Your customers want to be heard and social media provides a channel that really allows you to listen on a large scale. Some free ways to listen on social media include:
1. Google Alerts
2. Technorati search blog
3. Twitter search
4. Facebook search
5. YouTube search
6. Tweet Beep
Remember to not just search for your brand name, but also for your competitors’ names and words and phrases that your customers use.
· Be authentic. Social media provides an opportunity to actually “be human” in dealing with customers. Some ways to be authentic include:
1. Be able to go with the flow, responsive and engaged.
2. Develop an authentic voice. Think about how you can convert your mission statement or About Us page into a conversation piece.
3. Just be real
· Provide value-for real!
The more valuable content you can share with your fans and followers, the greater the trust and reputation you’ll build with them. Some ways to provide free value include:
1. Start a blog to share resources, advice and tips that you prospects will find useful.
2. Write white papers to solve customers’ problems
3. Create “how-to” videos.
· Share stories. Social media allow you to share stories with your customers, prospects and the world. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. How did your company get started?
2. How did you survive the toughest times?
3. What kind of funny or interesting things have happened involving your customers or staff over the years?
4. Which employees’ lives have changed as a result of working for you?
5. Which charitable organizations has your company or its staff supported?
· Admit when you screw up, and then leverage your mistakes
Being able to say “I’m sorry” when you make a mistake goes a long way toward making up for your error. Here are some ways to say that you’re sorry:
1. Have the highest-ranking person at the organization say it through a brief online video
2. Use the appropriate social media channel to respond quickly when a bad situation arises.
3. Don’t stop at “I’m sorry”. Apologize individually to each person’s complaint and continue to follow up.
· Consistently deliver excitement, surprise and delight. The way to stand out is to create as many “Wow!” moments as possible. Here are some ideas:
1. Provide unexpected value—try listening to conversations that are not necessarily about your company and then respond to questions not directly aimed at you
2. Create situations to bring people closer to your brand.
3. Sometimes a personal, unique response from a real person at a big company can really “wow” people.
4. Use surprise conversations.
Resources: Social Media Examiner
I thought this was a great post! I think these tips from "Likeable Social Media" are excellent because many companies want to branch out into social media, however they might not know how to begin, how to handle a social media crisis, what information to include, etc. These tips will help companies on their way to effectively utilizing social media.
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