If you’re struggling with engaging consumers online, it’s important to first understand how new standards of communicating with customers have emerged, all driven by a shift in how we use the Internet. Business websites (and “we tell you” marketing like email) are continuously replaced as the go-to resource by social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Here consumers avoid the control of marketing and customer-service reps and can get insight from your brand by other consumers, opinions that today’s shoppers trust higher than brand communications.
When your brand is engaged in social media, it’s important to listen to and understand the nature of the conversation. This way you can accurately judge what communications are getting the best results. In fact, I always suggest to clients that they start with measuring the results of their brand’s social conversation first. A common method is to post two messages daily on your Facebook fan page, and then listen to the fans’ reactions. Using tools from Facebook (and other third party platforms) you can measure how many times a message is viewed, how many times it is shared with other Facebook users and what fan responses say.
From there you can mine the data to understand what is appreciated, and what is not. For example, do your Facebook fans like edgy one-liners or messages that focus on prices and special offers? What messages are relevant to your fan’s passion about your brand? Once you know what types of messages your fans respond to the most you can drive deeper levels of engagement, persuading fans to pass on messages about your brand to their own Facebook friends—winning free word-of-mouth marketing buzz. The data can also help you adjust your brand messaging for traditional marketing channels like print.
Interested in building an awesome Facebook business page geared toward engagement? Check out my course on udemy: http://www.udemy.com/create-a-custom-facebook-page-for-your-business-or-brand/