For a while now there’s been a little debate on how effective social media is whilst the perceived ‘reliability’ value of traditional media in the new digital economy is… let’s just say… being challeneged.
Personally, I truly beleive that this world needs both – supporting one another to provide a better all round customer/client experience.
Enhanced Customer Engagement
If you want your online social media efforts to be a success by providing additional ways for your audience to engage with you and you to engage with them, you’ll need to make sure that people know where you are (e.g. which social networking platforms you’re on).
Think of it a like this: You decide to build a brand new shop that’ll be stocked full of everything that people want to buy. <Yeyy> You build your shop in a field, central to the neighbouring towns. <Mexican wave> Unfortunately, you don’t have any roads leading to your shop <Sighs>, making it difficult if not impossible for people to get to you. <Growns>
The analogy here is that when you start using social media it can take a while for people to know that you’re using it, but this is where traditional media like direct mail, email, tradeshows etc can help create awareness on where you are and how to get involved.
You might need to incentivise your clients or customers, so you could discuss with them the benefits of following your blog or your customer service twitter account, but remember as you’re talking imagine that they’re repeatedly asking you “So What?” – that way you’ll be solely focussed on the actual benefits to them…
Here are 3 ways to join the dots between your online and offline activities:
- Put links to your blog, twitter, facebook, linkedin (delete/add as appropriate) accounts on everything you produce e.g. business cards, compliment slips, invoices, credit notes, delivery notes, brochures, newsletters, e-newsletters, packaging etc AND in your email signature. NOTE: Your email signature is also a great place to put a link to your most recent blog post
- Email an excerpt of your current blog post and a link to continue reading to your customers that have given you permission to contact them by email. This is not an opportunity to send out a mass mailing…!
- Create “easy to remember URLs” on the social media platforms that you’re registered on to make it easier for people to find you. Most platforms will allow you to personalise your URL these days
Remember that you’re wanting to collaborate with your audience to find ways to improve what you do. So encourage a dialogue and invite your customers/clients – current and prospective – to engage in this online conversation… and make it very clear you want to hear from them.
People are spending more of their time online, but don’t see this as an ‘opportunity’ to market to them, see it as an ‘obligation’ that you have to your customers to let them have their say…
Building a community of your product/service advocates takes time, so start NOW and continue as you mean to go on 
As always, happy to be educated and challenged…
Related posts:
- It starts with hello: being social
Being social and using social media are two totally different things. Many businesses view social media as a way to: • raise awareness of their products and services – their... - It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it
I blogged at the weekend on the importance of being social. But employers, business mangers, owners etc worry about employees using social media without understanding that it can be as... - Social media collaboration, integration and Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4s
Although social media is one of those meme‘s that is heavily over-used, I believe it’s purely at an early life stage, similar to that of a human growth cycle: i.e.... - What happens when the media becomes social
And social becomes the media? What does this mean for brands in the social media space? Basically, it means that social media (SoMe) can’t be viewed as a place to... - Ubiquity, value and change
You build a community, you create and share great content and identify things that are ‘ahead of the curve’. So how do you inspire others to do your storytelling for...
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }