November 20, 2015
Social networking has transformed the way people interact. Accordingly, businesses have recognized the importance of having a presence on the various social networks their customers frequent. In order to reach your customers in this digital age, your business has to make sure that they are effectively utilizing the different social networks.
Facebook is by far the most popular social network in the United States. What was once a simple site for solely for college students, has evolved into a site designed to facilitate interaction between virtually all people all over the world.
Businesses have subsequently recognized that having a Facebook page is an absolute must.
The people who have “liked” your business’ page are publicly proclaiming to their friends that your business is important to them. They are also essentially asking to be exposed to your business’ marketing messages.
Because of this, your business must be actively providing pictures, videos, posts, and other content that will engage your Facebook fans. Simply existing on Facebook is not enough to most consumers.
Facebook has also come to represent a new way for brands to provide customer service. When customers publicly post a comment or question to your business’ page, there is a unique opportunity for your brand to offer exemplary assistance that will showcase your commitment to the customer.
Overall, Facebook provides business with a way to reach their target market and to create more meaningful B2C relationships.
By nature, Twitter is optimized for your eCommerce business to reach out to your target customers, and for your customers to reach out to your business. Twitter’s format is better designed for a user’s public persona, and much less personal than Facebook. Communicating with people you do not necessarily know in real life, such as a the people behind a business, is encouraged on Twitter. Communicating to other like-minded consumers is also a common occurrence.
On Twitter, your brand can be hashtagged, retweeted, and replied to among a wide audience of people. Your business can also create a hashtag to be used in identifying a message as relevant to your brand.
With Twitter, it is possible to tailor a single message, or even an entire marketing campaign to be shared all over Twitter. Followers, and your follower’s followers will be exposed to your message.
As with Facebook, users can utilize Twitter as a direct way to reach out for help and to ask questions, as well as participate in marketing campaigns.
It is not uncommon for a brand to ask its followers to “retweet” a message in order to gain more exposure throughout the network.
Images draw stronger engagement than posts made of just words. When a user is haphazardly scrolling through their social media feed, an image may grab their attention and compel them to actually take in what they are seeing.
Nike represents a brand that exemplifies creating compelling marketing content using Instagram. Their page is filled with hundreds of photos of not only athletes, but also ordinary people proudly wearing their Nike gear.
Each photo is captioned with a motivational or informative message. Users can interact with the brand by liking the pictures, commenting on the images, and even create their own image that they associate with Nike through a hashtag.
If your brand wants to reach consumers on Instagram, creating sharable, interesting, and attractive photos, in addition to encouraging users to become involved, is key.
Conclusion
Altogether, social media represents a much more informal and natural way for businesses to reach their consumers.
The business’s marketing material can be presented to the consumer on a channel they are already engaged with, and among the messages from their friends and family. With the inherent interactiveness of social media, a business can also gauge the effectiveness and response to each message in order to understand what their users want from them.
Last, the direct interaction between consumers and business representatives provides customers a chance to ask questions and give feedback. By maintaining a an active account on the above social media channels, you can ensure that you are reaching your customers in a way that is convenient and authentic for all.
