Being on social media is nothing new. A lot of businesses are on social media. Many are even spending a lot of time and effort on social media. But are they using social media to actually engage their customers? Treating social media as another advertising channel is a big mistake. Here are some social media resolutions that can improve your customer engagement and lead to true return on investment (ROI).
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Dec
07
2010
The Importance of Consistent Brand Identity
Logos and brand names can be fun to create, but having too many may be confusing to your customers. Logos and brands help create associations with certain attributes or features within customers’ minds. Using different names or images for the same brand can make it difficult for customers to know what associations they should have. The same may be true if you’re using different profile names and identities with social media.
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Dec
01
2010
Social Media as a Vital Customer TouchPoint
When you’re thinking about your customer touchpoints, are you considering other ways customers may try to communicate with you or about you? Are your company or products mentioned on social media by customers having problems? While you may have the greatest customer support process in the world, it’s only good if people are actually using it to let you know about problems. Even if you’re not doing any other type of social media outreach, at the very least, monitoring for mentions of your company and products can go a long way for improving your online reputation.
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Nov
30
2010
Increase Sales by Improving Customer Touchpoints
You may think improving your website or your point of sale system or even your after-sales service will help increase your sales. They most likely will. But there usually are more places that customers (and potential customers) interact with your brand (touchpoints). Ignoring these other customer touchpoints may counter-act the good you’re trying to do.
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Nov
29
2010
Stand Out with a Custom Facebook Page
Facebook! Facebook! Facebook! With so many people spending so much time on Facebook, businesses are clamoring to get a Facebook page set up to get in front of all those eyeballs. While people spend time on Facebook primarily conversing with friends and family, some companies have had luck attracting some attention by customizing their pages. All sorts of integrations can be done with other content and social networks in order to increase engagement. Let’s look at a few:
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Nov
10
2010
Stop Negative Public Relations Before It Happens
Heard the latest example of a company receiving negative public relations via the web and social media? Alaska Airlines apparently gave a paying customer’s ticket away to someone on standby because that customer had to run to the bathroom to change her baby’s diaper. That customer service error led fully fledged public relations debacle: Alaska Airlines Hates Families After reaching a dead-end with the company, the couple turned to the Internet to air their complaints (which seem reasonable). All this negative PR could have been easily stopped before it happened, without any fancy technology or marketing — provide good customer service.
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Aug
24
2010
Social Media Must Align with Customer Service for Success
You may be doing a great job with social media for your company — creating great content, having conversations and really engaging with your customers. But, if your customer service doesn’t align with the expectations set by your social media interactions, your success will only be short term. Eventually customers will experience your customer service and if it doesn’t align with expectations built by social media, all your hard work will be for naught.
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May
26
2010
Pricing Based on Customer Expectations
Pricing, when done properly, is one of the most difficult tasks any business faces. Yet it is usually only given a perfunctory once-over. Customers have a range in mind that they’re willing to pay, but if you ask them, cheaper is always better. Ask a customer what they paid for something after the fact, and they’ll probably have a hard time remembering exactly. Price something too low, and people wonder about the quality. Price too high, and you’re out of budget. How can you meet your customer’s expectations without directly asking them?
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May
06
2010
Consumer Preferences Can Put You Out of Business
I’ve been in Germany this week studying the European business environment at the WHU. In studying Germany in particular, we discussed an interesting insight. While cultural differences in other parts of the world are expected, fundamental differences in how consumers consume is sometimes overlooked. Beyond just consumer preferences, the way people purchase products here is very different than in the US or other parts of Europe.
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Apr
30
2010
Identify Your Ideal Customer Before Implementing Social Media
Knowing your target audience is vital to any social media strategy, which requires identifying your ideal customer in very specific terms. Many businesses try to target anyone who they think may be even remotely interested in their product. This can lead to social media presence that is spread way too thin for the company resources (this isn’t a good branding or product strategy either). It’s best to concentrate on the ideal customer and find the most appropriate 1-3 places online to connect.
To identify the ideal customer, think of job titles or occupations they may have. Try describing an individual that would purchase your products. What do they like to do? What interests them? Why would buying your product solve a problem or provide a benefit?
Once you have your ideal customer in mind, it will be much easier to investigate places they may already be online. Look for discussion groups, industry associations and publications that may interest your audience. We’ll discuss finding your audience in more depth in a future post.
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