Social media engagement is one of the most powerful customer engagement tools for 2016. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn you need to be present everywhere. And by present we not only mean creating an account, but we mean you have to be active and engage with your customers.
Though Facebook still remains the first choice for social media enthusiasts, the micro-blogging site, Twitter, has already surpassed 310 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2016 (reference- www.statista.com). The advantage Twitter has over Facebook is in the way you can easily find your target audience and how you can engage with them. So now the point is how you engage with your audience?
Here are a few simple tips to go about it-
- Tweet Tweet
People follow you on the basis of your tweets. The tweets they see on your profile (last 15-20 tweets, atleast) help them in making a decision whether to follow you or not.
Build your tweet profile in such a way that your tweets are a blend of one-liners, retweets and images, some relevant links, images, videos from the related industry. A mix of tweets is a good catch for the audience.
Another important point here is to tweet during appropriate times. Tweet more during daytime and weekends. Your tweets will reach appropriate audiences.
- Offer personalized inspiration
Nothing works great than a simple response. Interaction with the customers might actually thrill them. It’s a sign of respect and admiration. People desire human connections, and a great way to do that is to motivate people to reach their potential.
- Use Relevant Hashtags
You cannot go wrong with this one!
Use a hashtag that can spark conversations around your brand. Define the goal of your campaign, research how will it relate to your brand and customers and then start the hashtag campaign. The hashtag you use should be the one that your customers can identify with. Hashtags get you higher visibility on Twitter.
- Run a contest
Who doesn’t love giveaways? Running a Twitter contest is a great way to increase customer encouragement. Get retweets, follows, likes and comments for some giveaways.
Do not forget to promote the contest on other social media channels too.
- Ask for Retweets
People miss a huge opportunity for their businesses when they shy away from asking for retweets. If you ask for a retweet, chances are you will definitely get one.
P.S.: Don’t keep on asking your customers for retweets continuously. Ask only for something that is worth a retweet. And don’t miss out on writing ‘retweet’, avoid ‘RT’!
- Share problem-solving content
This requires some homework to be done. Go through your followers’ profiles, keep a tab on what interests them, and find out a common issue they are dealing with (for example, how to get more visitors on websites). Next step is then to create appropriate content with the solution to their problem and promote it on twitter. You may even pin it to your profile for a few days, so you can engage with your new customers as well.
This helps in building bond between you and your customers. Try building genuine relationship with them instead of selling products.
- Answer customer calls for help
The times when your company fails to meet your customer’s expectations, they might approach you through the social media for help. Provide them one-to-one assistance, good customer service and direct messages to their tweets. This will help in strengthening customer relationships.
- Use a strong Call-to-action
Focus your tweet on the reader of the tweet rather than the sender. Use words like please retweet, help, follow and how to.Your followers are much more likely to interact if they are the focus on your tweet and you’re clearly asking for an action.
- Share Images
Your twitter profile shows the most recently posted images and videos, which is also visible on the Twitter mobile app. Images draw more attention from audiences, and so it is important to valuable images for your followers.
- Find Targeted Followers
Last but the most important one, find the followers who are actually interested in your business.
Add your twitter link to everything, right from your email signatures, to your forum posts, blogs, newsletters, and even other social profile. This will help you connect with people who are already connecting with you on other platforms, and mostly are you target audiences.
It’s better to have 500 engaged followers than 500 unengaged followers.
Use this strong and powerful platform to engage with your customers and watch your brand value multiply at an excellent rate in this Twitter world!
Happy tweeting!
