Social media is all about sharing content and engaging other users online.
Therefore the term “social”.
When you first set out to build your content marketing guidelines, it is important to make sure you have a section just for your social media engagement strategy.
Your social media engagement strategy needs to be part of your content marketing vision.
In this article we will cover why this is extremely critical for your brand and customer base to engage in social interaction through your social media and otherwise.
1. Reach
We will use Facebook as an example for this very important point.
Over the years Facebook has been changing their algorithm to prompt companies to spend more money to reach their audiences.
However, in a recent twist of events they announce that they are using “meaningful engagement” as an important signal that a post should be prioritized.
In other words, posts with more active and thoughtful interactions will get more reach.
Keep in mind that Facebook did clarify that interactions from people will get more push than interactions from brands. Knowing this might be a good idea to set up a few personal accounts that can help push your brand out there.
Either way, when you post on your company’s page you need to engage readers for better reach.
For example, ask a question, run a competition that engages people to comment. Share funny memes or other interested content that will prompt people to engage with you.
Do not just throw a pretty picture with a description of your product.
Here is an interesting quote by the Facebook team:
“Interacting with people is associated with a greater sense of well-being… On the other hand, just scrolling through your Facebook feed, passively reading or watching without interacting with others, tends to make people feel worse.” – Facebook Team
The happier is your audience the more likely it is they will associate your product with positive emotions.
2. Expectations
Did you know that Facebook and twitter are the first places consumers go for interaction with customer service?
Latest data shows that over 8 billion messages are exchanged between consumers and brands per month.
People’s choice for client care is:
34.5 % Social Media
24.7 % Website Live Chat
19.4 % Email
16.1 % Phone
5.4 % In Store Experience
As you notice from the bullet points above, the three first options require content and engagement.
Keep in mind 71% of your customers expect you will respond back within an hour from them contacting you.
Therefore, we suggest you set up your content marketing guidelines to include a plan for social engagement.
This means either hiring someone who will be responsible to respond to clients and engage with them online if they comment on your posts.
It is important to keep promoting the conversation and the engagement to hold the user’s attention for as long as possible.
3. Loyalty
Did you know that people who engage with your brand online are more likely to develop loyalty for your products or services?
On top of increasing loyalty, there is data indicating that engaging consumers online in order to resolve an issue decreases your churn rate by 25%.
This is huge!
There are entire departments dedicated to retention, and part of their content marketing guidelines should include online social interaction with existing clients.
You need to have a well crafted answer, that is respectful, playful and personal for resolving issues online with clients.
Keep in mind everything is sharable. A good and a bad experience.
4. Evolve
Every product and service improves with time.
It usually takes testing and surveys and years of research.
However, if you engage with your online audience and existing users they can be a wealth of information.
Remember you are building products and services for them, so you need to utilize their feedback and user experience to improve your products and services.
Now that we know why it is important to develop your content marketing guidelines to include social engagement as part of the content marketing vision, let’s take a look at a few ways you can jump start the process.
How?
Reply to comments, either by answering a question or simply thanking the user for the comment
Reply to any messenger requests asap
Maintain the same tone and style throughout all communication
Use analytics and other tools to measure the impact of your engagement
Post interesting content that requires interaction
Work with influencers who can comment and get the conversation going to prompt engagements and interaction
Broadcast LIVE from your offices and give your users / clients a sneak peek behind the scenes. People love this type of content
Create polls for your upcoming products and engage your audience when it comes to picking colors, features, designs etc for your new releases
Share other people’s content, give them credit, tag them and watch new members join the community
Educate your audience and make them feel good about themselves.
Run social media contests
This is not a one man show.
You will need a great support team to tackle a proper social media engagement approach.
Remember the best way to get engagement on social media is to be engaging on social media.