Essential Business Tactic: Social Media Integration

Social media platforms are a relatively low-cost way to interact with customers. You can learn about their interests; what draws them to a brand or a product and holds this interest. You can collect data on their spending habits and use this information to turn their interest into sales. 

It is low cost because you do not have to spend a great deal of money to access the information that social media platforms are constantly collecting about their users. Google Analytics alone is already enough to learn a great deal about your potential customers. You can learn what drew the customer to your social media page and what they did once they were on your page.

This information can be used for website optimization. Customers will use the social media links to visit your website, but they will stay and continue interacting with your site because it is intuitive and user-friendly. 

Ensuring that the customers click the link is entirely up to your social media pages'effective and attractive methods. Engaging and relatable posts have a better chance of driving people towards a website than posts that are clearly intended to be advertisements. Social media is more than a way to show people what you can sell them. It is a way to show people why they want to buy your product/service. 

Be Relatable

Customers want to see the people behind the brand. They do not want a faceless corporation selling them things. They want to support businesses with which they feel a genuine connection.   Thus, your social media content needs to showcase real human values. You need to share why you care about this product. Share stories on how your product will benefit people and become an integral part of their daily lives.

Take the time to have interesting and knowledgeable employees conduct live video chat sessions to demonstrate the proper usage and cleaning of your products. Follow this up with testimonials from happy customers about how much they enjoy owning your product. 

Brand Awareness

Develop a brand identity on social media. Match it to your company values and keep it consistent. This will help you develop a following on social media that will remain loyal and consistently interact with your posts and can be relied on to share your content. 

Build on this brand identity to design social media campaigns to promote new products. It can also be an effective way to create holiday-related greetings, promotions, and interactive content that helps to attract new customers.

Many people on social media discover new products and services from viewing the posts that their friends share. Focus on making social media content that will appeal to your followers and result in them sharing the posts to their followers. 

Go-to Source

Social media gives the unique opportunity to establish your company as an authority within your field. This will require a dedicated approach and an investment in hiring and training staff to provide the information and interactions necessary to form this reputation. This makes your social media platforms and website the go-to source people prefer when they need information and clarification.

Have employees write content on your website blog about the industry as well as about the products. Interview notable people from within the industry on your social media and invite them to contribute essays and infographics. Let your technical experts hold bi-monthly sessions where they answer customer queries and give useful suggestions.

The idea is to give people the impression that your company is a leader in the industry and can be relied on to provide the best service. People trust thought leaders and are more likely to spend their money on these companies than they view as just a business.

People get attached fast, and they can get angry and boycott a company just as quickly. Thus, your social media platforms must be used as your first line of communication in any crisis. Do not, under any circumstances, try to hide, lie, or divert attention away if your company does run into an issue.

The damage this will do to your reputation will take a long time to recover from, and for a small business, it might become an insurmountable roadblock. If you are in the wrong, apologize sincerely and lay out a clear plan for improving the situation and ensuring it never happens again.

Too many companies think that social media is just a way for them to tell customers how to think and behave. This misunderstanding will hurt your company. Silence is not an option either. Social media can greatly benefit your company, but it can also greatly harm your business if you do not demonstrate your sincerity in times of crisis as well as you did during times of prosperity.