For many, social media engagement is an integral part of any robust social media marketing strategy.
Contrary to popular belief, social media engagement is not a passive experience.
Case in point—rather than waiting for customers (prospective or otherwise) to reach out to you, you proactively engage with anyone who mentions your brands or products instead.
What is the Significance of Social Media Engagement?
How important is social media engagement?
And what do brands stand to gain when they proactively integrate social media engagement in their social media marketing campaigns?
Some research show that a whopping 71 percent of customers are more likely to recommend the brand to others if they experience a quick response from the brand via social media.
On the other hand, only a measly 19 percent of the respondents would recommend the brand if they did not receive any quick response.
Suffice it to say, the difference social media engagement can make can be truly staggering.
How do you get started?
How then do you get proactive on social media?
Social media experts claim being proactive will entail providing resolutions to problems, turning customers into advocates, and more importantly, providing a listening ear.
What do you Stand to Gain from Social Media Engagement?
You will get access to insights of customers, competitors, and industry influencers.
Listening proactively is beneficial on so many levels.
For starters, it will give you a clear insight into your customers.
However, it goes beyond that.
It will also give you access into the perspective of both the competitors and the industry influencers.
The information and insights you will have access will not only help you build a better and stronger relationship with your followers, it will also allow you to be a step ahead of the competition.
The end result would be a much stronger following and increased profitability.
It allows you to monitor any feedback, complaints, and recommendations customers have about your brand.
Otherwise known as social media monitoring, this strategy makes it possible for you to resolve any concerns promptly and accordingly and act on any possible business opportunities as they happen.
Case in point—if you are a company engaged in the business of moving, you would be able to monitor tweets on likely movers so you can offer your services to these prospects.
In the same manner, you will also be informed of any complaints (even if they will not use your Twitter handle) so you are able to immediately rectify any issues and provide a resolution before things get out of hand.
HootSuite and other social media marketing tools can help make social media monitoring possible as they can track competitors, brand mentions, key industry terms (and relative keywords), among other things.
It helps you attract new followers while retaining the old (and current) ones.
When it comes to business, you have to do more than just entice and attract new customers.
Equally as important would be keeping your current followers happy so you’ll turn them into loyal customers.
How do you effectively go about it?
For starters, you can show your social media followers you care by thanking them.
However, apart from the usual “thanks for sharing,” or “thanks for following,” you can take it up a notch by sharing (retweeting or liking) any relevant content they might have tweeted.
You can also make them feel more special by calling them out by name. While many brands do follow back, not many would go out of their way to send a personalized message customers would surely appreciate.
In essence, social media engagement will entail time and effort.
However, time invested in the endeavor will surely pay off and it will only be a matter of time until you reap the full benefits of your efforts.