[In today’s fast-moving world of social media, having a “presence” is simply not good enough anymore. What you need to do is engage your customers and prospects online in such a way that they get a benefit out of spending their online time with you.
Today, your target has literally millions of choices for products and services, just like yours. Social media has opened the floodgates for companies of all sizes and budgets to compete on a level playing field.
Consumers want to “friend” organizations that they find engaging, interesting, relevant and rewarding. What does this mean? It means that simply having a website, a Facebook Fan Page or a Twitter page with only news-bytes is not good enough anymore. Your goal is to forge a connection with your target. Remember that at the end, it is all about the consumer.
A Facebook Fan Page is not used the same way as a Twitter page. From our experience, your fans on Facebook are much more involved in your brand: they are clients, consumers, partners and future consumers. Knowing that, you have to look at your Facebook Fan page as an online forum for your community, designed by your brand, where you share content exclusive to this community.
There is no shortage of creative ways to make this happen. The following are what we have found to be the fastest, easiest and most cost effective for our clients:
– Create a contest with the promise of a reward that promotes the unique elements of your brand.
– Create a poll that asks relevant and timely questions.
– Giveaway valuable content/product. This can be information, coupons or recommendations of relevance.
– Engage and chat. Your goal is to build relationships with your fans.
– Celebrate a “fan of the week.”
– Create a quiz that rewards the right answer.
– Go mobile. More and more users are accessing you via a mobile device, so be sure you’re current with the technology.
Your goal is to understand everything you can about your target and to create a community where they can connect, hang-out and get rewarded in some way-either with free stuff or valuable information.
Social media is a powerful tool, but the competition to reach your target is intense. To be successful, you need to stick to a plan and be consistent with your efforts. Try implementing some of the ideas above and see how effective social media can be when you engage with your audience.
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