A Window Into the Lives of Your Customers and Target Audience
Social media is a great opportunity to investigate who is responding to your product or service and how they are responding to it. Pay close attention to the demographic and age group of people that you’re generally appealing to. Could it be larger? This information can be very useful in letting you know whether advertisements need to be reworked to be more palatable to a larger audience or whether you need to narrow down the scope and appeal to a specific group of people, such as college students or the elderly.
Competitors are Likely Already Taking Advantage of it.
If you are considering taking your business to the social media front, chances are your competition is already there taking advantage of your potential customers because they are―in a sense―running unopposed. Not only is it important for your customer base, but it is also useful to keep tabs on the competition and scope out their own strategies. Use the opportunity to see what is working well for your competitor and what is falling flat. This will add to the variables you consider when discussing directions to take your business in.
A New Level of Customer Service
Often times when a customer is disgruntled with a product or service, they will take to social media and voice their displeasure there, sometimes tagging businesses in their post or posting directly to the businesses page. This is actually a crucial aspect of interaction with your customer that can make or break your businesses reputation. It all depends on how quickly to address the situation and of course, how you handle it. Offer assistance, an apology, a solution, and maybe even a discount on a future purchase for the customer. This will not only reinforce a bond with your customer, but for lack of a better term, provide free publicity. Other social media onlookers will see the interaction between you and your customers and in turn cause new opinions to be formed. You may even change a couple people’s first impressions of your business with how well you handles disgruntled customers on social media.
Ultimately, social media isn’t going anywhere, and by resisting the pull toward it, you are only hurting your businesses success in the long run. Of course this also means that once you register your business on social media, you must post consistently. Don’t bombard your followers with content, but update regularly. Nothing is more discouraging to a customer than a business social media account that hasn’t updated in half a year.