How To Build Relationships With A Social Media Strategy
Posted by Belinda Tucker on Thu, Oct 13, 2011
Social media provides an inexpensive and effective way to reach out to your
customers for the purpose of building brand loyalty, creating customer awareness, introducing new products and monitoring customer satisfaction. By utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and blogs, you can use creative ways to engage a large number of potential and loyal customers without breaking the bank. The effective use of a social media strategy takes more time than money, so it is a perfect tool for your small business.
Strategies used to successfully build customer relationships include hosting contests, promoting free giveaways, giving customers a voice, and aligning with altruistic causes. With very modest capital investments, these strategies can be communicated via social media tools. The list of companies that utilize social media for promotion purposes reads like a "who's who" list of corporate players.
These large companies have tested the waters and made a full commitment to social media, which means that it's time to jump in with both feet if you want to compete. As published in Inc. on July 2010, a
Nielsen study reported that larger companies are embracing social media, with 79% utilizing it as a marketing resource. A few well-known companies that have created a strong social media presence include Starbucks, Home Depot, Bravo, Skyy Vodka and Dell.
Social Media Strategies Freebies One social media strategy worthy of your attention is a free giveaway contest. It is no secret that people love getting free stuff. Starbucks offers customer discounts for customers who "check-in" through Foursquare the most often. Much like frequent flier programs made popular by the airline industry, Starbucks rewards customer loyalty with free or discounted goodies to promote the ongoing relationship.
New Customer Buzz For companies seeking a novel approach to create buzz about a product or service, there are several examples of social media campaigns that have garnered a lot of attention. The shoe company, Naughty Monkey, employed a time-tested social media strategy by creating a contest. The contest was named "Where Have Your Naughty Monkeys Been?"
Naughty Monkey shoe customers submitted pictures wearing Naughty Monkey shoes in unique situations and circumstances. Users then voted for their favorite pictures. The contest winner received a year's worth of free Naughty Monkey shoes.The buzz around this contest created new Facebook fans and was instrumental in creating the desired social media recognition and presence the company wanted.
Another interesting case study cited in the article, "
4 Ways to Master Social Media Marketing," published on the Inc. website, outlined the clever use of social media to increase VeeV Vodka brand awareness. To win a free tote bag, users sent in those fun "drinking photos" that we all know so well. Of course, the users were drinking VeeV Vodka. The tote bags flew out the door and the campaign enjoyed great success.
Building Trust For companies lucky enough to already enjoy household name recognition, they often turn to social media to promote brand loyalty and continued success. Home Depot interacts with customers in this way, utilizing social media as a questions and answer forum. By reaching out to help people with do-it-yourself questions, Home Depot shows they care, building trust and future success.
Customer Buy-In Getting customers involved in your company through giving them a voice is also an effective way to create customer awareness and loyalty. Vitamin Water reached out through social media to gather input from customers for name and packaging ideas for a new product, growing its Facebook presence and name recognition at the same time. Video clips of famous celebrities were used to further promote interest. With over a million participants, the new flavor named "Connect" had at least a million new potential buyers aware of the product.
Creating effective social media strategy is nothing more than using social
media tools to communicate your message. While Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are inexpensive vehicles for reaching out to your marketplace, there is no magic bullet for gaining customers without a well-researched product that is competitive.
The good news is that, you can also use social media for market research purposes, to tweak your product to suit the marketplace. Social media is here to stay as an economical and personal option for customer contact.