Social Seven – Do You Value Your Social Media Fans?
Do You Value Your Social Media Fans?
Special Guest: Melody Jones of Social Media Management Services, LLC
This week we discuss the challenge of showing your social media fans how much you value them. These great tips help keep your audience in the front of your mind and marketing efforts.
Having fans and followers is so important because social media is such a social experience. One of the main complaints about brands is how they don’t pay attention to their fans. However, social media is all about relationships and conversation and not about how many fans you have.
Some basic ways you can show your fans that you care. One of them is to pay attention to what your followers are saying and comment back. Respond. In whatever way you need to, depending on the platform. Retweeting and thanking people on Twitter is often the way to go. Some brands will call out friends and followers by name. It is that easy to value your fans. But it does take persistence, patience, and daily monitoring.
What if your accounts are lacking in engagement? For example, when you are in a classroom and no one wants to raise his or her hand or go first. Having a tribe helps encourage followers to engage more in order to be a part of the tribal activity. Give them something to jump onto and participate in.
People like to be recognized whether it’s saying thank you or mentioning them. They liked to be called by name. Responding and replying is essential. It would be considered rude to ignore someone in person who asked you a question, why do it on Social Media?
In valuing our social media fans, what’s the appropriate amount of time? The quicker you can get to it the better. You need to respond to your fans on a daily basis. If you have a large brand and lots of activity, you may need a team of people dedicated to responding to followers. With a team it will be a lot easier. Create a marketing tribe.
Does response time vary by platform? There are stats available online for what fans expect in regards to response time on different social media platforms. Twitter is often less than an hour, while other platforms are more flexible.
What about negative comments? Everyone is going to get negative comments occasionally. The #1 mistake is to delete them. You need to respond as quickly as possible and give them a venue to continue the conversation offline. There are two reasons for that. One, deleting the comment or post will make the user angry. Also followers are watching how you handle the situation. If you manage to make it right, you could convert that customer into a fan.
These are some great reminders about the value of our fans. Appreciate your customers and your audience. Take the time to make that a part of your daily routine. It’s so worth it. You will keep your fans and followers and continue to grow as a brand.
Learn more about Melody and her company by visiting: http://socialmediamelody.com/
Think this might help you with staying on top of your social media? Follow us on social media to find out when our Social Seven podcast is streaming live!
