ST LEONARDS, Australia - Jan. 5, 2020 - There once was a time, long, long ago in the distant past when brands used social media to spread their message: Post, analyse likes and shares, and post again.
Their target audience read their post, and if they felt connected, they'd leave a comment, not expecting, nor receiving a response.
Fast-track to the present, and the consumer is now not solely relying on social media as an information channel, but a forum to engage back to the brand.
As a result, social media marketing must mature and evolve with it.
Many brands still use social media to 'talk' to their customers, but don't 'engage' them by listening to what they have to say. This represents a monstrous missed opportunity for the majority of brands as social media is the perfect platform for a two-way conversation.
Listening should be two-way; a conversation.
The differentiator is that THE conversation really now IS a conversation.
Brand talks, audience reacts, brand responds. Whether it's in response to a potential customer reaching out with a question, a brand loyalist giving you a positive shout-out or an upset customer screaming from the rooftops about a bad experience, it needs a response. Now!
Social media engagement can no longer be reactive, it must be proactive. Businesses, large and small, must be at attention at all times. If someone engages with your business they want to be heard and it's the businesses' responsibility to make that person's voice heard.
Social is personal, and the customers' experience must be personalised. A business can do that by engaging prospects, customers, influencers, and even competitors in conversation; positive conversation. The business needs to build trust and a relationship with their engaged audience, individually and personally where possible.
Engage, engage, engage! Engaging across every channel is hard and time consuming. Fortunately for today's marketer there are tools and technologies to listen and respond to their customers in a meaningful engaging and insightful way.
The goal of the modern marketer is to serve current customers, acquire new customers and, to turn them all into a more loyal customer base. Social plays an integral and crucial role in nurturing this audience. Those that unlock the key, will grow and win.
The business that understands the synchronous importance of people, processes and technology within their organisation, are the businesses that will most successfully meet the expectations along the customer journey.
Your marketer needs to know the stages and processes to connect and engage your customer, so they can communicate this journey, analyse and come back around to the start, re-establish and re-target. It's new, it's developing, it's continuum.
It's no longer reactive, it's now proactive.
Need help? Contact Rogan Carroll at https://www.typiphy.com/
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