Engagement goes both ways, so it is important to take time each and every day to respond to your audience. This includes their comments, DMs, hashtags, check-ins and other forms of engagement with your brand, page and business. Social media is hte preferred channel for many customers to praise, review, ask question and complain about products and services. A business page on any social media platform that does not regularly engage with their audience will often suffer from a follower plateau and/or a low-quality audience.
Follower Plateau: The point where your social media platform has begun to not regularly gain followers anymore. If you have been at x amount of followers for over a month, you have hit a follower plateau.
Low Quality Audience: An audience (large or small) that engages minimally on a day-to-day basis. If you have 1000 followers, but your posts are only getting 10-20 likes you have a low-quality audience.
If you have found yourself in one or both of these predicaments, it is time to make a 180 and treat your audience how you want them to treat you! By setting aside time each and every day to reply to your audience and engage with their posts, you will see a huge difference in the engagement that you receive. If you do not have the time to actively engage , it may be time to hire some help! Now that you are ready to engage, let’s chat about the dos and don’ts.
DO:
- Decide on a timeframe to reply to each comment, message, check-in, mention, etc. Many customers expect to replied to same day before the evening.
- Maintain your composure when dealing with complaints and reply in a professional manner. It is often best to apologize and ask the customer to send you a message directly to take the conversation behind the scenes.
- Use humor, jokes, stickers and GIFS sparingly making sure to be appropriate and address the concerns of the customer.
- Encourage check-ins, hashtags, photos and reviews from your customers.
- Be online and available during the day, peak times, and holidays so that you don’t miss anything!
- Create hashtags that you and your customers can use to chat about your company.
- Reply in a tone similar to how you think your client avatar would speak and/or would want to be spoken to. If you haven’t created a client avatar, click here to learn about why you should!
DON’T
- Setup only one day a week to reply to messages. Many customers will get frustrated if they have to wait more than 24 hours for a reply and will take their business elsewhere.
- Harass, belittle or accuse a customer of lying when dealing with a complaint.
- Use humor or jokes that are inappropriate for your audience or can paint you in a poor light.
- Only talk about social media on social media. How are your customers supposed to know that you have an Instagram if you never talk about it?
- Use only very common hashtags that everyone and their mother uses. Using common hashtags will bring you into new feeds, but your photos may also get lost in the mix. Always use a combination of unique and trending hashtags.
- Reply in a cold tone that conveys that you don’t actually care. For example, ” I’m sorry that you were unsatisfied with your product, but we don’t do returns. Thank you for your support.”
When it comes right down to it, people treat you how you treat them. If you don’t reply to your customers then why should they comment or message you in the first place? If you don’t engage, how can you expect good engagement? If you are already a pro at replying to your audience, but aren’t seeing the return from your time investment, you may need to boost your visibility! While we are at it, be sure to follow me on Facebook for weekly lives about pipe and drape, business and more! See you tomorrow at 9:00pm EST!