Decide who you want to talk to and where

Each major social media platform is a unique environment with subtly different audiences, purposes, strengths and weaknesses. Thus, a good social media strategy is to understand which channels you should focus on and how you should use them to interact with your customers.

Brands are most successful on social media when they align their content and messages with the social network’s audience and reasons for existence.

You can use social media monitoring tools to listen to conversations to learn where the conversations that are relevant to your brand are taking place and where the people you’d like to reach are active. If you have an email database, you can use that to explore on which channels your customers hold accounts.

Define your voice and persona

Your tone of voice and brand personality matter even more on social media than they do in other channels. People don’t want scripted responses, dry legalese, insincere promises on social media, they want to feel like they’re connecting with a brand that has empathy for and interest in them.

That means you need to think clearly about the tone of voice you’ll project. And then, you must formalise it and train every person who will write for social media or respond to customers to master that distinctive and memorable personality.  It’s important to be consistent, but not at the cost of approachability and warmth.

Put together a content strategy

Social media should not be a dumping ground for PR and marketing materials. Follow what your customers are talking about, make sure that your content is tailored to the needs of different audiences and platforms, and always focus on quality and relevance.

It’s not just about product and price - it is about giving people information that will help, and entertain them. Your content should be educational and interesting to stand out in a cluttered landscape.

When it comes to the time of day to post there are no golden rules to follow. To see what works best for your brand, you’ll need to experiment posting at different times of the day and week, play around with how frequently you post, and test different kinds of content.

It takes two to have a conversation

We live in the “sharing economy”, so it’s not just about your brand. In real life, you wouldn’t run around shouting random messages at friends, strangers and colleagues in the hope that you can influence them to see things your way. Instead, you’ll converse with them in a two-way exchange of information and listen to what they want and need. In real interpersonal relationships, we need to listen to the other person and really consider their perspective before responding.

In the same way, people on social media don’t simply want to listen to brands boasting about themselves or selling them things. They also want to voice their opinions and talk about their requirements and expectations. Using customer data to listen to customer perspectives and responding in a considered and empathetic way will help you to build better customer relationships.

Be fast on your feet

Social media is a world of instant gratification where responses are expected. If you are too slow in picking up on a post from a discontent customer, it can quickly escalate through retweets and shares, creating a crisis.

It’s important to respond within an hour or less to a query or a complaint for a customer - even if it’s just to say you’ve heard them and are taking action.

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