Engagement in the Right Channels is Key
Moving from Monologue to Dialogue
Whether you like it or not, social media isn’t going anywhere. With 180 million people in the U.S. on social media it’s no wonder social media is top of mind for business owners and marketers. That’s 180 million people willingly conversing, creating and researching.
Are they your clients or prospective clients? Based on statistics, there’s a good chance they are. But are you using social media channels the right way? So how do you leverage these channels for 2-way communication? Simply follow these steps:
Where is your audience?
The best way to determine this is to look at data such as the top referring sites to your existing website. Google Analytics allow you to see the top social referring sites (Acquisition-Social-Network Referrals)
This example clearly shows the dominant social sites over the last 30 days.
Creating Engagement
Each channel allows you to engage with visitors. In this example, Houzz is the top referring site for this remodeling company (with visitors spending close to 3 minutes on the company website and visiting at least 3 pages). I would recommend leveraging IdeaBooks, responding to positive reviews (by saying thank you), starting conversations by asking questions, and following back some of your local followers. For Houzz “pros” you can even see your most popular photos.
FaceBook and LinkedIn are also referring traffic. Both these sites also offer analytics in terms of likes and showing followers. Identify the type of FaceBook posts that are generating the most traffic and respond to posts (ask more questions). Create more posts that are similar to the most engaging. LinkedIn offers many ways to create engagement. Publish interesting posts that encourage interaction like voting for a kitchen style or asking what people’s favorite rooms are in their home.
Remember that every company is different as well as target audiences so here’s some general advice:
DO:
- Pay attention to mentions and posts about your business. Search for your company name on Twitter and read direct messages. Check your questions and activities on Houzz and respond accordingly.
- Create compelling content. In fact, your content should be so valuable that you truly think you should get paid for it. Offer advice and guidance such as; “no remodeler should be able to give you an exact price without measurements, final design, and selections. You should expect broad budget ranges”.
- Ask people questions. Social media channels are designed to create engagement. Ask questions such as “what’s your favorite kitchen countertop material”?
- Facilitate meaningful connections. Social media cannels are perfect for referring to other companies or products. Answer questions on Houzz, share the appliance brands, paint colors, cabinet manufacturer, finished, etc.
- Use Social channels to LISTEN to what people are saying about services you offer.
DON’T
- Talk or brag about yourself. Social media isn’t the place to say you just won a Design Award. Humility is key.
- Auto-schedule tweets or posts. People expect social channels to provide genuine and timely information
- Assume you think like your target market (you are often too close to your business)
- Automate content distribution. It’s very frustrating to see the same tweets as your FaceBook posts and LinkedIn entries
- Forget to check analytics. Sometimes a special social media post can drive a spike in referral traffic to your website or a blog entry
While social media is a constantly changing landscape, one thing is clear: it isn’t going anywhere. Learn to embrace it and have dialogues.
