Facebook is buying up every social media platform they can get their hands on. If they don’t buy it, then piggybacking on technology developed by other networks such as Snapchat is making social media increasingly uniform.
While this may cause problems for competition, it is also showing marketers what is working and what is not. It is becoming easier to target consumers and provide them with the content they are voraciously wanting to consume.
With Facebook still the forerunner for millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers, a large net may need to be cast. However, with a suitable customer loyalty program, you can find out how to best arrange your marketing strategy to ensure your brand reaches the right customers. Doing so will build loyalty while using the innate interconnectedness of social media to find new customers.
1. Finding Customers
Facebook isn’t the only social media platform. Even with co-opted features, some networking sites are better suited for certain posts. If you want to find out hot gossip ASAP, Twitter is your first port of call. If you want to spend some time scrolling through pictures, Instagram is where it’s at.
Finding customers on social media means you have to know the right place to look at the right time. Using a customer loyalty platform with analytics features means you can take a look at your desired demographic, track their activity and find out how you can best encourage them to buy into your brand.
Once you find customers to cater to, you can research their interests, find similar companies they like and build up a better idea of your customer base. Once you do this, there are many ways you can target new customers to jump on board.
On Instagram, even one hashtag added to a post will increase its engagement by 12.6%. Using hashtags and staying on top of trends on social media at the very least makes you part of the conversation. Using your customer loyalty program to say the right thing at the right time can make you a respected part of this conversation.
2. Checking and Creating Competition
No man is an island, especially if he has a Facebook account. You will not be the only company out there trying to sell your product or services. It always helps to be at the forefront, but if you are playing catch up, social media is the best way to see how the game is being played.
Using hashtags and directly searching your competition, you can see what strategies are working. A good customer loyalty program will allow you to see what kind of reach and interactions you are getting on social media.
Once you compare these to your competitors, you will be able to feed it in to your customer loyalty program to compare and contrast. Keep all of your social media accounts centralized so you can see what is working where.
Use this data to create keywords and find more related to your brand. Using your customer loyalty platform, you can find where these keywords are working and how they can be best used for promotion.
3. Make Customers Part of Your Brand
As you have been using your customer loyalty platform to see related conversations about your brand, you can then get specific. People on Twitter will happily use their 140 characters to gripe about bad customer service or inadequate product. Often when they do so, they’ll be using those handy hashtags to vent their frustration.
If you check out what customers are saying about your brand and its competition, you’ll be able to get a good idea of what is working and what isn’t in your desired field. In doing so, you can use this information to give them what they want and feed into your promotions.
When customers are unhappy with a brand, they will often use a phrase such as, “I’ll take my business elsewhere”. With a healthy customer loyalty platform you can make sure you are there to be that business. Whether it is a subtle carefully targeted ad or even a direct message, you can show your reliability as a brand and start a new customer’s loyalty on a good footing.
4. Plugging in to Feedback
Your customer loyalty program should be on the ball by looking at what customers are saying, but sometimes you need feedback which is a little more direct. Using social media to promote also means using it to reward.
By creating a marketing campaign on social media, you are able to tap in to information streams which can take your business in the right direction. These can be in the form of surveys or even casting out posts which simply encourage feedback.
Once you get this information, you can build upon it by creating customer profiles and feeding them into your software. Use your loyalty program to build up a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy which will solidify loyalty and improve customer retention.
Once you build your brand’s presence on social media, you will be able to build upon these customer relationships by showing how valuable your brand can be.
5. Making Referrals
Customer retention is one thing, but having a referral program built in to your customer loyalty platform is a must for earning new customers. Once your brand has proven itself on social media, you are providing existing customers with the easy tools to spread the word.
A gamified program is a great way to approach referrals. You make wanting to promote your brand not only something which fits with your customer profile, but also enjoyable for the user. Providing rewards for sharing information or making referrals will help forge solid customer loyalty.
Social media, some argue, is the ultimate gamified platform. You earn points through likes and re-shares, create an avatar which grows and expands as you play the game and the user fights to keep control of this avatar’s destiny.
Using social media to make referrals is like Sonic collecting rings, it boosts their own profile and gives them rewards. Making referrals a desirable goal in the social media game means everyone benefits.
If you want to learn how your brand can use social media to build the best loyalty platform, schedule a call with our experts here!
