Everyone is trying it, getting engaged. No, this is not diamond rings, white dresses, and planning the party of the century. We're talking about customer engagement. If the point of social media is to be 'social' with your customers, how is this working for you.
Much is being written on how social media is being used inappropriately as just another direct marketing outlet to hurl messages and content at the market. In fact, you should check out the article by Jacob Morgan on SmartDataCollective regarding just this. So, I'm not going to focus on that. The point is really to understand what the meaning of 'engaged' really is.
People like to use the analogy of a party in how to engage with customers. I've even used this. However, to be fair, party conversation is usually banal and lacking in substance. Most of the time, people are still talking at each other. What is more interesting is how people move from talking at each other to listening to each other and forming a bond. Bond = Engaged
As soon as you say you want to engage customers, here are some things to ask:
- What does engagement look like to you?
- What does engagement look like to the customer?
- Is the engagement positive or negative? (happy revenue generating marriage or costly bitter divorce?)
What engagement looks like has as much to do about the mechanism and topic as it does the timing. Social media can support various points in a customer life cycle from prospect to entrenched customer. Each point will offer different ways and topics to bond with customers. Positioning your social media marketing efforts only to focus on the front end of a marketing funnel is most likely going to result on a narrow lift as discussion is more focused around, "Hey, let's get to know each other!" Great if you are acquiring customers, not so great if you have an established market and looking to drive deeper relationships with existing customers.
How the customer perceives engagement needs to be taken into account. Its time to move your tried and true marketing strategies to the back burner now and listen to how customers want to engage. Put on your product and offer hats and think about social media marketing as an offer or service. See how they interact with other brands. Get to know their preferences and personalities. Identify what they experience. Provide a venue that encourages participation and interaction in a way that they themselves would find appealing. Much goes into the development of online retail sites to make finding, researching, and purchasing products easy and intuitive. Using this same approach for social media will make your customers feel at home and open them up to engagement.
In the end, you and your customer need to bond, and hopefully around a positive experience. As much as the goal today may be to build stronger relationships by engaging customers, ultimately your efforts should directly or indirectly drive revenue or lock in loyalty. Failing to meet expectations and continually charm customers in traditional communication and service models is also a real possibility in social media. Additionally, social media is only a single component of the customer experience, failing in other areas is not going to be fixed merely through social media engagement.
If you are going to ask your customer for their hand in holy matrimony, make sure the diamond ring isn't just a token, engagement should lead to a committed and collaborative marriage.
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