By Joshua Snape, | 2/09/2018 10:07 PM
The first step of your social media marketing is to gain followers, but if they don’t convert and become customers it can seem like a pointless exercise. This article will outline 10 must-follow social media engagement best practices for your business. These include sure-fire tips for converting followers into customers.
10 Tips to Engaging People on Social Media to convert them Into Customers
1. Focus on the Right Social Networks
To turn followers into customers you need to be directing your resources to the channels where your audience is most active. Utilize Google Analytics (see below) by clicking on “Acquisition,” then select “Social,” and “Overview” from the drop-down menu. This resource will provide you with data on the top social channels that are driving traffic back to your website. You can adjust your channel focus accordingly.
2. Where to Post and on What Channels
Facebook – Use Facebook Analytics to track your data and see when your audience is online. Generally speaking, posting at 3 PM will get you the most clicks and posting at 1 PM will get you the most shares.
Twitter – Twitter is often used during work breaks and other down times, such as commutes. It has been shown that users are 181% more likely to be on Twitter during their daily commute.
Pinterest – Pinterest tends to be used during relaxation time and in the evenings. The worst time to post on Pinterest is during work hours while the best times are 8-11 PM.
Google+ – The average Google+ user is active in the early morning, so the best time to post is 9-11 AM on Wednesdays.
Instagram – Instagram is a platform designed for mobile, so it’s not surprising that it is used at all different times. However, posting a video at 9 PM gets 34% more interactions.
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is designed for professionals, so posting during work hours is more effective than on other channels. However, before and after work still yields the best results as most read LinkedIn early in the morning as they would a newspaper.
3. Be Consistent With Your Posting Schedule
If your post updates are not consistent and regular then your audience will jump to negative conclusions. The result will be no leads and no conversions. To convert, fans need to know when to expect your content in order to get into the habit of checking for it regularly. Here is a recommended daily posting schedule:
4. Analyze the Competition
What if your content is enjoyed by your followers yet they buy from the competition? Clearly, the competition is doing something that works and there is something about your strategy that needs tweaking. Look at your competitors last six months of content ask yourself: What kind of content are they sharing and how much engagement is it generating? Why is their audience converting? Without plagiarizing, draw inspiration from the best of what they have to offer.
5. When to Automate and When Not to
Running a social media program is labor intensive so you should use automation where appropriate such as sharing content at optimal times. On the other hand, you should not send automated responses to customer feedback. Interaction with your social media audience should always be timely yet human, personalized, and sincere. You will never convert followers to customers without a human approach.
6. Empower Your Employees to be Your Best Brand Ambassadors
Make it as easy as possible for your employees to share company news and other interesting content on their personal channels by creating links to ongoing pithy content so that all they have to do is cut, paste, and share.
7. Deal With Negative Messages Right Away and In the Right Way
If you delete negative posts then your followers may view that as dishonest or shady. It is far better to deal with negative comments with confidence. Acknowledge any legitimate mistakes and state what your organization is doing to fix the issue. Make sure the tone of the message reflects your genuine empathy and invite the customer that has expressed the negative feedback to connect with you by email or direct message in order to assist them further.
8. Make Your Campaigns Mobile Friendly
You cannot expect followers to respond to your call to action if there are glitches on mobile. Nearly 80% of the time using social media is on mobile devices, so make sure all the content you publish is seamless on mobile along with desktop. The less work your audience needs to do on their phones to respond to your call to action the better chance there is that they will convert into customers.
9. Get Niche with Your Targeting
Facebook Custom Audiences, Google Customer Match or Twitter Tailored Audiences all furnish your marketing team with an opportunity to get hyper-specific with your targeting.
10. Don’t go Crazy with Measurement
My favorite jazz vocalist is Billie Holiday. Sarah Vaughn has a much greater range, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should – sometimes less is more. The same principle applies to your marketing in the highly measurable world of digital. Only measure and track what truly adds value to your business.
With these practices, captivating content, irresistible offers, and timely calls to action your followers will form a close connection with your brand resulting in loyal customers and advocates. However, if you simply don’t have the time and/or human resources to effectively manage social media for your business, we encourage you to contact our Burnaby and Greater Vancouver office to discuss what we can do to help you grow your customer base, on social media.
Joshua is an accomplished writer, blogger and marketing consultant. His successful track record includes sales and marketing across four continents—Europe, N. America, the Middle East and Africa. Josh is also a successful entrepreneur and established his own marketing consultancy in Cyprus, which serviced clients throughout the Middle East. He now enjoys living and working in Vancouver for part of the year, and spends the rest of his time in the Turkish Riviera working remotely to assist clients communicate effectively in a wired world. Connect with Josh at: joshua@strategisconsulting.ca.