4 Ways to Use Social Media to Better Connect With Customers

In today's business world, social media marketing has become a vital tool for companies to engage current customers in meaningful dialogue and attract new clients to their brand.

Each strategy must creatively communicate with a business's audience in an interactive and agreeable way.

Here are four approaches brands can take to better connect with their customers:

1. Monitor and Respond to Feedback

Social media is a breeding ground for both positive and negative commentary on a company's goods and services.

This marketing method is a smart way to not only oversee what people are saying about a business, but respond to the chatter in a helpful manner.

Enterprises should develop a policy for answering comments and reviews on social media, according to The Marketing Donut.

While handling complaints should be a company's first concern, there should also be a procedure for how to respond to affirmative posts. It's important that businesses respond to online comments in a brief, level-headed manner.

The comments can be used as suggestions for how your company can improve its service, so thank clients for the feedback and use the interaction to show that your enterprise truly cares about the client's observations.

2. Create a Client Database

This marketing strategy is helpful for retaining and attracting customers, since the content can be changed to fit client's preferences.

As a result, social media helps companies develop a collection of its audience's information, from personal data to favorite posts and blogs.

The tool creates a way for customer actions to be monitored and documented, while also giving clients the option for further interaction with the business.

For example, a client who frequents a business's Facebook page could be given the option to learn more about the product by being directed to a landing page that collects additional data.

With this amalgamation of information, companies will have several communicative methods to reach customers.

3. Develop advocates for the business

According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, respondents who had a poor interaction with a company were 45 percent more likely to share it on social media compared to those people who had a good experience.

The figure is a tell-tale sign that companies will see criticisms more frequently than positive feedback. While negative comments are the top priority for enterprises, companies should not disregard good commentary.

Businesses that respond to favorable evaluations will grow their pool of advocates who may be beneficial to the company in the future.

These supporters can be used for suggestions on areas of improvement, as well as the creation of positive content for future social media content.

4. Generate Active Content

Engaging posts are the backbone for every social media marketing campaign, so companies should ensure that their distributed content intrigues its audience.

Businesses should share information frequently, but not so often that the data becomes annoying or tiresome to clients.

Web Marketing Therapy suggested businesses should share three to six times per week on Facebook, skipping days in between, if possible, and weekends.

Companies should post three times a day on Twitter; and share one to three posts per day on search engines, like Google.

Companies need to provide informative and interactive content that will give readers new data in a fun and appealing way. Sharing data that gives an audience new insight on a topic will encourage clients to revisit your website and social media pages.

Social media marketing is a crucial element of a company's marketing strategy. As of January 2015, there were about 2.1 billion active social media accounts, We Are Social reported.

To better connect with customers, companies should treat this marketing method as a tool for retaining and attracting clients.

With strong, educational content, a database of valuable clients, company advocates and a mission to respond and alter the opinions of negative commentators, companies can ensure their interactions with their audience is as engaging as possible.