After you have provided enough information for your customers and have uploaded necessary company images, the next important thing to do on social media is interact. Interacting on Social Media Platforms Facebook Facebook is the king of social media! Many people will “like” your post, but some may even leave you a message about it. Many times, when customers want to reach out to business, they will use the Twitter handle of the business in their tweet followed by a message. The way Instagram works is simple: you post a picture, people “heart” it and/or leave a comment about it. These are people love and embody your brand all while talking about it on social media. Handling Negative Social Media Comments Most of the time comments and messages on social media are positive. If you are working on getting more information about the conflict, simply say so; a little comment can be better than no comment. Don’t Fall Into a Troll Trap – Trolls on social media are some of the nastiest commenters who have too much time on their hands. Working on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat may pose different challenges, but their similarities can make using them easy to handle.
Social media has become the customer service center for most businesses, large and small. Customers and patrons use the different sites as a way to find and gather information, ask generic questions and to compliment or complain about your business.
Social Media Best Practices
One of the first things you can do for your company is to have a complete profile filled out. Have a comprehensive description of what your company is “About,” include hours, price range and anything else applicable to your business.
After you have provided enough information for your customers and have uploaded necessary company images, the next important thing to do on social media is interact.
Interacting on social media is important because it lets customers know you care, plus they expect it. In a study by Eptica, researchers found the average response times for email, Facebook and Twitter are:
- Email: 7 hours, 51 minutes
- Facebook: 1 day, 3 hours and 47 minutes
- Twitter: 1 day, 7 hours and 12 minutes
So that’s how long it generally takes for businesses to respond through email, Facebook and Twitter, but how long are customers willing to wait? The expected wait time is drastically lower than how long it takes a business to respond:
- Email: 6 hours
- Facebook: 6 hours
- Twitter: 60 minutes
How can you beat the expected wait time and meet the needs of customers through social media? If you’ve ever been on more than one social media platform, you know each has a different way of operating than others. Should your social media marketing efforts expand further than just email, Facebook and Twitter, here are different tips to help you use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat.
Interacting on Social Media Platforms
Facebook is the king of social media! There are more than 1 billion active users on the site each day, leaving an incredible opportunity for people to see your page and engage with it.
When interacting with fans on Facebook, remember to be friendly and prompt. If your businesses uploads a new image or post, watch out for likes and comments. Many people will “like” your post, but some may even leave you a message about it. If you get comments on an image or posts, respond appropriately. It doesn’t hurt to include a “thanks” after a few comments; play it by ear. Keep tabs on the red icons over messages and notifications; this is ground zero for seeing engagement by fans.
Twitter may be smaller than Facebook, but it is becoming one of the biggest platforms to connect businesses with customers. Along with Facebook, Twitter offers users the ability to “like” different tweets.
Many times, when customers want to reach out to business, they will use the Twitter handle of the business in their tweet followed by a message. As a business owner you should be looking for these types of interactions. You’ll be able to see these tags under the “notifications” button on your home page. Go through these one-by-one and determine how to interact with them. Do you need to reply directly or would a simple “like” be enough? You can really make someone’s day by replying to them as did The Mindy Project’s official account when they replied back to me and when two cast members “liked” my tweets about the show.
This professional social networking site has the same functions as Facebook and Google+; people can like your post and can comment on it. What makes LinkedIn different is the LinkedIn Groups. These are a great way to start a discussion with…
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