How your brand should use social media

We speak to many companies who aren’t really sure how to make the most effective use of social media. They think it’s a sales tool, but when you’re on social media there’s nothing more off-putting than sales message after sales message from brands. People principally use social media as a way of catching up with each other or the news. They might ask for recommendations for products or services, but they don’t want to be sold to directly. In fact, posting pushy sales posts is the fastest way of losing followers we know!?

The best way to use social media as a marketing tool. Use your posts to raise brand awareness, communicate with customers and showcase your brand’s personality. You’re using social media to gain fans and followers, show them that you know what you’re doing and have an amazing team doing it. It’s up to them to make their own minds up whether they like and trust your brand. Of course, when they do like and trust you, they’re much more likely to buy from you, so treat your social media as a way of growing your fan base.?

Showing brand personality?

Your posts need to be informative or entertaining (or both if you can manage it!) It’s the place to post photos and videos of your team members so clients get to know the people they’re likely to be dealing with. If you have an office dog, a cute photo always gets good engagement (our office pooches get far more likes than our office humans!) If a team member is taking part in a charity fundraising, give them a mention and wish them luck. Networking events are always a great topic for social media posts - photos and thank yous will be seen by people you met at the event, making it more likely that they’ll remember your brand later on.?

Communication?

On social media, people are able to communicate directly with your brand, which is both a blessing and a curse. It means you have to check all the social media platforms your company’s on at least once a day, and be prepared to reply to questions and criticisms quickly and effectively. Thank people for any lovely comments they make, and personalise answers to the questions - it shows you employ humans who care about customer service and that’s a great selling point.?

The way you deal with complaints in this very public arena is crucial to the way your brand is perceived, and even the most strident complainant can be turned into a fan if you handle it well. The very worst thing you can do is ignore a complaint - even one that’s obviously sour grapes or mischief-making. The way you deal with this is being carefully studied by potential customers and clients and could mean the difference between a sale or no sale, so make sure you come across as reasonable and caring - you may not change the opinion of the individual making the complaint, but you will impress others.?