What do you think is more important in social media marketing for building an ever-growing audience around your brand – Focusing on engaging your current audience or focusing on building a strong relationship with them?
You can engage your audience with your catchy images and videos all you want but if you are not having a conversation with them, chances are slim that you’ll ever make a connection with them. Having a relationship with a brand is the sole reason people decide to buy from a particular business, so connecting with an audience becomes vital for its success.
Connections don’t happen via broadcasts or scheduled posts, or even likes for that matter, they happen when you get close and personal with your audience and have a conversation with them that flows both ways. Yes, that engages them in a way, but building a relationship is the bigger picture here.
You’ll have to show the human element of your brand to them to foster relationships. You’ll have to focus on engaging with your audience that requires a response from them, that’s how you connect with them and make them loyal advocates of your brand and there are a lot of ways to do it on Facebook. Here, we’ll only be talking about 5 great tips that’ll help you connect with your audience better and build a lasting relationship with them –
Be as transparent and straightforward as you can
As mentioned above, showing the human element of your brand is vital to connect with your audience in a more impactful way. But how do you do that? By being transparent about what your brand does everyday, giving your audience a sneak peek of how you do it and showcasing the people who make it happen for your brand.
And as much as 53% of consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that are transparent on social media. According to the same Sprout-Social study, 9 out of 10 consumers are more likely to give a transparent brand another chance after facing a bad customer experience from them.
What does all these statistics mean? That transparency builds loyal connections. Even if you offer a not-so-good product when compared to your competitors, accept it in front of your fans and you can work on improving it with the help of feedback from your audience. Learn from Domino’s.
Ask your audience for input
Talking about feedback, it’s a well known fact in the digital marketing space that asking your fans about their opinion of something is a great way to connect with them. You could ask for their feedback on a new product/service you launched or you can simply ask them to leave a review about your brand on Facebook itself.
But the job doesn’t end there, convert their insights into action and quickly act upon the reviews you get, that shows commitment and portrays your brand as someone that cares about what they deliver to their consumers, which automatically builds trust with your fans.
Competitions are a smart way to connect with your audience
Consumers just love giveaways! So, it’s a no-brainer that giving out freebies with the help of a contest can take your engagement metrics through the roof, not to forget, that you’ll be building valuable relationships with a majority of your audience as well along the way.
You can ask your fans to share their best pictures based around a theme, or to share their own compelling story or you can hold a competition specific to the business niche you are in, the possibilities are endless with this and you’ll gather some emails as well that you can use to further strengthen your relationship with your audience.
Hold Q/A sessions
Holding live Q/A sessions is a remarkable way to solve the problems of your target audience and helps you connect with them in a more personal way. Obviously, when you’ll be answering their burning questions 1 on 1, it will make them feel like you care about them.
Making use of Live Video on Facebook is the best way to do this and we all know the level of engagement live videos boasts on Facebook. Just don’t forget to let your audience know that you’ll be holding a Q/A session just for them well in advance to gain maximum exposure, more engagement and more loyal relationships.
Make them feel that you care about them
It’s all about your audience feeling like your brand cares about them that builds strong connections and makes them stay. Get that idea across clearly and your business will soon start making home-runs. Yes, holding competitions, Q&A sessions and asking for feedback do get the message across but the fact that you really care about your audience or not shows in each and every conversation you have with every user.
Doing little things like letting them post on your wall, addressing, fans by their first name, being there whenever they need you, being empathetic with their problems and providing a quick solution can lay the foundation of many long lasting relationships.
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