What’s in this article:
- Key strategies to guide you on how to build a vibrant and sustainable social media community
- While social media is an excellent tool for building customer loyalty, it’s not only about pushing content and responding to mentions
Social media is a customer loyalty building engine. 84% of consumers choose brands they follow on social media over a competitor, and 75% buy more. In this article, we take a look at how you can use social media to build customer loyalty.
Build a Community of Loyal Customers
With consumers needing to connect with like-minded individuals, building a brand based social media community can help you increase brand engagement and foster customer loyalty. 91% of people believe in social media’s power to connect communities. Here are some strategies to guide you on how to build a vibrant and sustainable social media community.
Find a Common Goal: Your community should be built on a narrow interest and fulfill a need. Starbucks has an over 40,000 member Facebook community called Leaf Rakers Society for people obsessed with fall. Conduct a survey to identify what is important to your customers and build a community around it. Have a clear value proposition that’s beneficial to your customers and weave it into your marketing.
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Drive Engagement
Leverage incentives, organize contests, and celebrate top contributors to keep your community engaged. Embrace the spirit of co-creation by enlisting your community members to moderate, approve, or decline every incoming post according to your community guidelines.
Encourage Real Conversations
Create a sense of belonging by encouraging members to have conversations about issues that matter to them. Create a safe space for members by having clear and concise rules and a member approval system.
Target has a social media community called Target Fam, where parents can be open, vulnerable, and honest. The group has a no-tolerance policy for parent shaming and bullying.
Social Customer Service
Customer service is a large part of the buying circle and influences loyalty. 57% of consumers feel loyal to a brand because of customer service. Here’s how to use social media customer service to strengthen your relationship with customers and keep them coming back for more.
Be Proactive
Stay ahead of potential customers’ questions by giving information before they request for it. Amazon took to its Facebook page to describe protocols it will be taking amid the COVID-19 pandemic to serve its customers. Anticipate potential support issues that customers may have and create educational content you can share on social media to resolve them.
Fast Response Times
80% of customers say instant responses would increase their loyalty to a brand. Consider having separate handles for customer service on social media and consolidate your social communications into a single platform. This will help you monitor brand mentions and respond to customers in real-time across all platforms. Leverage social media tools that have suggested responses, automated features, and customized workflows to save time.
Go Above and Beyond
Create bonds of loyalty by offering additional support before your followers ask for it. This could be helping them make purchase decisions or paying for their dinner. Empower customer service teams to make decisions themselves and give them access to resources to “wow” customers.
Leverage User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is key to social success and a sure way to build customer loyalty. 51% of people say they’d be more likely to continue engaging with and/or purchasing from a brand if it shared their photo, video, or post throughout its marketing.
Have a Purpose: Your UGC should serve a purpose. This could be showcasing how to use a product, or helping your followers make a purchase decision. Find out what motivates your audience and share UGC that connects to that. Don’t post only content that highlights your product. Curate content that reflects the experiences and lifestyles that your product supports.
Embrace Diverse Content: Showcase your brand’s commitment to diversity by sharing a diverse range of UGC imagery and content. Conduct an audit to identify who isn’t represented in your content and use the insight to source UGC that reflects your customer base. If you’re short on diverse content, encourage underrepresented groups within your customer base to create some UGC for your brand.
Share Customers Reviews: Encourage customers to share their purchases and reviews on their social media feed, using your company’s handle and hashtags (like Topshop does) and feature them on your social media platforms.
Don’t incentivize customers to drop reviews. Also, respond to both positive and negative reviews.
Be Transparent
Consumers have stronger connections with brands that are transparent on social media. 53% of consumers will consider a transparent brand for their next purchase, and 37% will purchase more from the brand.
Ways you can be more transparent on social media include:
Admitting Mistakes: Openly admitting when you’re wrong is one way you can show consumers that you’re committed to being transparent. Take a cue from Netflix on how to apologize on social media.
Apologize publicly, explain what went wrong and what you’ll do to make things right. Be human, avoid making excuses, and use the right words.
Show Your Company Values: Incorporate your values into your social media presence. Include your brand values in your social media bio and share content that relates to your brand mission.
Promote organizations you support and repost their content. Consider sharing how you select the organizations you support and educate your audience on how they can also support these organizations.
Be Open: Show your internal production process, the faces of your workers, and what’s in your product. For example, Lush Cosmetics has a “How It’s Made Series” that shows consumers how it makes its cult classics.
Use videos to communicate how open your brand is on social media.
Be Generous
Rewards are a strong motivator for customer loyalty. 75% of consumers say they are likely to make another purchase after receiving an incentive. Use these tips to show your social media followers how generous you are and win their loyalty in the process.
Hold Social Media Contests: Have a contest or giveaway to reward customers and encourage them to remain loyal to your social media page. For example, women’s online brand Missguided, gave out 1000 Misguided dollars to its social media followers
Ensure that your contests and prizes are relevant to your audience and their habits, and clearly state contest rules. Make your contest fun, creative, and super easy to join.
Surprise and Delight: Use surprise and delight strategies on social media to make your audience feel special and build emotional connections with them.
For instance, for its Feel Good campaign, Kleenex’s marketing team surprised people who posted a Facebook status about not feeling well with get-well items. To nail this strategy, use social listening tools to find customers that will be the best receivers of a surprise and delight experience. Personalize your surprises and consider surprises such as free shipping days and donations to charities on behalf of your customers.
While social media is an excellent tool for building customer loyalty, remember it’s not only about pushing content and responding to mentions. Be human to your followers and laugh a little. Use a combination of these strategies and see what works for your brand.