If you have social media accounts for your business, you know how essential it is to engage with your followers. One of the most important aspects of social media is coming off personable and engaging to users so that they feel connected to your business.
While some who follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. might already be loyal patrons of your business, others might not have converted over yet.
So how do you get users to convert into new customers by having social media accounts?
Search
You already know that Twitter is huge. With 340 million tweets being sent a day, someone out there has to be talking about your business either directly through an @mention or indirectly. By doing some detective work, you can find users who are mentioning your or your products/services and engage with them.
Also get to know your competitors and their customers. You can reach out to them on these social networks, and perhaps you can convince them to use your services or products by giving them a special deal or promotion for first-time customers.
Images and Videos
It’s time to bust out those cameras. A great way to grab a user’s attention is visually. What’s so nice about Facebook’s Timeline is that videos and photos are the center of attention. Users engage with these types of posts more than they do status updates, so get them involved by posting pictures or videos they’d be interested in.
Instagram and Pinterest are also innovative ways to post photos that convey your company’s meaning. These ever-growing image based social networks are a must in order to tap into a new clientele.
Get Competitive
Well, at least let users get competitive. Make things interesting by hosting a competition. You’ll increase user engagement if you give them a motive. Make sure you aren’t giving big items away, though. If you gave away something like an iPad, you might get the wrong type of followers. Make sure the prizes are things your followers will appreciate and use like t-shirts (they offer free promotion), gift cards or maybe even some fun stickers as consolation prizes.
You’ll have to alter each contest slightly depending on the social network you’re hosting it on, but it shouldn’t be anything too difficult to do.
Mix Things Up
If you have accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, etc., you want to make sure you’re not posting the same content on each site. A user might only follow you on one of these social networks if that’s the case. You want to make sure that you’re making the most of each post by playing to what each one caters to.
Personalize It
The reason that users follow you on your social media accounts is to get to know you a little better. Make sure to reply to any comments, negative and positive. You want users to know that you take what they say to heart. If you personalize their experience and make them feel like you’re really listening to what they have to say, then you’ll make them feel a little closer to you brand.
Brands, are there any other ways that you get users to convert? If so, we’d love to hear!