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Times have changed. The Internet has changed the way we do business forever. Customers now have the power – not companies. Customers have the power of choice – they can choose to follow, fan, subscribe, unsubscribe, watch, read, berate you etc whenever and however they want. Gone are the days when big companies could just blanket advertise everywhere and spend millions of pounds on TV/magazine/billboard ads. Gone are the days when companies continually advertised at their customers and gone are the days where there was a barrier between the company and the customer. The Internet has changed everything.
Now companies have to understand that if they are to be successful then they have to interact with their customers. Not advertise at them. Engaging with customers is the present and future of business success.
But what does that actually mean?
1. Humanise Your Brand:
It all starts with you. Yes, you. You have to change your mindset if you are to be successful. There should be no barrier between you and the customer. You are not a faceless conglomerate. You are a human. People do business with people – not logos. In order to be effective in engaging with your customers you have to be a person. You have to be approachable and contactable.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying don’t be professional. There is a balance you can maintain in being yourself and being professional. In order to engage, humanise your brand.
2. Ask Questions:
One of the most powerful ways to engage with your customer is to ask questions. Questions are great because:
- It’s a human way of interacting. It requires two people – the one asking the question and the one responding. If you ask a question then someone will respond.
- It’s a great way to ask your customers about your products/services. It’s the perfect market research and it’s FREE! No printing forms/questionnaires. No time and money wasted coming up with complicated forms and then spell checking etc. What better way to improve your service by asking the very people who buy from you.
- It shows you care. By asking questions you show your customers that you’re mindful of them and that you care about their opinions, problems and needs that you are solving. This a very personal touch that customers expect in the online world.
(For more cool tips about engaging your customers on social media download our FREE eBook ’10 Commandments of Social Media’)
3. Give The Personal Touch:
Show your customers that you value them. Give them ‘shout outs’ if they have just joined your Facebook page, if it’s their birthday, if they have won a competition. Customers love things like that. They love being made to feel that they are special – who doesn’t?!
Hi, I’m Haroon Rashid and I’m the author of this blog and the founder of Finisher Creative. If you are a small business or a charity/non-profit I would be more than happy to talk to you about your online marketing and social media needs. If you’re in the Yorkshire area (UK) I’ll even take you out for a coffee! You can email me on info@finishercreative.com, check me out on Facebook, follow me @FinisherCre8ive or Google+ I look forward to hearing from you!
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[...] Not ‘engaging’ means not having conversations with people. Following on from point no.1 you should be actively starting and joining conversations. Be human. Be yourself. There’s nothing wrong with talking to people about your hobbies/interests. Quite often these are the things that help develop strong relationships and this leads to business and referrals. By all means, post links to your blogs, promote yourself but again try and keep it balanced. Talking to people and developing relationships will encourage more people to click your links. [...]