Social media is a powerful force for customer communication. A strong touchpoint for companies and customers, it perpetuates and sometimes even establishes a company’s brand. Social media helps brands with visibility, identity, and feeling more personal and accessible to customers. This unique form of communication simply can’t be underestimated.

Why social media?

One of the central tenets of doing good business is being where the customers are. With billions of people on social media worldwide, brands have to be available there too. 

There are many reasons for this, some of which are:

• Customers like to know and feel connected to brands, so that they form a personal link to them and can justify picking them over other brands. Not only does this drastically increase their chances of purchasing, but it can increase their spending and ensure their brand loyalty as well.
  
  
• Social media gives companies unprecedented control over how their brand is perceived. There are endless ways to use social media platforms and their unique uses, functions, and tools in order to make creative, engaging content.
  
  
• Customers can communicate with brands on social media in ways that they can’t elsewhere. Brands can use this opportunity to personalize conversations, increase brand awareness, and even create hype when giving customers sneak peeks and teasers for upcoming launches. 

Tips on using social media to communicate with customers

There isn’t any one-size-fits-all solution to communicating with customers on social media, but It’s a good idea to follow some universal tips. 

1. Excellent customer service

Customers don’t always communicate with a brand to solve some problem that they have. It might just be that they’re looking for more information so they can make an informed decision on a product or service. 

Companies should treat every situation where they interact with a customer as an opportunity to deliver excellent customer service: respond with the utmost grace and politeness and aim to give them exactly what they’re looking for. 

2. Actually respond to customers

There are a lot of brands that use social media as a platform for monologuing. Rather than responding to customers, they just put out a never-ending stream of posts and stories.

Instead, companies should seek to reply in any way that they can. Comments, video replies, story mentions, the list goes on. Not only does this increase engagement with customers, it’s fun too! Customers will love the experience and feel included and seen on a personal level. 

3. Personal responses

Companies should try and stay away from blanket responses and instead reply to each and every customer as a real person might. Every conversation, customer, and scenario will be different and should be treated as such. Small things like using the customer’s name when addressing them will make a world of difference to the customer. 

4. Positive responses

It can be difficult to respond positively to all customers, especially ones who aren’t the politest. However, the company should always be the bigger person and find a way to respond in a way that’s both graceful and helpful. 

This will make sure that public opinion of the company stays excellent, bad reviews are minimized, and customer relations are as good as they can be. 

5. Increase brand awareness

A good social media presence isn’t just limited to customers already aware of a company, but about reaching more people than before. It helps to consistently post tailored messages and content that will convey exactly what the brand does and stands for, while targeting the right customer persona. 

This way, people will have a higher chance of stumbling across the company just because the social media platform’s algorithm has detected that they are likely to connect with the brand. The company can then enjoy organic growth and increased brand awareness, just by being consistent, concise, and true to themselves. 

6. Not everything has to be about business

While it’s important to always keep business goals in mind when communicating on social media, having interactions with customers doesn’t always have to be about business. 

Brands can gain a lot just by supporting creators who use their products, or by replying unbidden to someone’s story, post, or DM. A great example is a makeup company commenting “love it!” on a video of a person using their blush. 

7. Give social media followers the insider feel

If there’s one thing people love, it’s exclusivity. Social media is a great platform to give customers just that! Companies can do social media-exclusive giveaways, contests, and polls. They can ask customers for input that will influence new launches, offer quizzes, and even exclusive discount codes and notices about sales.

Not only does this make customers feel special, but it will incentivize more people to follow the brand on social media as the brand shows that it rewards its followers. 

8. Keep it real 

While curated feeds are beautiful, they are exactly that – curated. Customers don’t always want to just see the highlights reel of a company, but the everyday goings-on as well. Pulling back the curtains sometimes means that customers feel like they really know the brand, because they can see the not-so glamorous behind-the-scenes happenings.

The key to social media communication

Omnichannel marketing programs make it easier to be in all the right places online, but having a dedicated team to manage it all is key.

That’s exactly what SheHelps is. A dedicated customer service team that takes care of any and every customer service and support need that you could possibly have.  

We’re your team on the ground. We handle emails, calls, social media, and live chat support all for you, so that you can have your time back to do what only you can and want to do. 

In today’s day and age, social media is king. It’s absolutely necessary to make the most out of it and leverage its power for your business. If you’d like to start transforming how your company communicates on social media, get in touch with us today!