Do you master the art of listening to your customers?

If yes, then you are definitely where they spend most of their time, right?

Let me make things simpler for you. Do you follow your customers’ activity on “Facebook”, “Instagram”, “Twitter”, “LinkedIn” and other social media channels? Do you really take into account the opinions, ideas, and criticisms they present? If you do, congratulations you are on the right track! You will ask yourself why I pay great attention to social media channels, but let me first show you this statistic:

By the end of 2020, it is estimated that around 3.6 billion people have personal social media accounts around the world, and it is expected to increase to reach approximately 4.41 billion in 2025.

Did you get it?

Social Media Websites

Social media is the umbrella term for web-based programs and services that provide users with online meeting to exchange, discussion and communicate, using any form of social interaction. This could include an interaction with others, using texts, audios, images, videos, and other forms of media. This interaction can include creating new content or recommending and exchanging a well-known one. It also contains reviewing and evaluating products, services and brands, or even discussing exciting daily topics, such as hobbies, interests, or sharing experiences… In fact people today are sharing almost anything on social media channels.

Does everything start with “Facebook” by Mark Zuckerberg?

Some believe that the beginning of social media sites was with “Facebook”, but this belief is completely wrong.

Social media began in the early 2000s. “MySpace” was the first social media site with 1 million monthly active users – and it hit that milestone around 2004. Arguably, this is the beginning of social media as we know it.
In 2008, statistics also show the disappearance of the previously dominant platforms such as “Hi5”, “MySpace” and “Friendster”, which are considered as main competitors to “Facebook”, but by 2012 they had almost no share in the market. “MySpace” overtook “Google” temporarily in 2006 as the most visited site in the United States.
Most social media platforms have transformed significantly in what they offer to their users.” Twitter”, for example, did not allow users to upload videos or images at first, but this has become possible since 2011, and today it is considered as more than 50 % of the whole content.
Although “Facebook” occupied the social media market for a decade, another five platforms also have more than half a billion users each. With 2.3 billion users (as American social network “Facebook” announced recently, the number of network users increased at the end of the last quarter of 2019 to reach 2.5 billion users) You can say that “Facebook” is the most popular social media platform today, then “YouTube”, “Instagram” and “WeChat” come with more than a billion users. Finally, “Tumblr” and “TikTok” take a part in this list with more than half a billion users.

Well, what’s the point of being where your audience is?

In fact, there are great advantages to social media marketing and here are some benefits for sharing and interacting with your customers through these online social channels:

1- Being informed:

You will discover what your customers think about and what they truly believe in the products and services that your brand offers. You will get an invaluable overview of their own perception of your products and services, other competing brands, the business, and more general issues of interest. Being close to your customers is the key to gain an effective Digital Marketing, and this key will work better when you engage with them in an interactive atmosphere that facilitates this task.

2-Natural brand advocacy:

By engaging closely with people who already have a positive attitude towards your brand, you can nurture these advocates, who will defend it through online social media. Employees can also participate in this broad activity that will facilitate your access better.

3-Viral spread:

One of the most powerful aspects of social media is the ability to spread quickly and in no time. It is quite equivalent to the word of mouth, except that the word can travel on the Internet farther and faster. Whether it’s a video on “YouTube”, or a story about your company, or a post on your blog, it will be seen and shared by readers – and suddenly it will spread everywhere, so there is no more effective way to promote your business than these channels.

4-The wisdom of the crowd:

They say: Two heads are better than one. How about hundreds or even thousands of heads in one place? Things will definitely become better. Smart companies realize this by leveraging the intelligence of online communities. They can find answers to some of their most challenging business problems easily and in no time. Getting input from the Internet through these communities is very effective. As well as helping solve real business dilemmas, they can also help you make more effective decisions by searching for what clients actually want.

There are main causes for success that play an important role in this mission. With social media marketing, effective strategy always rules. Having a social media strategy means to know what to post, when to post, and what to do with that post once appears on social media.

What should your social media strategy be based on?

A good social media strategy should aim to focus first on the long-term and then short-term goals and objectives of your business. For example, brand awareness, contribution, maintaining new business revenue, and all things that are fundamentally important should be considered. Do you need a strategic plan?

Just one word … Definitely!

Why?

In Digital marketing, the most important goal is to defeat the competitors in this competition. If you have a strategy, you have a framework in which you plan, prioritize, implement, measure and improve. This usually leads to better results because your social media activity is directional and measurable, thus you will outperform your competitors.
Without a strategy, you’ll have a hard time knowing whether your campaigns are successful or not, and thus you are wasting resources on unguided activity, giving your competitors the opportunity they need to move forward.
Without a strategy that tests what works for your audience and suits their needs, how will you know that you are not wasting potential sales, or you are really selling true targeted people?
Creating a targeted social media strategy will help you focus on using relevant platforms to connect with new and existing customers, and create content that specifically appeals to them.
Having a strategy will also enable you to understand the inputs required (in addition to roles, responsibilities, etc.) for social networking, and the things needed to shape your social media strategy.

Think of your brand as if it were a person on social media, what content will you create, what personality traits will you have, who will your friends be like, and what kind of interactions will you have?
Having a social media strategy in place is what you should start on social media if you are already on “Facebook”, “LinkedIn”, etc.

In conclusion, remember that Internet users spend about two hours and 22 minutes a day, which serves your business professionally by attracting them to become your permanent customers.

If you need someone to help you determine your social media strategy:

Shibly Marketing: Offers the best Social Media Strategies, you can view them here:

Services

*Resources:

hubspot.com
socialmediaexaminer.com
hootsuite.com
Understanding Digital Marketing by Damian Ryan Book

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