Does your company have a social media marketing plan? Social media is more than increasing brand awareness and engaging with your existing and potential customers through online discussions and sharing.

Social media marketing is the new customer relationship management model. A space where you take advantage of your customers’ online presence in order to convince them you’re a worthwhile investment.

Social media marketing, when successfully implemented, improves customer relationships by achieving the following:

– Customers feel valued, respected, and listened to – a prerequisite for repeat sales and customer retention.

– Customers feel understood – a prerequisite for gaining consumers’ trust.

– Customers’ complaints are listened to and corrected, making customers happy and more likely to continue doing business with you.

– Long-term relationships with customers are created and nurtured, driven not by short-term profit but by building a client base of loyal customers.

The relationship is equal and not promotional, allowing the client to more easily engage with you, rather than be discouraged by impersonal spam-based e-mail campaigns.

In a sense, social media marketing is another way of saying “relationship marketing.” We use social media as powerful, affordable, and effective tools for building stronger client-business relationships and forging new ones.

How do you make social media marketing really about customer relationship building and maintenance?

Join the conversation

Don’t wait for people to retweet an event you’re promoting, or for someone else to share it through Facebook. Dive into what’s already being talked about. See what things are trending that could relate to your brand, and jump in the conversation.

Joining the conversation doesn’t mean blatant, relentless self-promotion, however. Keep your focus on:

– Discussing new trends and discoveries in your industry and niche.

– Supporting and promoting like-minded entrepreneurs and individuals.

– Finding common ground with your followers to discuss their needs and learn their expectations of your brand.

For building solid customer relationships on social media you need to be proactive, approachable, and relevant. What’s more, you need to stick to a daily social media schedule.

Get rid of the “pitchy” attitude

Of course, the main idea is that you will promote your services and goods through social media — this is your ultimate goal, after all. But you don’t have to be obvious about it.
Devote a daily tweet and Facebook post to reminding your online followers about an offer, a competition, a sale, or a product. However, don’t use social media as if it’s an advertisement, use this outlet as any other user would: to interact, share, and discuss things you’re passionate about.

If your audience senses a “pitchy” attitude – in other words, if they think you’re only giving them a sales pitch – they will be discouraged from engaging with you in the future. This will damage your customer relationships as you will soon be regarded as a profit-focused company that doesn’t truly care about its clients.

Polish your language skills

You might have a social media marketing guru handling your customer relationships online, or you might do it yourself. Whichever option you choose, make sure your grammar, vocabulary, and spelling are flawless.

Your vocabulary and general choice of words reveal a lot about your brand, your mission, and your ultimate goal. Using the right vocabulary can in fact raise you in the eyes of your audience as an expert, leading company that knows what they’re doing.

Word choices should be carefully considered, even on what might seem to be the most casual of tweets. Use language your readers can empathize with and feel enthusiastic about. Lastly, always do fact-checking and spell-checking before publishing your tweets and posts!

By implementing these principles, you will ensure your social media marketing improves customer relationships and helps your business flourish.

Cross-posted on the Ultimate Spelling blog.

---

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments