How to avoid pestering customers online

Brand managers have a social media problem: Consumers think they’re annoying.

Frequent promotions, pitiful attempts at humor and failing to respond to queries or criticisms irritate consumers, and these transgressions often provoke them to click “unfollow.”

Nearly 90 percent of consumers use social media to connect with various brands, data from the Q3 Sprout Social index show. They don’t want to be bombarded with sales messages or cringe-worthy posts; give them relevant content instead.

From Sprout Social’s index:

• More than 45 percent of people will unfollow a brand that posts frequent promotions.
• Roughly 30 percent of users are annoyed by humorous posts.
• Nearly 40 percent of users are irritated by slang—this is common when targeting younger consumers.
• A quarter of respondents said they are annoyed when brand managers ignore them.

Consumers follow brands because they are interested in their products, services, promotions and incentives. Often, they’re seeking a dialogue with a brand manager, which indicates that customer service should be a priority.

Loyal customers can quickly drop their allegiance due to too many promotions, lack of relevant content and a lack of response.

How to keep—and keep up with —your followers.

Marketers can maintain large followings by curating thoughtful third-party content, sharing user-generated content and engaging audiences with interactive quizzes and contests.

Customers appreciate when brand managers inform them—not throw information in their faces. This is especially true for B2B marketers.

From Sprout Social:

Instead of bombarding social media feeds with stock images or forced copy, do the work. Identify your brand values, collect data, identify audiences and target your content accordingly. Additionally, pull together guidelines that steer clear of over-played phrases and stay true to your brand’s personality.

Prioritize your customers

Brand Embassy editor and content manager Stephan Delbos says far too many brand managers emphasize promotions over customer care.

Companies exasperate customers when they refer them to FAQ pages instead of directly answering their questions, force them to jump between platforms for answers and treat them impersonally. Not responding at all is probably the worst offense.

RELATED: Free download: 10 Ways to Get Employees to Open and Read Your Emails.

“Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply respond to questions and comments that come to you directly,” Delbos says. “You must listen in on the conversations that are taking place online and be proactive about getting into the conversation when your brand is mentioned.”

He urges companies to monitor social media for mentions of their brands and to join conversations related to their products or services.

“It’s one of the best ways to get new customers and to keep your current customers happy,” he adds.

William Comcowich is the chief marketing officer of CyberAlert, a media monitoring and measurement service. A version of this article originally appeared on the CyberAlert blog.

from PR Daily News Feed http://ift.tt/2cFWUAg