It’s also important for brand managers to remember that social media isn’t just an extension of your customer service team. Rather, it’s about channeling the voice of your organization—and it’s a free ticket to engage directly with your customers.
Customers are always going to be talking about your organization, product or service on social media—it’s how today’s world of online interconnectivity works.
Sometimes they’ll engage directly with your organization’s profiles, though conversations can also take place in the background. As a community manager, daily, proactive engagement is becoming increasingly important for organizations to be successful on social media.
Doing more than just answering negative complaints online can set your organization apart as one with which millennials want to identify.
Here are three tips:
1. Become your organization’s voice.
The first essential for an effective online engagement strategy is to be your organization’s voice. It’s not enough to only understand it. Truly become your brand when you’re online and engaging with fans.
Is your brand serious, funny, goofy, witty or sweet? It’s imperative to reflect your brand’s voice in each and every online interaction. Social media managers should know what the brand is, what it stands for and what is or isn’t appropriate to say.
It’s important that each person on your social media team functions the same way, making it impossible to tell the difference between who is responding.
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2. Go out of your way to interact.
Proactive engagement means doing more than just responding to the customers who tag you or post directly on your online profiles.
Engage in social listening by searching your brand’s name on Twitter and Facebook, searching hashtags associated with your brand and checking online platforms where your organization might be mentioned. Use social management tools such as Hootsuite, Mention and Sprout Social to set up keyword tracking, so you can view all mentions in one place.
Many times, brand mentions are from people that don’t already follow you—or else they would have most likely tagged your profile or messaged you directly. These are fans who probably weren’t expecting a response back, so when brand managers take the time to go out of their way and engage with them, it can be a lot of fun.
It also gives you the opportunity to address any complaints or negative experiences that you might otherwise never have uncovered.
3. Keep it organic.
Fans love and respond well to the kind of engagement that feels natural—not that which comes across as a blanketed response.
Social media is about relationships, so take the time to read and think through responses. Make sure they are suited to your organization and can make your fans feel like you’re listening and responding to them individually.
It’s not necessary for brand managers to respond to everything, but it’s good to dedicate a portion of daily social listening to this type of engagement.
Sometimes the best way to know when you should respond to something is when a response comes naturally to you. There’s a good chance it will sound natural to the follower, too.
Proactive engagement is an excellent way to build relationships with current and potential fans—and it’s a chance to have fun and show your brand’s personality. There are tons of great opportunities for brand managers to chime in—especially when fans aren’t expecting it. Show your fans that you’re listening.
What tips would you add to this list, PR Daily readers?
Mary Stankiewicz is junior account executive at Belle Communications. A version of this article originally appeared on the agency’s blog.
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