Staying Relevant on Social Media in the B2C Space

Social media. It seems as though we can never get enough best practices, tips and tricks, or guidelines for this marketing tool. Just a few years ago social media could barely be considered a business asset, but look at it now – there’s an entire channel dedicated to connecting business professionals!

I am admittedly a cliché millennial, always connected, taking every opportunity to get that “perfect” Instagram picture, and scrolling my newsfeed for hours. Between my personal experiences with social media, and what I’ve learned from a business perspective, I’ve identified four ways to stay relevant on social media in the B2C space.

Don’t sleep on an interaction

Any interaction customers or prospects have with your company is an important experience. With interactive content, you can enhance that experience. More and more we are seeing live-stream videos that customers can engage with in real time. While B2B marketing typically operates within the constraints of business hours, the curse of social media and B2C marketing is that you are working under the expectation of 24/7 reachability. Social media, and the internet in general, has trained us to think that we should be able to get exactly what we want, exactly when we want it.

This past year, I worked weekends monitoring Lifetouch’s social media pages and I learned just how important quick interaction is on social media. One day, we had one customer post asking a question regarding how to go about ordering pictures online. 4 hours later, one message turned into 15 – each one containing more urgency than the last. From this one experience not receiving the information they wanted instantly, this customer developed a negative association with Lifetouch, and posted about their dissatisfaction for all other site visitors to see.

To this point, I challenge you to go on Facebook and look up a few of your favorite, as well as a few of your least favorite companies. Compare their ratings to the typical response time listed on their page. My bet is that you’ll see a correlation that proves overall, the shorter the response time, the higher the ratings.

Take a risk – be original

Having original content helps to set your business apart, and is an opportunity for your marketing team to flaunt their creativity. With all of the content that is being pushed out each and every day though, originality can be hard to come by.

Herman Melville spoke well to this point when he said, “it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” Quite a few companies have taken this advice to heart with these clever twitter replies. Although HR probably wasn’t too pleased…it worked. These companies took a risk and got some mad respect for it in the form of thousands of retweets and substantial brand visibility.

Channel surf

Fact of the matter is, based on your industry, different social media channels will have more success than others. If you’re selling clothes or jewelry, Pinterest and Instagram are most ideal, because customers can window shop and be led straight to your site. However, if you’re in the insurance industry…no one will most likely be pinning your policy outlines.

The key here is to evaluate your target market and figure out where you think they are spending most of their time. What social media site(s) will allow you to reach the largest part of your target market, most efficiently, and with as little effort as possible? It may makes sense for your organization to diversify their arsenal of social media platforms to maximize engagement, as well as reach, but this isn’t for everyone.

One thing to keep in mind is that a larger audience does not always equal high levels of engagement. This goes back to my point about making sure that your content is original enough to have customers come back for more.

Spread the word

Social media is the perfect, low-cost way to grow business awareness while getting feedback. This is key to customer satisfaction, and a large part of what makes social media marketing so unbeatable. You can get honest, unsolicited feedback, then evaluate and identify strengths and weaknesses of your organization. Not only is this feedback eye-opening, it’s also immediate. You will be able to tell right away whether your latest social campaign is working, or if it should end. In the long run you’ll end up saving time and money, rather than wasting resources on poorly received campaigns.

Finding advocates, or influencers, is also imperative to your social media success. It is not only important to have them, but for them to be relevant and authentic as well. This can look different depending on your industry and company. One of the articles that I think best explains the importance of influencer marketing is Christina Newberry’s blog, Influencer Marketing on Social Media: Everything You Need to Know.

Navigating the vast landscape of social media can be difficult, but with these tips you can stay relevant and keep your audience engaged and happy. I’ll leave you with this thought from Mark Zuckerberg, “figuring out what the next big trend is tells us what we should focus on.” Social media continues to control marketing trends, so I encourage you to focus your efforts in this space and start building rapport with your customers.

If you need support with managing your social media platforms, please contact us!  We love helping companies transform their marketing automation.