TRANSPARENCY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Your brand has a social media presence with followers flocking to interact in staggering numbers. And the more people paying attention to your content, the more people there are to please. How do you build off this momentum and form/maintain a virtual community based on trust and loyalty?
Pro Tip: Treat your social interactions as if they were potential customers talking to you face-to-face. How would you act? What would you say? We know it’s difficult to maintain your composure when you’re responding to a bad review or criticism when sitting in front of your computer. Conversely, we can easily take positive feedback and compliments for granted when we’re online. This little trick will help you to stay in better “business form” when communicating with your fan base. Here are some keys to our communication policies for our clients.
Be truthful. The viral nature of posts when they hit the social streams requires brands to be extra conscious of how they portray themselves. If your company makes a mistake, admit fault. Don’t hide or sugarcoat because backlash from an audience is always much easier to come by than praise. Answer questions honestly and avoid deleting posts from customers with criticisms or negative reviews. If you lie, someone will find out. It’s the internet.
Be truthful. The viral nature of posts when they hit the social streams requires brands to be extra conscious of how they portray themselves. If your company makes a mistake, admit fault. Don’t hide or sugarcoat because backlash from an audience is always much easier to come by than praise. Answer questions honestly and avoid deleting posts from customers with criticisms or negative reviews. If you lie, someone will find out. It’s the internet.
Encourage open communication. Your customers provide some of the best insight into what works and doesn’t work with regards to your product/brand, and social media has become the perfect platform for these feelings to be revealed. Use negative feedback as a springboard for developing loyalty. Openly building a conversation off of one individual’s negative experience demonstrates a desire to continually improve and serve your customers as best as possible. Social media is the perfect place to turn failures into successes.
Provide resources. Social media demonstrates an immediacy that makes it the perfect place (or if ignored, worst) for followers to turn to and ask questions. Use your social platforms to provide additional information on your business and further direct people into the areas of your website that may frequently be ignored. Provide quick answers and explanations and you add value to your virtual community.
You don’t have to give every detail of every move and decision away to show social followers that you’re trustworthy. Just recognize the value of open and honest conversations and the rest will fall into place. Be real and be open because when your brand shows its human side, that’s when followers turn into fans. And when all else fails, turn to the CDG team for all the heavy lifting.
