Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

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One of the attractions of social media is that it gives customers a way to get more personal with your company. It allows them to feel that they are special because you are making yourself accessible to them. Even if you aren’t sharing your company’s most closely guarded secrets with your customers, merely reaching out to them through social media goes a long way toward building better client relations. When customers see that business with you means a two-way relationship, they are more inclined to continue with that relationship.

Building the bond

Blogs and social media profiles are wonderful ways to build this bond with your customers. Through your web presence, you can spread your message to customers, build trust, and win their loyalty. It is an excellent platform to control your public image by providing customers with insight into your company that they can’t get anywhere else. Let them in on the inner workings of your business. Share with them your business goals for the year. Give them a peek into what they can expect in the coming year. These social media marketing methods may seem unorthodox to traditional business practices but they are a new approach to doing business online.

Online, it is all about sharing. Still, most of these methods are one sided. To really be social, the discussion needs to be a two-way street. Of course, you allow (and even encourage) comments on your blog and yes, customers can also post to your Facebook page. If you take it one step further and add a forum to the site, suddenly you not only have customers and potential customers talking about your brand, they are talking and sharing within your brand. And within your web presence. With a forum or message board, you’ve instantly brought them into your world and given them the tools and encouragement to start their own discussion about your business.

Forums

A forum or message board is primarily a tool for use by your customer base. Unlike your blog or other social media channel, a forum isn’t the place you want to push your agenda. Think of it as a sign of goodwill toward your customers. It becomes another sign of trust. Opening up that forum on your site is the ultimate demonstration of transparency. For relationship building, transparency is critical and encourages trust because it shows that you have nothing to hide. And yes, it does take some resolve on your part. Anyone can say anything within that forum. However, just as easily as customers can share positive experiences, a disgruntled customer can join the forum and share negative comments with others from the inside. Of course that’s a worst-case scenario.

Although the idea of a forum is that it is primarily run by the users, the beauty of it is, however, that you still have some control. You have the ability to engage with customers and encourage positive talk. You also have the ability to engage with someone who may have had a negative experience. Engaging that customer gives you the power to possibly win them back and leave a lasting, positive impression.

So what kinds of topics can you cover with a forum or message board? You definitely want to give visitors to your forum the freedom to come up with their own topics but there is some room for you to steer the conversation. Your customers will naturally want to exchange ideas with other customers and share experiences. While it’s great for your customers to build a relationship with you and your company, it is also beneficial for them to build relationships with other customers. It helps to create a sense of community and that breeds brand loyalty. If you have a product that you sell, customers may want to see how others use the product. Ask customers to post their positive experiences with your brand. Just to show that you strive to make your company the best it can be, also ask them how your company can better meet their needs.

You can help the discussion along by suggesting other topics as well. Invite customers to post how they’ve used your products or how your services have helped them. Pose questions and ask customers to answer them or share their experiences on the topic.

Conclusion

When it comes to your business and social media, continuing discussions and interactions are both critical to your success. It is also essential that your online connections have a comfortable and safe place to discuss and interact. The easier you make it, the more people will want to be a part of your business experience.

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Author

  • Marco Giunta

    Marco Giunta is a Senior Business Development Executive and the author of the book: Rethinking Sales.

    He is a leading expert in Global Outsourcing with a focus on banking, financial services and other Industry sectors and has a long list of clients. Mr. Giunta is a speaker and presenter. He has led start-ups, business strategy groups, technology think tanks and has experience as a career coach. Visit Marco’s website at marcogiunta.com.

11 Responses

  1. Jason Alster says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    True, but actually my best sales are from author signings and and author talks. I have not found that social media friends or followers has led to book purchases. I would love to hear the experiences of others.
    Posted by Jason Alster

  2. Marco Giunta says:

    Great news that you are getting sales with your activities….. Although in my opinion, generally speaking, if you have a well executed Social media plan you will have a greater reach and sales with social media…. i had CompuKol work a plan… and now we are reaching people all over the world 7x24x365…think about it as a doing a global book signing to all your possible readers/clients everyday!
    how is that sound?
    Marco 

  3. Diane Roodvoets says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Linked Business
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    Great post. I "get" social media intellectually. Yet, I struggle in practical terms. Customers are so busy these days…are they really going to take the time to engage in social media with us?
    Posted by Diane Roodvoets

  4. Janet Henson says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Social Media Marketing Questions & Answers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    To me Social Media for business is nothing more than Dale Carnegie using 21st Century technology. "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." That's the building relationships and responding to them quickly and providing content that is relevant to your customers.
    Posted by Janet Henson

  5. Linda Howard Urbach says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    WOM, word of mouth is what prompts me to buy a book. I am dabbling in social media not because I think it's going to help me sell a million books but at least I feel like I'm doing something about a novel that took five years to complete.
    Posted by Linda Howard Urbach

  6. Paula R. Stern says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Publishing and editing professionals
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    There are many additional benefits to using social media – beyond the one listed above. For example – in many ways, it makes a direct connection between the users of a product, and those who design it and develop it (for the good and the bad). It also connects users to each other so if your application has something wrong – users are going to connect and complain about it. By monitoring these interactions and commenting and being a part of them, you create a more understanding, interested user.

    Social media also lets you tell your customers what is happening – and you should. New versions, updates, bug fixes, and exciting new features are great examples of what you can share.

    There are some amazing "case studies" of how companies not only increased their client base and revenues but generated tremendous interest – by simply tweeting about their product, interacting with users, and "being there."
    Posted by Paula R. Stern

  7. Jon Magee says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    @ Jason. Yes, the real personal meeting with people in book signings and talks is important, indeed it is imperative. However, I do have experiences of people connecting through facebook and then purchasing my books, "From Barren Rocks to Living Stones" & "Paradise Island, Heavenly Journey". As in any medium, it all depends on how you use that particular form of maketing.
    Posted by Jon Magee

  8. Jon Magee says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    @ Linda. Word of mouth will impress above everything else, but the 1st hurdle is to get the 1st book read so that it is 1st hand reading experience that is spoken of.
    Posted by Jon Magee

  9. Jason Alster says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    Any tips on how to get a following on a Social network to go from joining to purchasing a book?
    Posted by Jason Alster

  10. Jon Magee says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    @ Jason.

    I recall a man I have a lot of respect for in terms of books he has written with young people in Mind. I got to meet up with him at a conference in Amsterdam in the year 2000, and found a new respect for him as a person rather than just as an author. He is invited to university campus all around the world for lectures and debates etc, so has a full diary. But he confided in me that if he was not in the campus TWO HOURS before the time he was scheduled for then, in his estimation, he was late.

    The principle was simple, he could give a very clever lecture or debate, but above everything he wanted to give himself. Can I suggest the same principle with the social network? Yes, you want to use it to sell your books, but before you do that are you prepared to "sell yourself", in a sense. Use the social network to allow people around the world to get to know you as a person, let them know that you are interested in THEM. That takes time, and may even make you feel a little vulnerable at times, but will be worth it.
    Posted by Jon Magee

  11. Jon Magee says:

     

    Via LinkedIn Groups

    Group: Books and Writers
    Discussion: Getting Your Customers to Spread the Word

    My 1st book, "From Barren Rocks to Living Stones", was about Aden (Yemen) during the conflict and the terrorism of the 1960's and the British evacuation in 1967. My 2nd book, "paradise Island, Heavenly Journey", relates to Singapore during the time of the Chinese riots and a time when the scars of the Japanese occupation were still being felt by the local people.

    The pages I have for each of those books will mostly use pictures that relate to Aden or Singapore depending on the page, discussing around those pictures the issues raised by the members of the page. It has drawn people who have a particular interest in the respective countries, both westerners and those from the east. I answer the candid questions that they give me, and sometimes that requires delicate answers particularly the way the political situation in the Yemen is at the moment. Occassionally I will refeer to the book and where it can be bought, but it is first a presentation of myself, the author, and how I relate to where they are.

    i am not sure of the subject material of your books, but I would say there is a need to apply similar principles to win the people to YOU and your heart, and then maybe to what you have written from the heart.
    Posted by Jon Magee