How to build more customers through social media

Image credit: Tracy Le Blanc

Social media has become a valuable marketing platform for businesses. When used correctly, it can be a way of not just building brand exposure but generating new customers. Below are some of the tricks for building customers through social media.

Create eye-catching content
Getting people to notice you on social media requires creating eye-catching content. Ideally, it needs to not just be evocative but provocative - when people see your posts they should have the urge to interact either by liking it or commenting on it. So just how do you create such content?
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Images and videos tend to be the best option for encouraging engagement. When it comes to images, you should consider content such as attention-grabbing photos of your product or service, fascinating infographics related to your industry or humorous original image memes. When it comes to videos, you could consider a product advertisement, an educational video that boosts your credibility or possibly even a semi-educational behind-the-scenes video of you making your product. In most cases, you’ll want to hire a professional to help you create this content such as a product photographer, graphic designer, animator or video production company. This will ensure that your content is high quality.
Text content can still be eye-catching but you should generally keep it snappy so that it can be read at a glance. Consider spicing it up with emojis and hashtags. Text should always accompany images and videos. 

Promote events and deals
Most people follow brand accounts to keep updated on events or deals. Make sure that you’re posting this type of content from time to time.
When it comes to events, make sure to advertise all the necessary information such as date, time and location. It’s worth creating a hashtag for your event that people involved can share. If it’s a ticketed event, make sure to share a link to a page where people can buy tickets. Start promoting early so that people have enough time to plan ahead.
When it comes to deals like discounts and 2-for-one offers, use images and emojis to help your posts stand out. Supply a link to a webpage where people can buy the discounted product or service. If it’s for a limited time or there is limited stock, make sure to make this clear. 

Run competitions
Social media competitions are great for generating buzz around your company. In turn, they can help you to convert customers.
Competitions typically involve giving away a product or service for free to a single winner. They can take the form of a raffle or lottery in which contestants are put into a random draw. Alternatively, you can challenge contestants to answer a question: you could challenge people to come up with a name for your next product and give a prize to the contestant with the best suggestion, or you could challenge customers to guess how many sweets are in a jar (or something similar and industry-relevant) and then give away a prize to the most accurate answer. 
It’s worth adding a link to a competition webpage where contestants can sign up opposed to relying on social media comments. As part of entering your competition, you could encourage contestants to follow you on social media or join your mailing list. All in all, use the competition as a chance to build buzz around your company - you may encourage some contestants that aren’t winners to buy your product or use your service in the future. 

Make use of targeted adverts
Targeted adverts allow you to pay money to target posts at specific audiences. You get to set parameters such as location, sex and age. This can be great for helping your content to reach the right people, helping you to build customers and not just engagements. 
It’s worth keeping a budget when running adverts to avoid spending too much. Use performance reports on your advertisement campaigns in order to improve future advertisement campaigns. 

Respond promptly to queries
Social media is one of the few publicly interactive forms of marketing. Consumers that are interested in your product have the option to comment and ask questions. A well-run social media brand account is able to respond to these queries promptly in order to convert leads while they are still hot. This involves checking your social media accounts daily. 
On top of responding to queries, there may be other comments worth replying to. Complaints and false statements should be diffused so that they don’t have a negative impression on other potential leads - this could include apologising for mistakes or correcting false rumours. If people show interest with comments such as ‘this is great!’ capitalize on this with a link to your product.

Build recommendations
Facebook has got rid of its review system but now has a recommendations feature. It’s worth asking happy customers to recommend you on Facebook. This could help improve trust in consumers looking at your Facebook page, possibly encouraging them to buy your product or use your service. 

Check analytics
Analytics can tell you which type of content is performing well so that you can repost or replicate these types of content. When it comes to posts containing links, it’s worth looking at how many people have clicked on the link and whether this has created any customers - this is a better indicator of whether a post is successful than the amount of likes and comments.  You can use social media analytics and website analytics to work out this information. 

Look at what your competitors are doing
It could be worth checking your competitors to see what they are up to. There may be content ideas that you can take inspiration from. At the same time, there may be ways in which you can set yourself apart. 
Be wary of taking part in ‘brand wars’. This has become popular among large established brands and involves jokily criticising competitor brands. With local small brands it may not have the same impact and may damage your reputation.