Using social media to build conversations with your customers

You may already know that social media sites are filled with a number of great opportunities to get in touch with your customers but if you haven't had a lot of experience with social media, you could be losing out on hundreds of customers. Social media sites are not places you go to post a bunch of ads and hope your customers will click on them. Social media sites are places you go to build conversations with your customers and to get to know them in a new way.

Tease your customers
A great way to use social media sites is to teach your customers. If you have a blog, post a complete article there and then just send a small exert with the link to the blog on your social media pages. This way your customers will get hooked into the message and they will have the desire to click on the link and read the rest of the article. This also works great when you are launching a new product and you want to get your customers interested in the product. The best part about teasing your customers is that it allows you to build links back to your website so you can build a higher page rank status.A higher status means you will gain greater visibility and ultimately more exposure to your potential customers.

Lead your customers
As you gain respect from your customers and you start to earn a nice following you will need to lead them. Leading the customers means you have information they want and are willing to pay for. Take a lesson from companies that conduct seminars and training programs online. This is a great way to earn some money for your company and it's a great way to build up your reputation and earn respect from your customers.

Participate with your customers
The great part about using social media sites is that it provides you with a chance to interact with your customers on their level. Your customers want to see that your business has a "human" side to it. They will respect you if you are participating in the blogs and discussion groups and sharing insight to the topic. Use this opportunity to post valuable information and to also provide a link back to your website so your customers can learn more about the information they are actively seeking. Get ahead of the game and start the discussion groups. This will show your customers that you are active on social media sites and this will really help you build better relationships with your customers.

Measure the participation
Are you the person that is retweeting things or passing along the messages? When you are the only one doing something, you need to find out what your customers participation level is. It can be hard to justify the amount of time you are spending on social media sites. Your customers need to be actively engaged in social media in order for it to work effectively. You want to measure not only the participation of your audience but a few other things like their income level, shopping patterns, and other things that lean toward the final buying decision.

Focus on their needs
When it comes to your customers participation on social media sites you need to make sure the messages you are posting are geared toward the needs of your customers. Are they happy with the information you are providing or do they simply ignore it because it is not providing your customers with any type of value? Listen to what they are talking about on social media sites in order to start posting information that is valuable to them.