Helping social media customers through the conversion process is much the same as facilitating the process with other online customers. It’s also important to learn how to understand and respond appropriately to your social media leads around the entire shopping experience; before, during, and after.
It’s easy to forget, particularly if you’re posting gobs of information everyday, that there are real people behind those avatars who are there with the primary purpose of¬† interacting with others. “But,” you might say,” they are also here to find solutions and read about interesting news developments within their sphere of interest.” True. But, again, that’s not the catalyst behind the masses plugging into social media. If it were just news or solutions social media fanatics wanted they would just read online how-to articles and newspapers. They want relationships and interaction! They want to be able to prod and query the product/service marketer for feedback, and to perhaps even become their friend.
Improve your social media customer experience by:
- Striving to develop meaningful relationships with your Twitter followers, Facebook fans etc., especially with those re-tweeting, re-posting, or re-blogging your message. Use that relationship to make sure your social media friends are getting the information they need about your product or service. To do this, you must interact with your network contacts on a regular basis; daily in some cases.
- After throwing out links to your next blog, newest product pages etc., try posting follow up inquiries that might help those interested find exactly what they’re looking for. Take this post for example: “five ways to improve the social media customer experience.” After posting it, we might put another line out asking our social media friends questions like:¬† “Was this helpful?, Did we leave anything out?, or Can we clarify any of¬† points better for you?”
- In order for social media marketers (SMM) to see leads through the entire conversion process, they should have a direct connection with many the key players within their company, especially within the sales team. That key sales contact should let SMMs  know the types of leads that are coming in from social media and who they are. Then SMMs can catch up with those leads back in the social media-sphere to make sure the process is going smoothly and that they have everything they need.
- Great follow up customer service is priceless. Even after the initial transaction is complete, keep following up to make sure everything is working out fine. Through these follow ups, you might be able to head off any frustrations for the customer too, which will ultimately lead to repeat sales and more viral marketing.
- Keep your ear to the wire by monitoring what others are saying about you through social media keyword alerts. Don’t be intimidated by the negative comments. Interject and educate: help them turn that frown upside down. In the world of social media where the viral chattering can make or break a company in 140 characters or less, somebody’s got to be on the front lines to address the fires or at least re-direct the flames or your company could start burning down without your even knowing it.
In conclusion, it’s vitally important to stay by your lead’s side during the entire shopping experience. If you miss the chance to be there to make even the slightest portion of the procedure easier, your competitors will be there to do it for you. Social media is a great way to constantly engage with your customers through a variety of different channels to make sure no one is slipping through the cracks. Remember all of this takes time, so when you’re implementing your yearly¬† Social Media Road Map build in a minimum of ten to twenty hours per week to engage your audience!
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