Are Your Really Listening To Your Customers
Do you know what your customers need help with? Social Media isn’t just about publishing content, it’s about helping people answer the questions. And that starts with listening to them.
They say the first step to a successful social media strategy is listening. So I ask you, a business owner, a manager, or entrepreneur, are you listening to people?
This theory is not new, you probably listened to people before Social Media. If you didn’t you wouldn’t know what people needed and what kind of businesses to operate. To determine what new business to start, this concept is used. If a community has no mechanic shop, an auto mechanic is going to hear about it and open a mechanic shop.
What some don’t realize is any business can listen to their customers and make adjustments to their business on the go.
Social Media gives you another place to listen. It’s all the conversations, people are talking all the time. They might not be talking about your business but may be talking about something you offer. Then opportunity is all yours.
So start listening. Here are some of my ideas on where you can do this:
1. Twitter search
This should not be new to you, but you can search on Twitter. If you go to twitter.com/search you can search any term you want, your location, or business name and see who is talking about it. You can listen to them and then respond, even if they don’t have a question.
Side note: most cities and communities have specific hashtags. Look them up.
2. Facebook Search
Facebook search is new, but can be quite effective. The search works for statuses, links and photos shared by those who have set their privacy to public. You can also piggyback off of other brands, just look up their page.
3. Facebook Groups
Local Facebook Groups are popular and often have members asking different questions about the community all the time.
4. Trip Advisor
For you tourism businesses out there, get listening on Trip Advisor. There are community forums full of questions about where to go, where to stay, what to do, where to eat, how to get there. The questions are endless but you have to listen to them and then get in front of them.
5. Instagram Search
With 70 million photos posted a day, Instagram is popular in all demographics. With its search function it is easy to find content about your business. Look it up on your smartphone.
These are 5 ways you can listen to customers online, now get started and before you tell me you don’t have time, make time. Plan for it. 15 minutes in the morning while your drinking your coffee, just have a peek.