Consumer Relations: Why Social Media is the Key to your Business’ Content Marketing Strategy

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An increasing demand for transparency and connection has become a trend in today’s society. From the farm-to-table movement to Small Business Saturday, consumers are more and more aware of the how the companies they support make them feel as customers and consumers. This demand for authenticity and quality puts a new level of pressure on businesses to create a personable and relatable brand. Luckily, for the first time in societal history, it has never been easier for consumers and businesses to have a two-way conversation through social media.

On Sprout Social, writer and marketing expert Rebekah Carter explains it this way:

“Today’s consumers base their perception of a brand on the meaningful moments they have with it. Importantly, those moments don’t just happen at the checkout page, or on the service line. Social media has emerged as a crucial touchpoint in building customer relationships.”

In other words, content marketing was once based on a more impersonal processes of selling and promoting; however, with the dawn of the social media age, businesses no longer have the luxury of “selective hearing.” To be successful and respected within their market today, companies have to place a new level of importance on consumer relations.

Sonia Gregory, owner and creative director of Fresh Sparks, highlights six key rules that can help develop and create effective customer service practices on social platforms. Number one?

Reply as quickly as possible on social media. Because social media is a 24/7 platform that never shuts off, customers assume the same from businesses represented there. Gregory states that 42% of consumers expect a customer service response on social media within 60 minutes.

Know which social media posts should be resolved in public or private. For this particular rule, individual situations and specific posts must be monitored and screened to help your business determine if the conversation at hand should remain public or shift to a private discussion.

Respond to all social media feedback, questions, and comments. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to let consumer posts slip into the abyss of the web. Gregory puts it simply: “Don’t let someone’s thoughts go into a black hole . . . A customer wants to be heard, plain and simple!”

Include a greeting and be transparent with names or initials. This point goes back to the original concept of creating a transparent and personable atmosphere between you and your customer. Right from the beginning, create a relationship by utilizing first-name contact and connection.

Combat negativity with positivity on social media. As Gregory puts it, “Always meet negativity with positivity . . . The most important thing is to show you care and value the customer’s opinion, regardless of whether it started out negative.”

Monitor customer service through social media with a tool. A few of the tools Gregory recommends? Hootsuite, Sparkcentral, Mention, and Buffer.

Social media and content marketing complement each other when the relational aspects of social media merge with the marketplace reality of content marketing. This blend creates the transparency that our society today demands.

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In a Forbes article, Peter Boyd writes about marketing trends and highlights specific practices that also help to develop consumer relations, “Regardless of who you’re trying to reach,” Boyd writes, “it’s almost a guarantee they’ll use some form of social media, so your content marketing plan should make the most of these platforms.” These social media platforms each work uniquely to connect you to a specific audience of consumers. Spreadfast’s 2018 Social Audience Guide breaks down the user demographics of specific social media platforms to help. Here are a few takeaways and crucial points worth noting when assessing which consumers you are connecting with on each platform:

Facebook is the platform where millennials and Gen X are most likely to share content with one another. Users spend an average of 35 minutes per day on Facebook.

53% of Instagram users follow brands, and there are 500 million active, daily users. 59% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29.

On Twitter, 84% of users report that they use Twitter to find coupons, deals, reviews, and ideas. 79% of users retweet SMBs.

Linkedin has more than 13 million company pages within their platform and is the most popular social network with Fortune 500 CEOs.

This brief summary is a snapshot of how vast the world of social media is. Understanding the diversity and demographics of users on each platform helps your brand in many ways; ultimately, it guides your brand’s cultivation of well-developed plans for forming specific content that helps in relationship formation with your consumers. Consumer relations are a progressive aspect of social media and, when utilized correctly, social media can be a huge content marketing tool. The keys of social media are vast and vary by platform, but each platform has the potential to help your brand thrive in consumer relations.