How To Put A Face To The Brand
How To Put A Face To The Brand
1. Become a Problem Solver
People have a natural tendency to admire and follow those who can solve their problems. If your followers perceive you as a problem solver, they’ll think of you as a leader in your industry, especially if they’ve tried asking for a solution from your competitors.
Solving a person’s problem breaks down the invisible barrier between companies and customers. Relationships start to form and trust is created. However, make sure that you stick to solving problems that are related to your brand or your industry. Even if you or your staff believe that they know a solution to a problem that is totally unrelated to your brand or industry, it’s best if you steer the conversation back to related problems. Your time on social media is limited, so limit the problems you try to solve to topics that can help you improve brand awareness.
2. Interact with your followers
On all your social media accounts, interact with your followers. When you create interesting posts and the followers post some comments, it is important to respond to them. If you want to build a relationship with your followers, you need to spend the time to interact with them. This is what social media is all about. By interacting with your followers, you’ll give them the impression that you appreciate the time they spent to comment on your posts and that you’re willing to spend some time to communicate with them. The advantage of interacting with your followers is that you’ll create a way to find out what they need so you can respond accordingly.
3. Be personable
Never distance yourself from your potential customers, especially on social media. Although you need to be professional in interacting with your followers, you’ll need to be personable as well. One area where you can take this approach is when responding to questions or concerns. Many companies love providing standard responses and they end up sounding like automated response systems. People expect personal interaction when they visit social media networks. They do not want to interact with robots.
If you keep using standard responses to people’s questions, your followers may skip your page and just call your customer service hotline. This is where you can get an edge over your competitors. People don’t expect personal responses from companies. If you respond personally to their questions and make them feel that they’re communicating with a person, they’ll know that you’re truly interested with their concerns. There may even come a time when you’ll get a lot of people asking questions on your social media page. It can become difficult, or maybe even impossible, to individually respond to their questions. When this happens, you can create posts addressing a certain question and provide a link to that post when somebody asks, instead of having to repeat the same information over and over again.
4. Show that you’re human
When people think of companies, they think of products, buildings, and other inanimate objects. Social media is a way to show your customers that you are human, you have passions, and that you have needs like they do. People don’t build meaningful relationships with objects, only humans and other living things. If they’re stuck with the perception that you’re just another company, they’ll treat you as if you were an object.
If you want to reach a personal level with your followers, you need to show them that you are a real, caring human being. They need to know that things that affect them can also affect you. Showing them that you also have a need to socialize will let them know that you’re with them not just to promote your products, but as someone who they can view as one of their online friends.
5. Engage more on weekends
The best time to build a relationship with your followers is during their spare time. However, statistics show that most companies are inactive on social media sites during weekends where their customers have time to spend socializing. Imagine calling a company on a weekend expecting to hear an automated response, but instead someone actually answers your call.
Unless you were calling customer service, most companies shut down for weekends. It’s exactly the same way on social media. People just don’t expect companies to be active during weekends. Imagine their surprise if you were posting or replying to their comments. Doing something that people don’t expect is a good way to build relationships, as long as what you do is positive in nature. Another reason why you should engage in social media on weekends is because this is when your followers tend to be more relaxed. It may cost you a little bit more to have staff working during the weekend, but there’s a good chance of improving your ROI since this is when most of your followers will be available.
