It’s one thing to have followers. But the real challenge lies in making them work for you.
So why do we do all of this online social media marketing anyway? Is it because we love listening to podcast after podcast about the value of hashtags? Is it because we love reworking our content to fit whatever platform du jour our customers are on?
No. Ultimately, we do this because it’s the easiest channel to reach our customers directly. And the whole point of doing that is to build brand awareness and boost sales. So what’s the most sure-fire way to boost sales?
By turning your existing customers and followers into ambassadors — passionate advocates and influencers for your business. These are the people who will not only give you return business, they will preach the gospel for all to hear about who you are and what you do.
It’s the holy grail of social media marketing. And while there are no easy ways to go about it, here are a few simple guidelines on turning your followers into advocates.
Make it a game
Let’s start with the obvious: your customers are living their lives online. According to Pew research, 68 percent of all adults in the U.S. are on Facebook. As many social media platforms have risen to prominence and fallen, Facebook is still the big sandbox. The next highest is Instagram, with 28 percent of U.S. adults.
The good news is, if you’re a small business with limited resources, you have the option of either reaching a wide audience with Facebook or being a much bigger voice on a smaller platform with Instagram or Twitter. You can also look at each platform and see where best to focus your efforts — if you have more followers on Instagram or if they’re already demonstrating more interaction in the form of likes and comments, go there.
Then, start the game. Provide extra incentives by way of coupons, deals and freebies just for being a follower. Don’t go overboard, though, because you’ll want to save those big rewards for later. Once you’ve established that it pays to follow your business online, start identifying your big fish.
These will be the folks that demonstrate consistent interaction with the brand — comments, likes, shares; whatever form that takes. Turn their passive advocacy into active advocacy with some big rewards. Even something as small as following them back can go a long way. If possible, let all of your followers know it (this may take the form of a “follower of the week,” if that’s not too far removed from your messaging). Your followers will see that it pays to follow you online, but it pays even bigger to get involved.
Following that thread, you’ve now made a game out of following you. The way your customers see it, the more they put in by way of advocacy, the more they get out of it. With any luck, you’ll ignite an arms race to see who can be the biggest advocate of all.
Bring them in
While the advocate is the next natural step in the follower evolution, there are ways to skip the first step entirely and make advocates out of those who aren’t even following you online.
User-generated content is all sorts of buzzy, and why wouldn’t it be? You not only get free content for your social media feed, you also create an opportunity for interaction with the user who generated the free content for you in the first place.
This will obviously take some creativity on your business’ part, but let’s say you run a real estate office in Jacksonville. Now, obviously your content will basically consist of new listings, content from local news sources (ahem) extolling the virtues of living here and maybe the occasional contest. But since you’re in the business of selling the dream of J-Ville, why not seek out your fellow dreamers?
Dig around through some hashtags and you’ll find beautiful Instagram photos of Jacksonville, Facebook posts about life in your area and other content from residents and visitors. Then, simply reach out for permission, maybe ask for a little bit of their story that you can share alongside and you have some user-generated content.
But more importantly, you have someone who is going to brag to all of their friends about this awesome real estate firm that shared their photo. In short, you have an advocate.
Give them space
The important thing about advocates is that you remember one thing: they work for you, but they don’t work for you.
This whole thing only works if it’s organic. If your advocates feel like their hands are tied on what they can and can’t say, the whole relationship could fall apart. Give your advocates freedom to say what they will and the trust that they’ll help tell your story in their own way.
They might go days or weeks without commenting, but the relationship you’ve built assures that they’ll be back. And they’ll continue to be your biggest cheerleaders.
RELATED: 3 Reasons Your Social Media Influencer Campaign Isn’t Working
These are just a few ways to create online advocates for your business. If you’re ready to get started, give us a call at 904.359.4318, or fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch soon.
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