It's Get to Know Your Customers Day!

Social Media is more than just a tool for promoting your business. It's a portal in which customers can get to know more about your company, as well as an opportunity for you to show your true colors. But social media isn’t only about you, you can use it to directly connect with your audience. #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay is July 19th and in order to celebrate, we are going to take a quick look into how you can become in-tune with your customers through social media.

Photograph by Stacey Sprenz

Know your platform
There are so many social media platforms out there - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Snapchat, just to name a few! Each social media platform already has their own demographics. Familiarizing yourself with each social media network can help you pinpoint which platforms will be the most influential to your business. For example, if you are trying to reach out and target a younger age range, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter are the ideal platforms to reach that audience. Check out this image from Social Factor with more information about gender, age, location and income/education demographics across a wide range of platforms.

Infographic from Social Factor

Page Insights
With business pages taking the social media world by storm, there are now fantastic tools to help you learn more about your audience and see where you can make improvements. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all have page insights for business pages that makes basic post analytics a breeze. These can help you see the reach of each post, which can then help you determine what is working well and what needs tweaking. When looking at your top posts, ask yourself what patterns do you see? Did the content have any similarities? Were they posted at similar times? Drawing from your top posts can help you with creating future content by showing you where to focus your energy. Your audience will always show you what content they enjoyed, so take the hint!

Check out the below example from Tabletop Media Group's Facebook page. This post shows analytics from a particular post involving our client Chef Bud Taylor of the Bistro at Topsail. You can see the amount of people reached, types of reactions, time posted, and number of comments and shares. This is just one of the many tools built in on social media platforms that is free for you to use! For Twitter, just visit https://analytics.twitter.com and make sure you're logged into your business account. And for Instagram, ensure that your profile is convereted into a business account and then you can access insights for each post.

Engagement
Knowing your customers is more than just knowing their age range and when they are online. Know your customers by actually getting to know your customers. Engaging on social media takes more than just a "like." Your audience likes to see that there is a real person behind the posts. Responding to comments and commenting on others' posts not only shows that you are present, but that you are reaching out. The more you engage with others, it is more likely that they will also want to engage with you. This back and forth dialogue helps to solidify your "voice" as a company and can help build relationships with your clients.

When creating content, it is important to think about what content will garner more engagement. Asking questions, creating polls and getting opinions are all ways in which your audience will feel like they are a part of the conversation. The feedback that you receive can give you more of an idea of who your audience is and what they like. Don’t be afraid to ask tough questions, that is always how the best conversations start!

While you may have already developed your own voice as a company, do not let it limit you. Your reach may be broader than you anticipated with a few tweaks, and you could be connecting to groups that you hadn’t yet considered. As you learn more about your audience, branch out and have the courage to try something new. Don't be afraid to "play" a little on social media! Paying attention to your customers and what they want to see from you on social media is a sure fire way to help grow your presence. So, listen up! Because you know what they say - the customer is always right!

Blog post written by Jorden Yeargan, Social Media Manager at Tabletop Media Group