Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.
This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.
Tuesday: Co-Creating with Social Media.
Wednesday: Building Brand Evangelism through Social Media.
Thursday: Social Media and Reputation Management.
Friday: Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.
(This is the last in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We welcome your feedback on the series.)
So let’s say your first foray into Social Media was a success.
You scrubbed your customer database so you have a good list. You put together an email blast with compelling creative and an intriguing offer. And you got eye-popping “open” and “conversion” rates. Congratulations!
Now before you pop that bottle of champagne, think about your next engagement with them, and how you can make it a little more meaningful.
Their first opt-in should be translated that they liked your offer, not necessarily that they are somehow “passionate” about you. This first engagement is key, but it should not be considered an unmitigated Social Media success story.
The challenge is to keep your initial “hand-raisers” opted-in. And to make your communications with them a conversation, so you find out more about them, how they view your organization and its offerings, what makes them more likely to buy from you, to convince them to serve as the conduit between their communities and you, and help you identify opportunities for deeper engagement.
It helps to think of the customers who opt-in for the first time as “trial customers.” They liked what it was you asked them to respond to. The next step though is less clear. The key is to stay relevant. A 10% off coupon may attract a lot of attention the first time you do it, but it is important to recognize this act as a conversation-starter. It will help you find out who’s interested. At that point you need to deepen the conversation.
This first engagement is an opportunity to find out more about your “hand raisers” than their email addresses or how they found you. Let’s say your first contact was a coupon you sent via email. As part of the redemption process, you could put together a quick survey to find out a little more about redeemers and what they would like to see in future communications from you. Once you know what customers are looking for, you can put together a calendar of events and mailings that will continue to be relevant for them. And the more they redeem and reciprocate the communication, the more you will inevitably learn about them. Your goal in the early stages of engagement are to learn as much as you can about your followers and continually be relevant to them to ensure continued engagement.
Once you have established this “first circle” of followers, you should be able to incite them to share with others in their communities. You can do this with “Bring a Friend” events, “two-for-one” offers or offer bounties on new customers.
An example of an organization that does a great job re-engaging with its followers is Woot.com. This is an online retailer who offers one unbelievable deal on one specific item each day, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
The company built a loyal following because its community knows that even though 9 times in 10, the offer will be for something they would never buy, that 1 time in 10 will get them an unbelievable deal. Woot.com stays relevant to its community by holding to its promise (Brand Vision) of offering one unbelievable deal each day. By seeing what its customers purchased (or tried to purchase) and the velocity at which items moved, Woot is able to streamline its product offerings and leverage its buying power. In short, it becomes even more relevant to its community.
Although today marks the official end of Social Media Month, we still have more Social Media ground to cover. We’ll be sending out these posts in the coming days and weeks, so please keep an eye out for the Quisenblog.
We’d love to hear your comments on the series. Leave your comments or questions here, or email me here.
Posted by Mickey
Similar Posts:
- Social Media you can own.
- Use Social Media to give your customers a seat at the table.
- Social Media as a Series of Conversations.
- Creating a Community, Part 2.
- Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
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