For most businesses, establishing a credible social media presence is a difficult prospect. Even harder is cultivating a vibrant social media community. Many social media community managers will debate the best way to get more followers on likes on your Facebook page. For some purchasing followers have backfired. it is not easy to grow an audience that will eventually act as evangelists for your brand from the ground up.
Building a community from the ground up as perhaps the best way but it is hard and definitely not a quick fix. The rewards however will be an engaged audience, who will naturally syndicate your updates, and voice their opinion. In order to achieve the desired result of an engaged audience companies should look at crowdsourcing their own employees. The entire business needs to be involved after all those same employees would have their own social media profiles, and these could be leveraged accordingly.
Try modifying their bios to include links back to the company’s profile and pages. Impart upon them the importance of acting as brand evangelists. You can use them as extra eyes and ears to monitor company sentiment on the web. Potentially staff members that are quick to respond to a problem online can in fact save the company’s brand.
The reality is, conversations will be taking place about your brand regardless of whether you like it or not. For savvy social firms, there is but one choice get involved and foster balanced debates. The remarkablegroup on their blog, lists 7 top rules of social media and community engagement that are worth emulating:
- Listen and find out what’s being said – don’t just rush in.
- Be open and honest about who you are – hiding your identity will blow up in your face.
- Be proactive in discussions and responsive to questions.
- Be polite and personable, getting the tone of voice is vital.
- Don’t think you can do all the heavy lifting yourself – encourage supporters to use social media to spread the word. They’ll be your best advocates.
- Make your own content social media friendly and easily shareable.
- Don’t encourage arguments – be factual and correct untruths but don’t rise to the trolls or ranters.
Hayden Richards is Contributor of IntelligentHQ. He specialises in finance, trading, investment, and technology, with expertise in both buy-side, sell-side. Contributing and advising various global corporations, Hayden is a thought leader, researching on global regulatory subjects, digital, social media strategies and new trends for Businesses, Capital Markets and Financial Services.
Aside from the articles, interviews and content he writes for IntelligentHQ, Hayden is also a content curator for capital markets, analytic platforms and business industry emerging trends. An avid new media explorer Hayden is driven by a passion for business development, innovation, social business, Tech Trading, payments and eCommerce. A native Trinidadian, Hayden is also a veteran, having served with the Royal Air Force Reserves for the past 10 years.
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