Got Social Media? Ask Your Customers!

Truth be told, the best social media strategy for your business starts out much like some of the best conversations you’ve probably had. Think about a great conversation you’ve had with someone who’s actively listening and asking questions and how you felt. You probably felt important, engaged, excited and came away with the impression that you’d just had a wonderful conversation.

You customer’s experience with your brand in social media should give them the same great feelings. Before you engage, however, you need to determine how much your customers are engaging in social media and on which sites. Here are five simple questions that you can ask your customers to determine how involved they are in social media. You can put these in a survey at the cash register, ask over the phone, put into an email, on your website or at any customer touch point.

1. Are you familiar with social media? Social media includes but is not limited to Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Podcasts, YouTube, etc.
2. If yes, which social media sites do you interact with? (List to top 10 – 12 social media sites and platforms)
3. How much time to you spend engaging in social media per week?
   For personal use:
   For professional use:
4. What would motivate you to interact with our brand in social media? (things like coupons, contests, instructional videos, helpful content, etc.)
5. What other brands or organizations do you participate with in social media? This could take the form of blogs that you read, Facebook fan pages or Twitter feeds that you follow.

The quickest path from here to being a social media superstar is to begin engaging in the conversation by asking a few important questions and then listening.  If you simply follow the 2:1 ratio of “ears to mouth”, you’ll be well on your way to being the most engaging and conversational organization in your category.