Laurus College Blog – 5 Tips to Connect with Customers...Socially

5 Tips to Connect with Customers…Socially

by the Professional Business Systems Department

Technology is at the forefront of our education system, and social media platforms are a key part of the technology that we embrace and teach to our students here at Laurus College. This knowledge builds on the base of business principles learned in the Business Marketing, Business Communications, Entrepreneurship, Management, Organizational Behavior, Economics, and Business Regulations course work.

On average, entry level employees managing social media make $20 per hour, which means that the average business spends approximately $41,600.00 in labor for social media each year. This is a significant investment for businesses.

Here are some tips for managing social media whether you are looking to freelance for companies or you are already managing the social media for a company.

1. Start with Facebook. This social media platform is the largest and most popular for business. Since most people in the 21st century have a Facebook account, this might be a platform with which you are already familiar. Make sure you set up your Facebook page correctly (covered in the webinar recording given at the end of this article).

2. Analyze your audience. Knowing the people who are interested in your product and service will answer many questions about what type of content in which they will be interested. If your main audience is scholarly (like all of you lovely people), you will want to give them content that will help improve their school-life balance or that will be relevant to their field of study. This will also help decide which platforms will help you reach your audience best.

3. Give them something…for free! People. Love. Free. When you give them something that they perceive as valuable at no cost (except for the time it takes to follow you), they will appreciate your brand and continue to follow it. For example, BuzzFeed Tasty provides videos showing delicious recipes. While providing recipes is not the main part of BuzzFeed’s business, the perceived value and interest in these videos helps to generate interest in their business and drive people to their site. You want to get your business in front of as many eyes as possible.

4. Become an expert in your industry. Why should people follow you? Why are you special? If you can show people that you are an expert in your industry, they will look to you for answers to their questions. Around the dinner table, whom do people use to solve arguments about topics in your industry? You. Because you are the expert.

5. Tell them your story. Social media is the perfect platform to tell your audience why you do what you do. Tell them what is important to your business. Tell them why you started your business. Let your audience get to know you and fall in love with your brand. In the end, you will have brand loyalists who go out and tell their friends, family, and neighbors that your brand is the best.

For more information about social media management, check out a recording of this workshop given by Professional Business Systems Instructor Rebecca Ingrahm: Social Media Management.

References
Stelzner, M. A. (2015). 2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Social Media Examiner.
Social Media Jobs Salary Guide (2014) – Onward Search. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.onwardsearch.com/career-center/social-media-jobs-salary-guide/

Rebecca Ingrahm is a Professional Business Systems Instructor at Laurus College. You can reach her through email: rebecca.ingrahm@tinab22.sg-host.com or call [phone-link location=””].

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