Building customer relationships on social media

With the overflow of businesses posting high-quality content on social media every day, it can be a challenge to make yourself stand out and keep people's loyalty. One way to increase consumer appreciation and attract returning customers is to work on developing relationships on social media.

Create good captions:
Having a caption that only consists of hashtags, is hard to understand, is irrelevant, or doesn't resonate with your target audience can potentially reduce the amount people care and the legitimacy of your business. When writing a caption, make sure that is relevant to the social media platform you are using, your audience and your brand. When using multiple hashtags, putting them below your caption can prevent it from being distracting and messy.

Respond to comments:
Taking the time to read and respond to comments can be a great way to build relationships with your customers. People are more likely to remember your business if you respond to them, as they often don't expect a response. Replying to comments can show customers that you care and are listening to them. This practice can also help you understand what your customers like and don't like and improve your business and social media accordingly.

Personalise conversations:
Many businesses use bots to automate conversations, whether it's on social media, phone answering machines or online messaging services. You can stand out from these businesses by communicating with your audience in a way that seems more personal and human. Some ways you can achieve this is by:

• Addressing customers by their first name if it is supplied on their profile.
• Always responding to comments in a polite and friendly manner, even if they are complaining or being rude.
• Using appropriate language – depending on your business branding, you don't always have to be formal and robotic. You can show the audience that you relate to them and understand them by using language that they are comfortable with. Think about how your target audience typically communicates.

Use content from your audience:
Hashtags and profile tags are a great way to see how your customers are engaging with your business. If a customer posts something about them enjoying your products/services, consider reposting it. This demonstrates that you value their opinion and appreciate their support. As well as this, potential customers are more likely to try your products/services if they see that another customer is benefitting from it, as this can be seen as more trustworthy than advertisements straight from the business.