An introduction to social media marketing

Why social?

Humans are naturally social creatures. We seek each other out, wherever we go – and it’s this need for community that’s fuelling the growth of social media today. Social media gives us the ability to connect with almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. This means social media is having a huge impact on the way we do business. Let’s find out how.

Some useful expressions :

Traditional media – Think of any communication platform that existed before digital technology, like television, radio, newspapers and books – these are all traditional forms of media.

Customer retention – This is where a company makes efforts to encourage repeat purchases over a long period of time.

Real-time communication – This is the live exchange of information without disruption. A newspaper advertisement isn’t real-time as there is a delay between the creation of the ad and when it's published. In contrast, a social media post is immediate: as soon as you post it, it's out there for the world to see.

Customer loyalty - This is where customers prefer to buy goods from the same place over and over again, rather than from a competitor. Loyal customers will always purchase products from their favourite company, even if there are cheaper or more convenient options available. As a business, you can encourage loyalty through good customer service and engaging marketing activities.

First of all, what is social media?

Social media is a collection of websites or apps that let people interact with one another by creating and sharing images, text, videos and even GIFs. There are a variety of social media platforms, from Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social media has completely changed the way a business can reach its customers. From small startups with five team members to large corporates with 50,000 employees, companies are using social media to reach and inspire people all over the world. It offers a huge amount of opportunity to really get to know your customers and to build relationships with them. It's an exciting way to do marketing, and throughout this course we'll be sharing thoughts and ideas on how to make it work for you.

What is social media marketing?

Social media isn't just great for personal use – it can also be a highly effective tool for your business. Companies of all sizes, as well as NGOs, can use social media to connect with customers and grow their online community. Using social media to reach out to people and promote your business is known as social media marketing.

With social media, many successful businesses are changing the way people learn, explore and discover new things. It allows businesses to advertize in a targeted, consumer-focused way, offering the potential for great value for money from advertising budgets.

How has social media changed marketing?

Social media marketing is a two-way conversation, where direct interaction helps create a stronger and a longer-lasting customer relationship. Its reactive nature means communicating in a timely way has never been simpler.

Social media marketing is an effective way to create business awareness and a positive, memorable impression. We’ll share some tips on creating inspiring posts that can encourage customer engagement in a later lesson, “How to engage your audience”.

Social media marketing allows your business to engage, entertain and respond to your audience. Instead of talking at your customer, as with some traditional media, it lets you listen and respond to them in a personally tailored and immediate manner. This way of communicating with new and existing customers can transform how a business promotes itself. A simple, open conversation can help people feel more at ease when interacting with you. Try it and see how it improves your marketing and customer retention – and how it gives you new audience insights that help sharpen your offering.

Over to you

We’ve discussed the ways in which social media has changed marketing. Now let’s think about your own experiences. Grab a pen and paper and try answering the following questions:

• Have you ever tried to get in touch with a business on social media?
• If yes, how did they respond?
• What did you like about their approach?
• What didn’t you like about their approach?

Looking at what works well will help you understand how you can best use social media for your business.

The benefits of building connections

So, what's so great about social media marketing? Well, it has a lot of potential benefits for businesses.

It helps you reach new customers, quickly: Social media offers a business the potential to reach millions of people all over the world in a targeted and personalized way. It is an easy and effective way to increase the reach and impact of your business's marketing.

Online discussions about your business, customer experiences and their recommendations can all contribute to your online growth, and make more people aware of your business, and its offering.

It gives you real-time access: Social media lets you post content and interact with people instantly, giving you a way to build your business's identity fast. Real-time communication allows you to ensure your business is accessible and available at any time.

For example: Raget’s Facebook Page lets him upload pictures of his flower arrangements daily, ensuring his customers always have a current catalogue of what he’s offering. Responding to questions in real time means his customers' experience is personalized and seamless.

Top tip: Being able to search the Internet for information instantly means people expect a swift response to their questions and issues online. So try to answer quickly to keep your customers happy.

It builds trust and relevance: Social media is a platform that allows you to engage and interact with a customer in a way that makes them feel valued. Honest communication helps build long-term customer trust. It also allows you to learn more about your audience: their day-to-day life, needs, wants and desires. This helps your business and its message align with their interests.

It allows you to build a community: Think about the times when you feel most confident, comfortable and inspired. Often it’s when you’re with friends, family or neighbours: a group of like-minded people that know one another and share a strong connection. Now apply this to your business. Imagine building an online community of people who share recommendations, opinions and news about your business. As this following grows, so will your customers’ loyalty and your potential sales opportunities.

Let’s recap

• Social media marketing is when a business uses social media to connect with new and current customers
• Unlike traditional media, social media marketing encourages a two-way conversation
• Social media gives you the opportunity to grow your business by listening to and understanding your customers' needs and preferences
• Connecting via social media means people around the world can have conversations about your business, share their experiences and recommend you to friends and family

Why social media is important for businesses

 

Let’s get social media savvy

In the last lesson, we looked at social media marketing and how it has changed the face of marketing. Now we’ll explore why it’s important for your business.

Whether you’re a big accounting firm or a local hairdresser, social media can help you reach customers everywhere and anywhere. It offers a great opportunity to increase the impact of your marketing, from promoting your service, to responding to customer enquiries. Let’s find out more about the importance of social media for businesses.

Some useful expressions

Business profile – This is a public social media profile for your business.

Content – This can be text, links, events, photos or videos that are shared with your online social community.

Click-through rate (CTR) – This is the percentage of people who click on a piece of content, whether an email, a social post or an online advert. A CTR can be used to measure the success of your digital marketing efforts. A high CTR means your customers find your ads helpful and relevant.

Target audience – The group of people your business aims to serve or support. These may be existing customers, or potentially new customers.

Audience insights – This is data that can be collected over time to help your business understand how people feel about your product, service, or a piece of content you have created. You can use your audience insights to tailor your marketing plans, product design and the content you share.

Social media marketing and business success

There are many ways to promote your business and products to the world. Now, along with traditional media marketing, like TV, billboards, flyers and newspaper print ads, many companies are adding social media into the mix. There are many benefits to adding social media to your business's marketing activities. It's very targeted, so it can be seen as an efficient method of communicating with, and growing, your customer base. It's also more responsive and allows you to adapt to your customer and business needs.

Let’s look at the ways social media can help grow your business.

Build an online presence quickly

A social profile is a simple way to get your business online. Better still, it’s usually quick and free. With similar benefits to a website but with fewer overheads, you can use your social profile to share important contact information, an overview of your products or services, promotional offers and marketing campaigns. You can even use your profile to provide real-time customer support.

Drives awareness of your business

With so many people using social media these days, a business without a social presence is a bit like having a store without a sign. People need to know you’re there. The online social community is growing by the minute and an online social presence can help to increase awareness of your business, make your business easier to discover and even help your sales revenue. On social media, every user has the potential to be a future customer. Creating a ‘digital storefront’ makes it simple to search for, and share your business when recommending it to friends and family.

For example: Anaya is having trouble finding the perfect saree for her sister’s wedding. Her friend Aneka shares her favourite dressmaker’s Instagram account with Anaya and suggests she get in touch with them. After searching the dressmaker’s profile, Anaya finds a similar dress and sends the store a message to check 1) if it’s still in stock and 2) if they can tailor it for her. Once the dressmaker confirms both questions, Anaya finds their address and opening hours on their profile, before jumping in the car.

The dressmaker's Instagram account helped build this customer relationship and sale. Without seeing the dressmaker's Instagram account, Anaya might not have been inspired to visit the shop.

Develop a relationship with your customers

Social media provides an opportunity to continue your conversation with new and current customers. Where once a customer might have phoned in advance or just visited the store and hoped for the best, today many people find it more practical to go online first to find out more about a business.

Offering responsive and tailored online customer support on social media is a great way to stand out from your competitors. One-to-one conversations help current and new customers feel confident with your services and what you offer. Responding to and engaging with your audience online in this way can be a great way to provide brilliant customer service. This can strengthen customer relationships and increase customer loyalty.

As well as one-to-one conversations, your business profile is also a great place to share relevant and unique content. You can quickly and easily share information about new products, launch promotions and talk to your audience about their interests – hopefully inspiring them to consider your business time and again.

Get to know your audience

Social media insights can help a business to effectively improve its message, services and products. This information can help you provide more tailored customer support and improved customer experience to help grow your business.

As soon as you launch your social profile, monitor the way people engage with you. What information do people ask for? What content do they engage most with? These insights can help you align your future activity with your customers’ interests and needs. Social media insights can also benefit broader business decisions, such as product design or the stock you buy.

To improve your business and its services, it’s important to understand what appeals to your audience. If users regularly message you with questions about a particular product, consider how you can sell complementary products that match their preferred item. On the other hand, if you are receiving a number of complaints about a product consider changing it, or even discontinuing it.

For example: As the owner of a sports store, Samar uses his Facebook Page insights to help him understand what his customers want. Recently he noticed an increase of women messaging him to ask about tennis equipment. He decides to buy a small test sample of tennis clothing and promotes this through his Page. It sells out within a week! Now some users are even asking to reserve items when they are back in stock. Samar now frequently uses his social media insights to help him decide which new products to buy.

Over to you

We’ve discussed how understanding your audience can help your business grow. Now let’s think about your own experiences.

Grab a pen and paper and try answering these questions:

• What are some ways that you could get to know your audience on social media?
• What would you want to learn from them?
• How would these learnings help you grow your business?

Getting to know your audience can help you to find new and effective ways to grow your business.

Let's recap

• Setting up a social profile is a simple, effective, and often free way to get your business online
• Social media marketing can help develop and create new relationships with your audience
• A social profile is easily sharable and a convenient way for happy customers to share your business with friends and family
• Social media insights can give you valuable information about your business and what your target audience wants

Choosing the right channel

Let’s think about channels

Humans are naturally curious. We enjoy exploring a variety of different digital ways to discover content (e.g. video, photos and blogs) and interact with friends, family and businesses. But we’re also creatures of habit. We will likely favour and regularly revisit a particular channel for a particular need.

For example: Raj loves chatting with his friends on WhatsApp but prefers to learn about the news via his local news station’s Twitter page.

It is important for your business to understand which social media channels your audience prefer. Learn about their online behaviour by watching the way they interact with other businesses similar to yours. Let’s get started.

Some useful expressions

Social media channel – A specific social networking site. There are a variety of social media channels, from Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to YouTube and LinkedIn. Each tends to have a unique purpose and so is used by different users for different reasons.

Social media content – This can be text, links, events, photos or videos that are shared with your online social community to help promote your business.

Demographic – This is a specific market identified by the group’s shared traits, including age, gender, income, education and employment.

Engagement – This is the volume of public shares, likes, comments and other forms of interaction that a business receives from its target audience on social media.

Why is selecting the right channel important?

There are plenty of social media channels to choose from: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp and many more. Such a variety in choice means it’s important to understand which of these best suits your business. When deciding on a social channel, always consider your target audience. After all, there is no point in building a great social profile if your audience isn't there to enjoy it.

Let's look at why it's so important to get channel selection right:

1.    Reach – Choose a channel your target audience actively uses. This will ensure your business is seen by the right people. Rather than selecting the channel with the most users, really consider your audience and where they spend their time. We will talk more about this in a later lesson, “Understanding your audience”.

2.    Content – Choose a channel that suits the content you want to share. It’s important to ensure the format of your posts aligns with your audience’s interests – people are unlikely to engage with your business if you don’t serve their needs. For example: LinkedIn is a social networking site created specifically for the professional community. It would be a good channel for a recruitment business to reach their audience of job seekers, whereas a bakery that wants to show off its freshly made cakes might choose to use a photo sharing platform like Instagram.

3.    Efficiency – Avoid focusing on too many channels in the beginning. This can make it difficult to understand which channel best suits your business. Focus your time, energy and ideas on the channels that will showcase your business to the world in the best way. Pick one or two and focus on getting them right before adding more.

4.    Business goals – Choose a channel that suits your business goals. For example: Jay is a businessman, and he recently bought another sweet shop to add to his growing chain. He wants to let the local community know about the exciting plans he has for the store. Starting with a Facebook Page, he posts a photo to announce the shop was under new management. He then promoted a re-opening event offering people the chance to experience his new store. It wasn't long before business was booming! Jay's goal was to encourage customers to attend his re-opening event. Choosing a channel that allowed him to create and promote an event was key to this success.

So, which channel is right for your business?

Social media platforms are a great way for your business to communicate directly with your customers. Choosing the right channel is key to ensuring these conversations take place. Through these next few steps, we will provide you with some guidance on the important things to consider when choosing your social channels.

Know your audience

You probably know your existing customers very well. To successfully grow your business on social media, it’s essential that you create new customer relationships. You can do this by thinking about your audience demographic.

For example: Children's bookseller Sanjit knows his audience are largely parents who are buying the books for their young children. Taking note of who comes into his store, he notices a few trends 1) his customers are predominantly young mothers and 2) they tend to visit his store often, making small but regular purchases.

This information can help Sanjit choose the best social channel for his business. Firstly, he knows he must be active on a channel popular with young mothers. This way he can effectively capture their attention with his latest products and in-store offers. Since young mothers regularly bring their children into the store, he may choose to share posts of fun activities or shop displays that will encourage them to continue visiting. If Sanjit wants to share images, a visual channel would be most effective at promoting his business.

Once you have a clear idea of your audience, a quick Internet search, e.g. "social media demographics" will show you which demographics use which channels. This information will help you decide which one to prioritize.

Understand your competitors

Look at competitor businesses to see what you can learn from their approach. It’s a simple way to understand how you can offer a better service and a great way to learn quickly. Knowing the social channels your competitors prioritize can help guide you in the right direction. Make sure to analyze your competitors’ social presence carefully – just because a business is using a certain channel that doesn’t always mean it’s right for you.

Consider how much their audience engages with the content they share on each channel. Take a look at the number of users that like, comment or share their posts. If people are interacting with their content this indicates this type of channel is successful. If their posts are receiving very little attention, this suggests the channel might not be quite right.

For example: Saanvi wants to create a social profile for her family's bakery but is overwhelmed by the variety of choice. Knowing the other local bakery uses Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, she scans their profiles to see what they are posting. Their LinkedIn profile has very few followers, and no comments under their posts. But on both Twitter and Facebook, their customers are regularly liking and sharing their posts.

This is valuable information for Saanvi's business. She now knows to focus her time creating a Facebook and Twitter presence as they offer greater opportunity to engage with her target audience. She also knows a visual platform to showcase her best bakes will be the most effective. This is just the initial insight – Saanvi must dig deeper to find the one channel she will create a presence on. She needs to consider a few other questions when comparing her competitors' channels before she can decide which to use:

• How many likes / comments / shares do her competitors receive on an average post?
• Which channels have the highest number of followers?
• Which channel is the best to encourage conversations with existing customers?
• Which channel is best to find and talk to new customers?

Explore the different social marketing channels

To help you identify which channels would be best for your business, here is an overview of some of the different channels available:

Facebook

Purpose – To give businesses the power to build community. A Facebook Page can help you connect with people and grow your business.

Strengths

• It is an active community of people and businesses where users can go to discover new exciting products and services
• It offers you the opportunity to share information about your business
• You can use Facebook Messenger to communicate directly with people, using the power of conversation to call on your audience to take action
• It is a channel which suits many types of content: short and long form text, images and live and pre-prepared videos

Instagram

Purpose – A photo-sharing service that lets users share pictures and videos. The Stories feature allows users to upload photos and videos, which expire after 24 hours.

Strengths

• It is highly visual and popular with people seeking inspiration
• It allows you to share multiple photos and videos together in a slideshow format called “your story”
• It supports imagery, video and live video

WhatsApp

Purpose – An alternative to SMS texting. WhatsApp supports sending and receiving a variety of media: text, photos, videos, documents, locations, as well as voice and video calls.

Strengths

• It is hyper-personalized. It offers direct conversations with your customers and others who may be interested in your business.
• It supports a variety of media, from documents and long-form text to SMS messaging updates, geo-location, photos, voice and video calls
• It’s used for private conversations. An encrypted messaging service, one-to-one and larger group chats are not publicly visible.

Twitter

Purpose – Self-described as "what's happening in the world and what people are talking about right now” - it is an online news and social networking site that lets user share and interact via posts that are 280 characters or less.

Strengths

• It is a short text based channel that also support images and video
• Use Twitter to listen to the relevant conversations that are happening and jump in where you can add value
• People often talk about the products they use on Twitter, so it’s a natural place to provide customer services

YouTube

Purpose – YouTube is a video sharing social network. It allows users to upload, view, rate, share and comment on videos – and subscribe to channels.

Strengths

• It is a video-based channel that can captivate your audience by effectively showcasing your business's products and services
• Reach people searching for videos very similar to what your business offers, right when they're searching
• It supports pre-recorded and live-streamed video content

LinkedIn

Purpose – The world's largest business network, it connects global professionals and aims to help them be more productive and successful.

Strengths

• It hosts short- or long-form text, images and video
• Build and maintain your professional network and find other professionals in the same industry using groups
• Discover company and industry updates on topics ranging from announcements to product releases

Let's recap

• Selecting the right channel is important – choose a channel your audience are most active on
• Choosing the right channel can help you grow your reach and fulfil your business goals
• Knowing your audience is key to choosing the right channel. Remember to consider your audience demographics.
• Critically analyzing your competitors’ social media presence can give you a competitive edge. Replicate what they do well – and avoid what isn’t working well for them.

Creating a great business profile

Let’s make a great first impression

Creating a social profile for your business is a great way to establish your online identity and showcase the things you do. It’s quick and easy to set up, and has the potential to reach a large audience of active social media users globally. It can help you share news about your business in your local area and even internationally.

Your social profile is often the first time a user will encounter your business so it is important that their experience is a memorable one. Sharing details of your business, products, and opening times is a great way to inform them. But to really engage your target audience, you need to build an inspiring and interesting profile that appeals to their interests. If they like it, they might even share it with their friends.

We’ll show you how in this lesson.

Some useful expressions

Default picture – This is the image that represents your social media account and all your actions and interactions across a platform. It is displayed next to every post you share.

Feed – A list of curated content relevant to an individual user, often created automatically by gathering the most recent selection of social posts from within a single platform. Some platforms have their own name for this, such as Twitter Feed and Facebook News Feed.

What is a social profile?

Your business's social profile is the face of your business on social media. It is your digital storefront in the online marketplace. You can create a profile to reflect the nature and personality of your business. Important information to add includes your contact details, address, opening times (if relevant) and an overview of your products and services. On Facebook, a business profile is called a Page.

Why does your business need a social profile?

A social profile is a great way to help fulfil your business goals. This could include: growing your customer base, building better customer relationships, promoting your business and growing revenue. A social media presence also helps you connect with people. Sharing relevant and interesting information about your business can help you grow your existing relationships and build new ones. The more you post, the more your audience will be updated of your presence, products and services.

Now let's take a look at how to make a great profile.

Step 1: Choose a username

Choosing a relevant username or profile name is important to get right as it's how your audience will find you and understand who you are on social media. It needs to be clear, relevant and interesting enough to encourage potential customers to click through to learn more about your business.

Your username can be the name of your business, or any other unique name related to your products or services. Remember: It is best to keep this concise – ensure it reflects who you are and what your business does.

For example: “Raj's Car Dealership” is far more meaningful than “Raj's of Mumbai”, as it clearly highlights the service Raj's offers.

Step 2: Create a custom URL

With some social channels, such as YouTube and Facebook, you have the option to create your own custom URL. It works as a short and easy-to-remember web link to your profile. Add it to posters in-store, to your email signature, business cards and any other marketing materials you have. That way customers will always know where to find you online, encouraging potential customers to discover more about your business.

For example: Facebook.com/RajCarsMumbai is much easier to remember than Facebook.com/user/123d30050302004

Step 3: Use images to make your profile visually engaging

The best first impression is always made with a visually engaging profile. Your profile's default picture will often be the first thing a user notices about your business. Make sure the image you choose says something about your company, is interesting enough to catch someone’s attention and is of high quality.

To create an effective default picture, we recommend uploading your business logo or an image that is relevant to your business. This will help you stand out on social media, making you recognisable to both new and existing customers.

Some social platforms also allow you to upload a cover photo (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn). Be creative and really showcase your business's personality and products here. Choose an image that appeals to your audience and one that shows what your business offers.

For example: Raj's car dealership uses his logo for his default picture and an image showing the selection of cars he currently has on offer for his cover photo. This combination means his business profile is both easy to identify and appealing to new customers.

Here is a quick guide to help you choose the right images for your profile:

• Use high-quality pictures - avoid using blurry (pixelated) photos
• Pick pictures that are free of watermarks
• Try and keep your default picture and cover photo similar in style when it comes to colour and design
• Check how your images look on mobile

We will cover how to take great photos for your profile in more detail in a later lesson: “Creating visual content”.

Step 4: Update your profile with your business information

Visitors to your profile will be searching for more information on your business: what products or services you offer, where you're based and when you're open. Your profile is also a great way to introduce your business to a potential customer. It’s an opportunity to introduce your products, services and your unique personality.

Many social platforms have an “about” section which is a great place to introduce your business. Try to keep the text concise, relevant and interesting. Write about what sets your business apart and the great products or services you provide. Include anything that will capture interest and encourage people to find out more about you.

Other details that you could include are:

• The start date of your business (how many years have you been running?)
• A short story to explain how and why you established your business
• Contact information (your address, telephone number, WhatsApp number and email address)
• Opening times (if relevant)

Top tip: If you decide to create a Facebook Page, you can link it to a specific category, e.g. education, health/beauty, community service, etc. Linking your business to a category helps users find you more easily.

For example: Looking for a restaurant close to home, Pari’s Facebook search for the generic term “restaurant” brings up a list of businesses who class themselves as a "restaurant”. After scanning the results, Pari decides on a local place that comes highly recommended.

Step 5: Keep your profile up-to-date

The value of a social profile is that you can share relevant and accurate information about your business with your audience. So make sure you reflect any important business changes (e.g. if you move location, change email address, or get a new WhatsApp number) on your profile. Remember: If a potential customer tries to contact you, and your details are no longer correct, they may find this experience frustrating and search for a competitor to provide them with what they're looking for instead.

It’s important to keep the visual content on your profile up-to-date, too. The images you use show some of your business's unique selling points and personality. Change these as often as required to reflect your best products or some of the great work you’re doing.

Let's recap

• A good business profile is an easy and effective way to make a great first impression with new and existing customers
• Your username must be clear, relevant, and interesting enough to encourage users to discover more about you
• The unique and highly shareable custom URL offered by some social platforms is a great way to promote your business to potential customers
• Including attention-grabbing images on your profile is a great way to showcase your business's personality
• Keep your profile up-to-date to avoid customers going elsewhere

Understanding your target audience

What is a target audience?

Your target audience is the group of people most likely to be interested in the products or services your business offers. As your potential customers, they are the most important people to consider when developing your social media marketing activity. You need to know who they are (demographics) and how best to reach them (content and channels).

Each business’s target audience is different. Those with mass-appealing products (e.g. a national mobile phone provider) are likely to have a broad demographic of users. Others offering niche products have a very narrow demographic of users that are interested in their products and services (e.g. a pet clothing business). Some businesses even have multiple demographics, and find that particular products or services appeal more to one group than another.

For example: Toy store owner, Vihaan wants to understand his target market so he can improve his social media activity. First, he considers the customers he regularly sees in his store: 25 – 34 year-old mothers. As his primary audience, they make up the largest share of his business. He defines his secondary audience as the grandparents of these children who also buy gifts at his store, but not quite as often. We’ll find out more about how Vihaan can use this information next.

Understanding your target audience can benefit your business in a number of ways. Let’s look at how.

Some useful expressions

Demographic – This is a specific market identified by the group’s shared traits, including age, income, gender, education and employment.

Social media marketing strategy – This is an overview of how you plan to use social media to achieve specific business goals.

Primary audience – This is a company’s most important group of customers, often those who account for the majority of sales for a business.

Secondary audience – This is the second most important group of customers to a business.

Why is it important to understand your target audience?

Businesses that clearly define their target audience are able to share more meaningful and relevant content with the right people, at the right time. This helps you build a strong connection with potential customers who are likely to think of your business the next time they need the product or service you offer.

A clear understanding of your target audience right from the beginning will save you time and money. Spend time getting this right and you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Making your social media marketing more effective

Understanding your target audience is key to the success of your social media marketing strategy. Remember: The social media community is vast and it can seem tempting to try and appeal to absolutely everyone. But this is not the right path to take. Engaging everyone means broadening your message and, as a result, losing your unique identity.

Instead, be really clear about who you are targeting. This will help you understand how to appeal to them on social media, ensuring you engage with the right people at the right time. Go beyond their demographics and consider when and why your business would appeal to people.

Focusing your efforts on the right people is the first step. What else can you do to ensure the success of your social media activity?

Let's look at how Vihaan used a deep understanding of his audience to make more informed decisions:

Toy shop owner, Vihaan, knows the importance of understanding his target audience. By analyzing his competitor's social profile he notices that they typically post product shots along with prices at random times. There aren’t any posts that speak directly to their target audience or that help to set them apart. Unlike his competitor, Vihaan understands the importance of relevant content and promotes a range of children's gifts just in time for Diwali, featuring photos of his top picks. Vihaan’s promotion is a success because he matched his business message and content with the interests of his target audience.

Informing your social media marketing strategy

Placing your target audience at the core of your decision-making process can inform many elements of your social media marketing strategy, such as:

• The type of content you post (images, videos and blogs)
• The way you highlight your business’s unique identity
• The way you share information about your products and services
• The best time of day to post
• The best channels to post on

For example: You wouldn't advertise your Mumbai street stall to an audience in Bangalore, and you wouldn't advertise your restaurant's breakfast menu at dinner time. It may sound obvious, but these are easy mistakes to make when first starting out.

A clear understanding of your audience allows you to use your time and energy more effectively when you're creating your social media marketing strategy. You can plan your activity around your target audience, only publishing posts that are relevant and exciting for your audience.

We will discuss how to create amazing content that engages and excites your audience in a later lesson, “Engaging your target audience”.

Defining your target audience

Before we look at the specifics of defining your target audience in the next lesson, let’s have a think about your customers.

Try to answer the questions below:

• What do your customers have in common?
  
  
• Are they mainly women, men or is it an equal split?
  
  
• How old are they? Are they of a similar age or is there a variety of age groups?
  
  
• Are they working professionals, students, housewives?
  
  
• Do certain demographics purchase specific products or services?
  
  
• What are their needs – and how does your business help them?
  
  
• Your answers will help you build a clearer picture of your overall target audience. Defining your audience can be a bit tricky and time consuming, but, once done, it’s much easier to know where and how to interact with them on social media.

Let's recap

• A target audience is a group of people most likely to be interested in your product or service
• Your understanding of your audience should inform your social media activity: what content to post, when to post it and where to post it
• Align your social media posts to your audience’s interests and they will be inspired to engage with you

Defining your target audience

Defining your target audience

In the previous lesson we covered how a clear understanding of your target audience allows you to share more meaningful and relevant content with the right people, at the right time. Your target audience may be broad or it may be niche – size doesn’t matter. But understanding who they are does. In this lesson, we’re going to look at how you can clearly define your target audience.

Some useful expressions

Target audience – The group of people your business aims to serve or support. These may be existing customers, or potentially new customers.

Psychographics – This is information related to people's behaviours and attitudes. Whilst demographics explain who people are, psychographics help to explain why they behave in a certain way.

Millennials – The name used to describe people born roughly between the 1980s and the early 2000s.

How to define your target audience

In the previous lesson “Understanding your target audience”, we asked you to start thinking about your customers (their age, gender, etc.) In this lesson, we will build on this to help you define your target audience.

As we go through this lesson, consider your current customers. Who are they? Why do they buy from you? What are their needs and interests? The key is to look for the common, or shared, characteristics.

Don't worry if you're just starting out. Think of your favourite shop or café and consider who their audience may be. Our checklist below will help guide you through the key things to look at.

Let's start with demographics

Age: What age group will your audience most likely be?
Top tip: Millennials (20 - 30-year-olds) will often interact with businesses through social media in a very different way to their parents (40 - 50-year-olds). Millennials are likely to be more active throughout the day on their smartphone, whereas their parents may only access social media once or twice a week and may prefer to use their desktop computer.

Gender: Are they mostly men or women or is there an equal split?
Men and women often have different tastes and preferences, meaning a focus on one over the other could be useful to establish early on.

Location: Does your business rely on customers coming into your store or can they make purchases online? If you rely heavily on them coming to you, make sure you adapt your social media activity to those who are local to you.

For example: It is no use advertising your beauty store in Mumbai to an audience in Bangalore. They are unlikely to visit if it’s too far away!

Language: Which language(s) do they speak?
To improve your reach and engage more customers in a multilingual area, translate your content into the most widely used languages. Think about which language(s) your audience speak and tailor your content to them. While some social channels automatically translate – not all can. To be safe, check twice before posting.

Occupation and income: Are your customers mostly university students, housewives or busy working professionals? You can learn a lot about your audience’s buying behaviour by looking at their occupation and income.

For example: University students often have less disposable income but may have more time to shop around for the best deal. Working professionals may have more money to spend but less time to spare. Compare the two groups. How do their needs differ? What role does social media play in their lives?

Top tip: Working professionals are known to access social media during their commute to and from work. To capture their attention, try to post during the morning or evening.

Marital or family status: Are your customers mostly married? Do they have children, and if so, what age?
Understanding this may reveal some interesting insights into what really moves your audience to take action.

For example: Konal owns a barber shop and he knows that the majority of his clients are young dads. Knowing that this is a key part of his target audience, he decides to tailor the content on his Twitter feed to their interests. He posts funny snippets of “father-son” conversations he overhears in his barber shop on Twitter. He finds he gets more followers and more dads start bringing their sons with them to have a haircut together.

What about psychographics?

Psychographic information helps to explain the personal characteristics of an audience – revealing why people behave in a certain way. Think about the unique traits of your audience and what it is that inspires them to buy your products.

Needs: Look at your business and its products and services. What issues or problems do they solve? What value does your business add to someone's life? The answers to these questions can help you to understand the motivations behind your customers' actions.

For example: People buy products from a homeware company because they want make their home a nicer place to live.

This is a useful insight that explains why a customer may use or purchase your products or services. It can help you to demonstrate how your business fulfils their specific needs when you’re talking to them on social media.

Interests, attitudes and values: What are your audience interested in and what do they value most? Is it their time, family, well-being or religion? Does your audience have any interests or hobbies that align with your business? Even if they don't – consider whether this information can help you improve your offering or message. Really understanding what makes someone tick is key to capturing and maintaining their interest.

Let's pause for a second. What does your audience enjoy, value or love? Are they food lovers, animal lovers, fashion-focused, career-oriented or sporty? Try to write down 3 - 4 of the most commonly shared values and interests. Then think about how you could use this information to improve your social media activity.

For example: Gym owner Aryan knows his clientele of 30-something professional men share his interest in healthy eating. To engage his social media audience and grow his reach, he shares convenient and nutritious recipes that will suit their busy lifestyles. Soon after, he notices an improvement in engagement and an increase in subscriptions. And his gym is now busier than ever.

Lifestyle: Understanding a customer's lifestyle can also inform your understanding of their needs and restrictions (e.g. time, money or knowledge). This is where your business can set itself apart. By truly understanding how your products or services fulfil your customers' needs, you can create a proposition that really appeals to your audience. Not only will you understand how to talk to them about it, you will also know which social channels to talk to them on.

For example: Fashion addict Yogi, is a busy web developer who has little time to update her wardrobe. She recently discovered a dressmaker who shares a weekly collection of new styles on her social profile and takes orders online. Yogi quickly became a regular customer. The convenient service complemented her busy lifestyle and her love of fashion perfectly.

Over to you

There is a lot to cover here, but don’t worry – take your time. We suggest taking a pen and paper and creating a list of your audience characteristics (age, gender, interests, etc.) and think of how you can apply this insight to your social media strategy.

For example:

Age 20-30 - They are active on social media when commuting to and from work, so I should share posts during these times - early morning and early evening.

And don't forget, you can use your favourite shop or café for this exercise as well.

Top tip: Not sure where to start? Speak to family and friends that fit your customer profile and ask them about their interests and lifestyle.

Let's recap

• It’s important to look at both demographics (“who” your target audience are) as well as psychographics (“why” they behave in a certain way) when defining your audience
• Demographics will help to ensure you target the right type of people (age, gender, location)
• Psychographics will help to ensure you deliver the right type of content, using the right channels (based on their needs, interests and lifestyle)

Building a social presence

Let’s get active

We’ve covered the best channels to use and how to get to know your target audience. Now, we’ll look at how you can build your social media presence with these things in mind. Establishing a strong presence is important when it comes to building relationships with new, and existing, customers.

Social media by its very nature is about being social – that means connecting with people and building relationships. So, the best way to build a presence on social media is to create content that engages as many of your target audience as possible. The more people “like”, comment on or share your posts, the more regularly your posts will appear in their social feed. This can increase your exposure and help to build awareness of your business.

Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to build your social presence from scratch.

Some useful expressions

A follower – A term used to describe someone who chooses to receive updates from your business on social media. Someone becomes a follower when they take specific action to do so, i.e. by “liking” your Page on Facebook, by “following” your business on Instagram, or by “subscribing” to your channel on YouTube.

Organic reach – This refers to the number of people you can reach for free using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram by publishing posts, encouraging people to share your posts and engaging in conversations.

Paid reach – This refers to the number of people you can reach as a result of using paid-for advertising on social media.

Step 1. Invite your friends to follow your profile

Asking friends to follow your business profile can quickly increase your social following when you’re starting out. Be sure to invite friends that are interested in your business and fit your target demographic. The more closely aligned your friends are to your audience, the more likely they will engage and interact with your content. Their social activity will pop up in their friends' feeds, so this is a great way to naturally gain exposure and grow your organic reach.

Top tip: As your friends interact with your content, it will appear in the feeds of their followers. If someone new engages with your post, respond and invite them to follow you!

Step 2. Promote your online presence

A business communicates with its customers in a number of different ways – from email and websites to leaflets and posters. To promote your social media activity, include the details of your social presence (your custom URL, Facebook Page name or Twitter profile, etc.) on all of your promotional material, including email signatures, business cards and even your WhatsApp status.

Try offering exclusive content, promotions or discounts alongside these details. Incentives can be an effective way to encourage people to visit your social profile.

Top tip: Some social platforms also provide QR codes, so you can get technical and add your QR code to promotional materials as well. A QR code is a type of barcode that, once scanned by your mobile device, redirects a user to a particular URL – in this case, your business profile.

Step 3. Regularly post engaging and relevant content

Sharing great content is an effective way to organically grow your social following. When a post resonates with a user, they are more likely to explore your profile to find out more.

Think back to the previous lesson, “How to define your target audience” and remind yourself:

• What are your audience’s needs and interests?
• What type of content will resonate with them most?
• Think beyond just sharing content with your audience. Consider how you can effectively build a two-way conversation.

For example: Dental surgery owner Janvi uses Twitter to share tips and cutting-edge scientific news with his patients. But his most popular posts are where he lets customers ask him questions. These “Question and Answer” posts have improved customer engagement and increased the number of people following his account.

Step 4. Engage with other organizations

Another great way to grow your social media presence is to look at the social media profiles of other relevant businesses, publications or organizations that your audience follow. Through liking and commenting on their posts, you create an opportunity for their followers to notice you. Facebook Groups is one place to give this a try.

Facebook Groups allow people to come together around a common cause or activity to express opinions, post photos and share related content.

For example: Sai owns a menswear store and she wants to use Facebook to increase her reach. After visiting Groups that her target audience interact with (e.g. “Men's Fashion Mumbai”), Sai begins to get involved in the public discussion around the latest seasonal trends, making sure to post from her business account. Her posts highlight her keen eye for style and quickly inspire people to click through to her Page. The more she engages in public conversations on relevant topics, the more responses she receives. Since trialling this way of building her social presence, her follower count has grown significantly.

Top tip: No one likes to be spammed! Always be interesting, relevant and authentic when interacting with people on social media.

For example: Discussing the top trends for men this season in the “Men's Fashion in Mumbai” Facebook Group is an effective way to inspire visitors to follow Sai’s business Page. On the other hand, simply commenting “Follow me for cheap men's clothes!” is unlikely to appeal to her target audience.

Step 5. Build relationships with your following

Retain your new followers by keeping them interested and engaged. The more you listen to them, the more they will feel valued. Respond to people’s comments on your posts and create your own comments too. This can spark a conversation and engage even more people.

For example: Imagine you run a restaurant business. Posting your opening times and prices is not very engaging content. But if you share a new dish, ask for opinions or encourage audience participation through polls, discussions and competitions, this could lead to a more engaged, and potentially bigger, audience.

Make sure to spend time with your online community to gain valuable insights on your audience's needs and interests. This information can also help you shape your business and the products and services you offer to ensure you remain competitive. Consider your followers as a focus group from which you can gain knowledge that will inform both your business, and your social media strategy.

Over to you

There are many ways to grow your social media presence – and there is no such thing as one, correct path.

Grab a pen and paper and try to think of some ways you can grow your social following. We've mentioned a few ideas already, such as including your business profile's custom URL in your marketing materials, and inviting your friends to follow you. Feel free to refer back to these to make your list as detailed as possible.

Let's recap

• The more people click, comment, “like” and share your posts, the more often your content will be seen by potential new followers
• There are a number of ways to grow your following on social media: inviting your friends and existing customers, promoting it across traditional marketing materials, regularly updating with quality content and engaging with users on other relevant profiles
• Your following on social media can act as a great focus group which can give you useful insights to inform your business and social strategy

How to engage your audience

What is engagement?

Engagement is when your audience interacts with the content you post on social media by following your business profile and commenting on, “liking” or sharing your posts. Lots of engagement means people are interested in what you are posting.

From each type of engagement, you can also gain useful audience insights. These can be used to shape your future social media activity. For example, whilst lots of shares and “likes” may suggest content is popular, becoming a “follower” shows a higher level of commitment from a user, as they’ve requested to see more of your content in the future.

Top tip: Your business profile could have high levels of engagement but for all the wrong reasons. A controversial opinion shared on social media may gain a high number of comments and shares but could damage your reputation. To prevent this, always make sure that your content is accurate and demonstrates your area of expertise.

Why is engagement important to your business?

The more engagement you have with your audience, the stronger your relationship. If users are interested in your business, and its content, they’re more likely to engage with you on social media.

For example: Manish recently started using social media to attract new members to his gym. As he always tracks and reviews his engagement activity, he starts to recognize the names of people who like and comment regularly. When he runs classes, he also starts to see their names appear on his class list. His social media presence helped convert these passive readers to active participants.

The more a user engages, the more likely they’ll purchase.

Users that engage with you are likely to have your business front of mind, which means they're more likely to purchase from you, and more likely to recommend your business to friends and family.

For example: Deepak is looking to buy a new cricket kit. His brother recommends Kumar’s Sports Store, and suggests he follows their profile page. Deepak does, and he loves the range of cricket-related content they share – he even comments to share his opinion, which Kumar’s respond to. He feels as if he’s really got to know the business, so pops in to buy the entire kit.

High engagement can naturally help grow your reach.

Each time your audience shares, likes, comments or follows your profile, their friends could also see your content.

For example: Anusha follows her local bakery and regularly likes and shares their posts. Subsequently her friends see the bakery on their feed too. Like Anusha, they’re also amazed by its great photos of delicious cakes and pastries, so they start to follow it too.

How can you engage your audience?

You've most likely already created great customer relationships and know how to capture your customers' interest in the real world. In earlier lessons, we also explored your target audience – understanding their needs, interests and ambitions. This is a really good place to start when building your social presence, and we've got some great tips to help you keep your business at the top of your audience's mind.

Step 1. Post often

Your followers will stay interested if they hear from you on a regular basis, and the more you post, the more likely people are to see your content.

The “recommended number of posts per day” is a bit of a myth. Some marketing experts advise sharing content at least once a day and some say as often as 2-3 times per day across your social platforms. The key is to find what's right for your business. As long as you have something worth sharing, it’s fine to post. However, you should be wary of spamming your audience, as this can create a bad user experience.

Think about the social channels you're using. One may be very fast moving and suit a business that is able to publish quick, small pieces of content. Another may be slow-paced and suit a business that is more likely to publish once or twice a week. Really think about how you can keep up with the pace of the channel you're active on.

As you post, make sure to look out for comments. Set your notifications on each platform to alert you when someone comments. It’s important that you try to respond to all comments, even the negative ones, as it lets your audience know you value what they have to say.

Top tip: Always make sure that the content you're sharing is relevant to your followers. Simply posting for the sake of it, or posting sales-heavy content, can be off-putting. This could easily lead to people unfollowing your profile and potentially harm your reputation.

Step 2. Post interesting content

To really drive engagement, you need to focus on sharing interesting and relevant content. Offering your audience unique articles, videos and stories will encourage them to keep coming back for more. So, always try to go beyond simply promoting your business or products.

For example: Jai owns a seafood restaurant in Goa. He often posts about changes to his menu and opening times, but was receiving very little engagement. After sharing a few pictures and short video clips of his staff picking the best lobsters and cooking up a storm in the kitchen, he began to notice a spike in activity. He also noticed that people engaged more with his informational posts when they were mixed with more personal stories.

Posting content that is exciting and intriguing to your audience can lead to high levels of engagement. We'll cover off how to create great content in much more detail over the next few lessons.

Step 3. Show your personality

It's common for businesses to feel they need to be professional and formal when talking to customers online, but remember that your customers love what makes you unique – and that's you.

Showing your own personality, expertise and opinions creates a much more enjoyable and authentic experience, and it’s this that can help to differentiate you from your competition.

For example: Jai recently shared a short video of his kitchen staff picking the “catch of the day”, and to show his funny side, he included a clip of his sous-chef, Rohit, getting nipped on the finger by a crab. Showing this “real life” humour led to an increased number of shares.

Step 4. Use images and video

To easily capture your audience's attention, share images and video. The more exciting and engaging they are, the more likely people are to stop and look while scrolling through their feed on their smartphone or computer.

Make sure you always have your audience in mind, and constantly be asking yourself: what content would be most interesting and engaging to them?

Top tip: While it's tempting to post adorable pet photos or funny memes, if these aren't relevant to your business they may just irritate your followers. Remember to keep your content appropriate to your business and interesting to your audience.

Step 5. Encourage audience participation

On social, all conversations are two-way. Your content should never be talking at your audience. In fact, the best posts often encourage interaction. To grow engagement through participation, ask your audience to comment with their thoughts underneath a post, to “like” if they agree or disagree or to leave another reaction indicating how they feel. It’s quick and easy.

As long as you’re posting useful information and sharing valuable content, there’s nothing “spammy” about gently urging your followers to help grow your business awareness.

For example: Jai’s regular “catch of the day” posts aren’t receiving as much attention as he’d hoped. This time he shares two very different dishes made using his catch of the day. He asks his audience to vote for the one they want to see on tonight’s menu: “Like for option one, and share for option two”. He sees a huge uptake for the second option, his Kerala Prawn Curry, and notices a few more table bookings are made the following week.

Let's recap

• Engagement is when your audience interacts with the content you post on social media by following your business profile and commenting, “liking” or sharing your posts
• The more engagement you have with your audience, the better your relationship – meaning they're more likely to make a purchase
• The more interesting and relevant the content you post on your profile is, the more engagement you’re likely to receive
• Your personality can set you apart from your competitors, so make sure your content reflects you and your business
• Encourage audience participation on your posts, by asking them to comment with opinions, “like” or share

An introduction to tone of voice

What is tone of voice?

We discussed using your personality to engage your audience in a previous lesson, “How to engage your audience”. Now it’s time to tackle a key part of this: your tone of voice.

Tone of voice defines how you communicate with your audience. It’s all about what you say, and, crucially, how you say it.

Some useful expressions

Tone of voice – How your business speaks – the expression of your values and identity through spoken and written language. Shortened to TOV.

Conversational – This is used to describe a personal TOV that speaks to your audience in an informal, genuine and friendly way, which is especially important on social media.

Feed – A list of content relevant to an individual user, that is curated for them by each social platform. It's often created by gathering a recent selection of social posts from within that platform. Each platform gives it a different name. On Facebook, it is called News Feed.

TOV Guideline Document – A definitive description of what your business's TOV actually is, and how it should be used. It’s designed to be shared with your employees so all communications from your business are consistent.

 

Why is tone of voice important?

A unique TOV helps differentiate you from your competitors. It gives your business a distinct identity, and helps build an emotional connection with your audience. Get it right and they’ll feel like they’re developing a one-to-one relationship with a person rather than a business.

Your TOV also lets people know what sort of business you are and what they can expect from you. For example, a bank will often speak with a factual, authoritative and reassuring tone to let you know they are experts you can trust with your money:

“Our secure saver accounts offer steady returns year-on-year.”

On the other hand, a clothes store might take a lighter, more personal and conversational tone to show that they’re a fun, friendly place to shop:

“It’s time to get dressed for summer – and we’ve got the latest looks!”

Top tip: Think about how you speak to your customers through your traditional marketing. You should mirror this through your social media marketing to create a consistent voice across all customer interactions. But remember, social media is an opportunity to really develop a relationship with your audience. Your social media TOV can be slightly more friendly, and conversational, than other contact points.

Be conversational

Social media is conversational by nature. People don’t want long, dull corporate messages filling their feeds – they want engaging, entertaining, informative content from everyone they follow, including businesses. So be professional, but include personality. Be friendly. Invite responses. Stay relevant and be interested in what your audience are into.

A good way to start your thinking is to recall times you've delivered great customer service, or had a really fulfilling chat with a customer. What did you do to make that a special, or fun, experience for them? Take this style of verbal conversation and apply it to your written communication.

Top tip: Remember that social media is an opportunity for a casual and fun two-way conversation with your audience. Try and avoid sounding overly formal.

Create a TOV guideline document

It’s time for you to start creating your TOV. Think about what your business does, and the personality that best represents it and you. Start by writing down your business's values and personality and then think more about what these characteristics actually mean.

Thinking of opposites can help here. For example:

Witty NOT Slapstick
Friendly NOT Stand-offish
Human NOT Corporate

These are the most important elements of your personality to convey when writing social media content.

Once you have those written down, start to think about how you can convey these characteristic's through your TOV – how can you apply this insight to your business's personality on social media? Equally, what should you avoid doing?

We have some examples to illustrate this below:

Characteristic (value): Enthusiastic
Description: We're enthusiastic and passionate about our products, and our customers enjoying them
Do: Show your thought leadership and what makes your product unique. Champion your products, and see yourself as a cheerleader for your industry.
Avoid: Being too formal, or not conveying enough excitement about your product

Characteristic (value): Knowledgeable
Description: We pride ourselves on knowing a lot about our industry, and what we offer
Do: Convey your authority on your subject through your TOV. Be honest and direct. Use clear language to simply explain your offering to your audience.
Avoid: Using overly complicated language – even though you understand it and it's relevant to your product, it will alienate your audience

Characteristic (value): Fun
Description: For us, business is not “all work and no play”. Enjoyment plays a very big role.
Do: Add elements of fun and entertainment to your visual identity and how you showcase your products.
Avoid: Being too serious, but also, going too far and coming across as slapstick or unprofessional

Top tip: Try and create a short and focused list of a few key characteristics – this will make it easier to apply these insights to your business's social media content.

Consistency is the key

Shifts in TOV can be incredibly confusing for your audience. Once you’ve defined your voice, use it consistently in all of your communications. People need to know what they’re getting from every interaction with you – it’s reassuring and lets them know you’re a reliable business.

However, while your TOV needs to be consistent, it also needs to be adaptable in certain situations. For example, you might be a fun, chatty brand. But while you might post something humorous to engage people on social media, you wouldn’t respond to a customer complaint with a joke.

Let's recap

• Your TOV is a key element of your business’s identity, and will help you stand out from your competitors
• Your TOV should be unique to your business – it’s how you interact with your audience
• Be consistent, but give yourself room to adapt your TOV depending on the situation
• Create a TOV Guideline Document to share with other employees

Manage and measure

Learn how to effectively manage your online activity

Streamline your social media tasks by following social media best practices

 

Managing your content on social media

Planning for success

Managing your social media activity may sound difficult and time consuming, but it certainty doesn’t have to be. In this lesson we’ll tell you about tips and tools that will not only help keep you on top of everything, but will help ensure your activity is always interesting and engaging.

One of the most useful tools is called a content calendar. This is a document used by companies, big and small, to help organize, manage and plan ahead. It also ensures their content marketing activity is consistent, their social channels are well managed and audiences are engaged. You can create one for yourself easily – either on your computer or by using a physical calendar.

What is a content calendar?

Simply put, a content calendar uses the format of a traditional calendar to plan upcoming social media activity, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to engage with your audience.

This calendar becomes a place to organize what type of content you’ll be posting, across all your channels. It’s also especially handy if you have multiple members of staff all sharing different content. On top of that, it acts as a diary (or log) of what you’ve posted in the past, which helps prevent repeating content, which can come across like spamming.

Customer service on social media

Building better relationships

Once you’ve established your social media presence and got a varied, engaging content calendar in place, you’ll be well on your way to building good relationships with your target audience.

And now you’ve had a chance to introduce yourself and talk to your audience, it’s important to really listen to your customers in return. Remember, social media is a two-way conversation.

How do I deal with customer feedback? Good and bad.

Social media is great for sparking conversations with your customers, but this often creates a whole new work stream for your business. When you first start, this can be quite an intimidating process, as you want to make sure all your customers are happy. In this lesson we'll cover some tips to help you keep on top of it.