This is a primary barrier for many businesses that are considering becoming more active in social media: We use social media, but our customers don’t — so what’s the point?
My advice to businesses confronted with this dilemma: See it as an opportunity, not a barrier.
Your current customers may not be using social media so much that it makes sense to spend money to market to them — but your potential customers certainly are.
Social media engagement offers your company an opportunity to do a minor re-brand. You don’t need to change your identity, or your logo.
Instead re-focus and use social media to raise brand awareness amongst people who are not already customers. You should ensure that your current customers are aware of your social profiles and the benefits that come with being involved with them, but your focus should be on using social media to bring new customers.
It won’t happen over night, but over time you will see results.
Assess the social media plan after six months. Look for successes and failures. If possible, find a way to track new customers who came in as a direct result of social media engagement. This could be done by offering a discount, or other kinds of value.
Have realistic goals for new customer acquisition and be prepared to change course quickly, if an element of the strategy does not appear to be working well.
Also don’t forget to check back with your current customers — have any past customers joined? Are any past customers using your company’s social media channels frequently? If so, how are they using them?
Analytics are crucial, especially in new customer acquisition. Social media can enable that, so long as it’s done right.
Photo credit: Beck Tench/Flickr
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