Retaining your customers via social media should be an integral strategy in your marketing plan. Social media is the link between your brand and all of your previous customers, allowing you to continually communicate with them, all the time keeping them interested in your products or services. In this article we look at five very simple strategies for maximising your customer retention via social media:

 1. Keeping track of followers.

Make sure you focus on the interests of your target audience, aside from your brand. It is very easy to gain an insight into the likes and dislikes of your followers, as well as their habits, family status and personal traits. All of this vital information will lead to you building better user-orientated products or services. Understanding your followers like this will also lead to more content that they will feel engaged by, which will also lead to greater retention.

2. Your account needs to be easy to find. 

is a very simple, yet expensive way of doing this which is to publish a number of sponsored posts, however, there are also a few more cost-effective ways to make your page easy to find which include:

Make your profile photo your company name, which will make it easy for customers to spot your page.

Make sure your social media account name is the exact same one as your actual business name so that when people search for your brand you are not confused with another business of a similar name.

Extend your reach by using industry-related hashtags. This will improve your chances of communicating with customers who still don't follow your social media page.

You will gain new followers by ensuring your page is easy to find, and will also make it easier for existing customers to follow you which in turn will improve retention.

3. Choose the right platform for your brand

A simple way of doing this is by using Google Analytics. You can take a look at where your traffic mostly originates from, which will point you in the right direction. You can then focus on being most active on this platform, meaning you'll spend less energy and resources on campaigns that wouldn't be effective. Always keep checking on this however as your core target customer base can migrate to other platforms, so make sure you are always prepared to be adaptable.

4. Valuable Content

As well as high-quality images and videos, you need to make sure your content will educate your audience on the effectiveness of your products or services. Make sure to share success stories and always allow customer contribution as your customer likes to feel they have a voice. Rewarding your audience is also a key strategy. You can do this with flash sales and promotions, or even giveaways.

5. Engage with your followers

This is really important and should be done in a personal tone. Reports show that customers respond much better when they feel they have real human interaction as opposed to a chatbot. If people have any questions, make sure you answer them as soon as possible.

Your social media account should become a part of your customer service strategy, where you are letting them know they are valued and you have concern for their satisfaction. This is the ultimate customer service retention tool, as customers now expect their concerns addressed instantly and beyond the usual channels. Make sure you spend a bit of time researching which method of interaction is the most suited to your audience however, as this will yield the best long term retention results.