AMG has been buzzing with excitement this past week over the newest addition to our family. Peter Shea welcomed a beautiful new baby girl named Elsie Lu to his family! Sharing the joy of a new baby on our Facebook pages serves as the perfect example of why it’s so important for your business to have a Facebook page! Facebook makes your business human!
When you own a small business, you don’t just work in a store on 123 Anywhere Lane. You work and live in a community where you take care of (and depend upon) your neighbors!
That’s why having a professionally managed Facebook account for your small business is so important. It’s a chance to build a relationship with customers and to become someone they know, like and trust.
Customers don’t want to buy from businesses anymore — they want to go back to buying from people they trust, because as we all know, money is just getting tough out there. When companies use Facebook as just another outlet to sell a product or repeat the company motto, they miss out on the chance to create and strengthen that relationship.
The benefit of Facebook is that it allows a two way conversation between business owner and customer through comments and messages. This offers an open-ended possibility to engage with your customers and let them get to know you. In a sense, Facebook is a platform to showcase the most authentic part of your small business — the people behind it.
Facebook is an easy way to provide amazing customer service!
Facebook is an excellent way to gauge, respond to, and utilize customer satisfaction to bolster your small business’ image. It also helps you address potential problems in a very personal way. There’s an element of danger here if you’re not committed to monitoring and updating Facebook regularly, since a customer complaint can sit on your wall for hours or days like ugly graffiti if you don’t pay attention.
But with that danger comes the ability to address customer complaints directly, and a chance to fix the situation before they spread their displeasure to friends and family.
The keys to successfully using Facebook to improve your image…
At AMG, we make it a priority to get to know our clients personally so that we can be an authentic extension of them on their social media pages. If you choose to do Facebook and other social media on your own, make sure you’re doing all of these and more like we do for our clients…
- Take the time to consider the kind of customer you want (not every customer is a great customer!).
- Consider what they might find valuable, which is probably different than what you find interesting.
- Bring your personal life into the mix, but remember to avoid all controversy! People with different political leanings than you still make wonderful customers, so don’t turn them off with comments about politics, religion, or other touchy subjects.
- Find and read a variety of sources so you can constantly post interesting, entertaining information.
- Tell great stories! Our favorite story of the week comes from a client in Michigan whose customer came in complaining of noise coming from under the hood of their vehicle. When our client popped the hood, they found a large squirrel nest and a very surprised looking, very alive squirrel. We had fun posting those pictures as well as tying it back to the preventative maintenance checks that our client provides.
- Provide great resources that actually help your customers. We love to link to helpful videos, useful blogs, news stories, money-saving articles, and more.
Why is this important?
The kinds of customers who want a relationship with you are the kinds of customers who will help your business survive and grow in this and any economy. Coupon-chasing customers aren’t loyal. They always run towards the best coupon, leaving you without a second thought.
But customers who want excellent customer service, who want a relationship, who want to become your fan on Facebook are the kind of customers who are loyal, who refer friends, who come back more often, and who will help ensure your success. No matter what kind of small business you own, this blog is important in understanding why great customers are the key to surviving and growing!
So go out there and show your customers another side to your business — you and your staff! And remember: there is a LOT to keep track of, manage, research, brainstorm, and think about.
If you ever need help in your ongoing creating, or promoting of the human side to your company, the social media experts at the Automated Marketing Group are here to help! We have been very successful in internet marketing for the past 17 years.
Give us a call at 1-866-520-3030, or contact us today!
