How to Use Social Media to Keep Customers Happy and Drive Revenue

Gauging the temperature of your social media following can offer valuable insight into what’s working for your customers and what isn’t.

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher

SPONSORED 8:08AM • 06/23/16

With more than 1.5 billion social media users worldwide, establishing an online presence for your brand has become a necessary part of building visibility. But these days, social media is becoming a big part of the revenue equation for many companies, too.

Often lost among the chatter about how brands can use these platforms to boost their sales is another important element—companies can use social conversations to predict—and improve—revenue trends.

According to a study by Networked Insights, which monitors social conversations across networks, including Twitter, YouTube and Reddit, there’s a correlation between the way consumers talk about certain brand metrics and a retailer’s same-store sales. Ultimately, the firm was able to determine a brand’s health by gauging customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy across social media.

“When we see in our large data sets big drop-offs in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, we know that at some point in the near future that brand is going to have struggles,” said Rick Miller, a vice president at Networked Insights. “When we drill down into this data, we can see very specifically what consumers are very unhappy about, what they’re complaining about and what can be done to make things better.”

Miller points to a recent 15-month case study on department store Kohl’s as an example. Networked Insights monitored more than 500,000 entries about the brand and found that as online conversation about the retailer started to deteriorate—particularly surrounding customer loyalty—its same-store sales began to decline, too.

By recognizing this correlation and monitoring social conversations, Miller said brands can better resolve customer service issues and tweak their marketing campaign. That, in turn, could prevent an impending sales slump and actually boost sales.

To keep customers happy (and to let them know that you want them to be happy), Miller firsts suggests paying attention—and listening--to the comments coming in. For many consumers, a company Facebook page or Twitter handle is their first customer-service resource. It’s also the go-to outlet to share negative feedback and air grievances. To prevent any destructive impact and keep your brand in a positive light, it’s important to stay on top of customer issues by responding to all queries within 12 hours and then providing a rapid solution. Additionally, when a customer shares a favorable experience, consider re-sharing it across company social channels.

“You can’t make customers happy using social media if you don’t know what they’re saying. Social conversations are happening all around you, piquing curiosity and driving consumers to buy,” Miller said.

Utilizing a cost-effective tool like Hootsuite can help you keep tabs on conversations that you want to be a part of, especially as it relates to your brand. You can set up streams to monitor the conversation around your products and company, which can keep you in the loop of what is being said about your business (and provide you with the opportunity to dispel any inaccuracies circulating), share gratitude and connect with customers.

Miller believes that creating a community around your brand’s social media matters, too. If your business has a unique point of view that is truly different from everyone else’s, consider creating a community. Bring people together, learn everything you can about them and provide content and resources that your members want to receive and talk about.

Toppers Pizza* is one brand that has done this particularly well. They quickly recognized their unique audience—young adults and Millennials—and as such, began tailoring their online community and messaging around this particular demographic. It worked—in 2015, Toppers saw their Facebook fans grow by 26 percent, their Twitter fans grow by 43 percent and their Instagram followers grow by 170 percent. The brand’s 139,836 Facebook fans for their 73-location systems yields approximately 1,915 fans per unit, far-surpassing 1,000 fans per location for Domino’s (more than 10 million likes for 10,000 locations).

“We engage our social media following in a fun way rather than talk at them,” said Scott Iversen, vice president of marketing at Toppers Pizza. “Everything we do, from promoting contests to offering menu exclusives only found online, gets people interested in what’s going on with us. It helps us build a loyal, online community—and ultimately, those types of things drive tangible dollars that help our franchisees make money.”

*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.

How to Use Social Media to Keep Customers Happy and Drive Revenue

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