I’ve been working on a big project and the one thing I’ve come to realize is you need fabulous people to support your success. The strength of the whole is far more effective than the sum of the parts.
Social Media marketing has become a team sport. Make no mistake, you still need a focused, dedicated person to keep your strategy on track and to manage your community. What’s new is Social Business: the engagement of employees with your loyal customers to create content for your Social platforms. It’s a team effort that best aligns your store in today’s Social environment.
The line that once clearly defined the separation between employees’ workplace and private social personas has blurred. Many salespeople are starting their own Facebook pages and some are even blogging. Service advisors communicate with their customers via Twitter and texting. This is a fast-moving trend and it’s one that dealers and other businesses need to navigate and leverage to their store’s advantage.
How do you spot these types of Social employees? First, you need to know what these social skills are in order to recognize them in those that work for you. You’re looking for people who take naturally to Social Media and possess these abilities:
- They know the tools.
- They don’t post a thing until the marketing strategy is in place.
- They pay attention to the details.
- They listen.
- They know how to create and locate relevant content.
- They intimately understand your brand.
- They know how to respond to negativity.
- They know not to post inappropriate content or responses.
- They are creative but also know operational processes.
- They interact well with every department.
“Real-time” Social conversations are swiftly taking priority over the traditional modes of connection like email. Dealers can clearly benefit from the creativity of employees who add their own perspectives to daily work activities and those employees who possess these skills are, indeed, very valuable .
This conversation that happens daily between your customers and your employees has not changed at all. What’s new is that their interactions are being greased by technology. It’s easier than ever to stay close to your customer! Those happy, loyal customers who interact with your staff can add their own perspectives and your people need to be able to recognize and capture those opportunities when they come along.
Encourage employee participation in your Social marketing campaigns. Make it easy for them to contribute by setting up a private Facebook group or an internal messaging platform for them to share.
Provide incentives to employees who contribute content (videos, blogs, events, ideas and more). They’re in constant daily contact with your happy loyal customers. Recognize and reward those employees who contribute and soon, others will feel more comfortable participating. You can’t do it alone and it’s so much more effective when you leverage the strength of your team.
Use Facebook milestones to regularly spotlight your happy loyal customers. Who better to advocate your brand than the people who love you?
If you don’t have one already, establish a Social Media Policy. As with all other employee initiatives, it’s important to set guidelines so people know exactly what to do in Social Media situations. Please feel free to download the Kruse Control Social Media Policy here.
Staying in touch with customers used to be elusive and tedious. Today, with Social Media and the support of your team, you’re able to be in touch and actually market to your customer without interrupting them. How awesome is that?
