A brand is a living entity that evolves over time – and its social media presence should not be ignored.
Your brand has to be seen in the real world, made real by people with whom it comes into contact. People need to know that your company exists; they need to be able to ask questions of you, engage you in discussions, and give feedback.
Visible social media activity is important because it allows your brand to show its face and share information and insights about the company and its products and services, as well as what’s going on in the market. If you’re not visible online, someone else will fill that space with their interpretation of your brand – one which might be inaccurate, misleading, and far from the truth.
Over the past few years, social media has taken on a powerful role in building a brand’s reputation and influence through word of mouth. To put it simply, happy customers tell their friends about great products or services they have purchased or experienced, making social networking sites perfect tools to help build a company’s reputation.
The advantage is that a business can create a powerful word-of-mouth marketing strategy through social media without having to pay for it – and going viral on Twitter or Facebook is so much better than traditional advertising. But you need to have a strong presence on social networks if the message is to be spread effectively.
And, as was the case with social media, there are potential pitfalls.
Social media is full of people who act as advocates for brands they love and those that irritate them no end – so, companies have to protect their reputations by being aware of what customers might be saying online about the brand and respond quickly if necessary.
When it comes down to it, a business’s reputation is what it’s all about. Companies like Netbet want to retain the trust and respect of their customers as well as win over new ones. Therefore, companies need to be proactive in cultivating this goodwill by taking advantage of the power of social media networks – and that is where engagement comes into play.
What Social Media Engagement Means
Generally speaking, engagement refers to a user’s interaction with a website or online property. The most common types of engagement include: clicking on links posted by the site owner; sharing content from their own profile pages; and commenting on posts made by the site owner.
Therefore, when it comes to creating a strong social media presence for your business, knowing how to impact engagement is key to success – and there are certain things you can do to make this happen.
As the old saying goes: “you need to be where your customers are.” To engage with people on social networks, businesses need to be active on the most popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
People also expect businesses to respond quickly – so, if someone asks a question or says something negative about your brand, they want you to find out about it and fix things fast. If customers do not get an answer in a timely manner, they might feel ignored and disengaged from your brand.
In order to prevent this from happening, companies should have a customer service presence on Facebook Twitter, and any other relevant social networks where customers might be interacting with the brand in question.
Since people are more likely to engage with brands when they interact with their friends or family members, it is also a good idea for businesses to get their employees to get active on social networks. When employees are using these sites, they can respond to people’s questions and comments – which is good for the company’s reputation.