12 ways to build a better relationship with your fans

12 ways to build a better relationship with your fans

© All Right Reserved 2013 www.RaviShukle.com 2

IntroductionHow do I get my fans to like me?

Buy them? Bribe them? Bombard them?

The word relationship is defined in the Oxford dictionary as “the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected”. The key to building a better relationship with your fans is to build that connection through two way interaction. In an information rich society, it’s easy for a brand to get lost in all the noise. It’s no longer enough to simply broadcast your message and expect results. You must engage and build up your community through conversation, commitment and becoming that resource that solves their problems with no hidden agenda. The social consumer of today increasingly connects with brands and as a result spends more money with the brands it engages with.



Now for the part you’ve been waiting for! Here are 12 ways to help you build a better relationship with your fans:

Using names in status updates and comments We know from our own personal interactions when speaking to someone for the first time, one of the first things we like to ask is their name. People instantly feel a deeper connection as names are the start to finding out who they are and what they’re about. The same principle applies to a brand, especially when connecting with customers. Using a name to sign off comments/updates helps build trust with your audience as they now have someone to relate to rather than just a logo. If an individual’s name cannot be used, team names can also work just as well. This concept works across all social networks. Also, instead of just “liking” comments left on your fanpage look to engage and create a conversation with your fans. They will thank you for it.

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Give your fans insight into your business Take your fans on a journey with you. Don’t be afraid to show that your business has a more personal side. This can be achieved in many ways: from showing a ‘behind the scenes’ view of the team working on latest projects to new business launches and key milestones. It’s important to be transparent with your fans and not just show your successes but also to ask what areas your business could improve. It could be as simple as asking your fans which product or service they prefer. This type of interaction helps increase the trust with your fans, showing that you appreciate their point of view. In this way, they are more likely to stick by you in the long run and know that you are listening.

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Involve your fans In the past, marketers would spend large amounts of money on content creation to help reach their audience. Today in the digital age and with the rise of social media, brands need to leverage this two way commutation not only for brand transparency and customer services but also for content creation. The term UGC refers to user generated content: This is content that has been created / provided to you by your audience and is a great way for a business to encourage sharing and include their audience as part of their overall content strategy. There are many ways in which you can encourage this type of interaction from your fans. Here are a few ideas to help get you started:

Encourage photo uploads around a theme e.g. what does your workspace look like? Send us a picture of your desk - we would love to see!

Photo/video uploads as part of a contest or give away e.g. what reminds you of summer? Upload your photo/video using #iLovesummer for a chance to win.

Ask your audience to share their thoughts or images on your products/services e.g. Where are you enjoying our fruit smoothie this morning? Upload your photo/video for all to enjoy! Below demonstrates how Hotelsbycity used user generated content to encourage their audience to share images of themselves jumping on hotel beds which had led them to receive a huge spike in traffic.

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Use Facebook competitions Facebook competitions are a great way to not only reach and involve your

audience but to also build leads for your business while engaging new and existing

fans. There are many benefits of running this type of promotion on your Facebook

page which include:

Increasing your Facebook fan base

Raising awareness of your product/service

Increasing the size of your email list / Subscribers

Encouraging customer loyalty

This is a great example of two-way interaction with your audience, as they receive the chance to win your product/service. And in exchange, they are more than happy to provide information such as an email address.

*Note according to Facebook’s NEW promotional guidelines “Facebook have

now REMOVED the requirement that promotions on Facebook are only to be

administered through apps. You can now :

* Collect entries by having users post on the Page or comment/like a Page post

* Collect entries by having users message the Page

* Utilize likes as a voting mechanism

(P.S Apps can still be used but are not required to host a competition)

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https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php



Be transparent and authentic with your community

Businesses that are successful on social media are those that can be both transparent & authentic with their fans. What does this mean? To be authentic means a brand is truthful in their marketing and actions online and to be transparent is how much a brand chooses to share online.

To truly connect and engage with your audience you must first know your brand and the audience you are trying to reach. Once you know this, your message can be tailored to meet the needs of your audience and conversations will start to blossom. One key point to remember is that relationships are not built overnight, it must be a consistent and genuine effort to build those raving fans over time. The more you get to know your audience, the more genuine and trustworthy your brand becomes. Below is an example of how Hubspot used this technique and shared a picture of their team.

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A great way to further develop the relationship you have with your fans is to offer that personal one on one connection by helping solve their queries. How is this possible if you have hundreds or thousands of fans? A simple way to achieve this is to host a Q & A on your page or via a Facebook app. This allows your fans to directly ask any questions they have and gives you the chance to highlight and answer the most commonly asked questions. This helps you build your reputation as that helpful resource to go to. This can be done by posting a Facebook status update then responding to questions in the comments below your update or a video reply. This helps demonstrate your ability to both listen to your fans and provide that added value by solving their problems. A good tip is to keep this as a regular form of interaction with your fans i.e. A weekly update / video.

Below is an example from Marie Forleo who hosts a weekly video on Marie TV answering fans questions every Tuesday called “Q & A Tuesday”. This is shared with her fans via a Facebook post, blog post and YouTube video. As we can see her fans are grateful and appreciate the added value she brings by helping them overcome their obstacles.

Host a Q & A (Question & Answer) session to help your fans 6

http://www.facebook.com/marieforleo



Don’t ignore your fans

According to Social Bakers, 70% of questions from Facebook fans are ignored with 25% of global companies closing their wall. Part of being a social business involves being open and responsive with your fans. This can include responding to customer queries, complaints or providing feedback. This is particularly important not only for positive responses but also for when problems and issues arise from your audience. It is this responsiveness that will help strengthen your relationship with your fans and should be included in your overall strategy when building an online presence. Simply ignoring the issue by not responding or closing your Facebook wall will not make the issue go away. If anything this will only make it worse and damage your brand’s reputation as one that cannot be trusted and one who doesn’t care about its audience. Quick tips on what NOT to do:

Close your Facebook wall

Leaving comments totally unanswered – If you don’t know the solution right away leave a message to say you are looking into this and will get back to them

Not answering comments within 24 hours

Leaving the query unresolved – If you have provided all the help possible, let your audience know and apologise for the inconvenience instead of sending them in circles for more information

Only reply to positive comments – Responding to negative comments can be just as powerful for your brand as helping a customer in need will bring them back to your business and help turn them into loyal followers

Below is an example of how many questions were answered on Facebook over the years showcasing the rise in customer support through Facebook.

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Ensure you are there to engage When it comes to planning your social media content, there are often divided opinions on how this content should be published. Should we schedule our content in advance, post in real time or a mixture of both? The best way to approach this scenario is to see what works best with your audience. There is nothing wrong with scheduling in your content as we all know no matter how hard we try we can’t be online 24/7 the key factor is to make sure you are there to engage and not just schedule and forget about the posts. This also applies to real time posts page admins need to make sure that they are posting at the best times when their fans are online and that they are there to engage and participate in the conversation. An example of a social media tool to schedule this content in is Post Planner which allows you to schedule and view all your posts in advance with the added bonus of having a “content engine” which helps you to find the top content from your favourite blogs, fanpages & Twitter feeds all within a nice neat Facebook app.

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http://www.postplanner.com

http://www.postplanner.com/app-features/



Showcase your fans Now that you have your fans engaging with your page and creating conversation the next step is to show them you appreciate their input. How? A great way to show this is by thanking fans for their participation. This can be achieved by posting a thank you message as a status update, highlighting your top fans via a cover image or showcasing the most active fans via a Facebook app. Booshaka is a Facebook app that offers you the chance to reward your community by offering points for interaction. These points are then collected via a leader board helping you identify who has been most active each week allowing you to share this information directly with your community. These points can also be tied to prizes or rewards. Below is an example of the app in action once shared to your page:

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http://www.booshaka.com/



Ask fans for input We know a brand that has a good relationship with its audience is one that listens to its customers and meets their needs but you might be thinking ‘How do I get feedback?’.

The simple answer is to ask your fans directly. This carries three main benefits:

1. The feedback is from your target audience so therefore, you know the opinions directly reflect those that will be purchasing, viewing or downloading your content.

2. The information can be used to gather more marketing data from your audience. Are they accessing the information via mobile only? Do they prefer eBooks, videos, emails etc? This information can then be used to both better target and promote future content.

3. Help to generate content ideas – ask your fans what topics they would like to learn more about. It is a great way for your brand to listen and provide that content you know your audience is hungry for. Once you’ve built a reputation with your fans you will be surprised at how open and honest their feedback will be in return. So all you have to do is ask. Below is an example from Perkier Foods asking fans on which flavour they prefer.

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Post at the right time of day One of the keys to building an effective relationship online is to have a conversation with your audience. When speaking to your audience you want to make sure you are having that conversation when your fans are most active online. We know when posting a status on Facebook that only a small percentage of your fans are seeing your update in their newsfeed. How do I increase my chances of being seen? Apart from promoting the post, a great organic way to track this is to identify the time that your fans are most active online. Facebook is currently rolling out a new insights update which allows you to view this very stat, helping you to identify when your fans are online and the average number who saw your posts in an hour. Using this data will help you identity the time of the day your fans are most engaged and help increase chances of your post getting seen and engaged with. It is important to note there is no golden time that suits all pages you must take a look at what the best fit is for your audience with regards to frequency and the times that you post.

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Celebrate your businesses’ key achievements -both small and big- through Facebook Milestones. Facebook milestones are a great way to build your relationship with your fans by sharing your journey and giving them insight into the key moments of your business’ journey. Milestones are automatically expanded on your Facebook timeline and also offer a great way to also showcase your brand’s history. Here are a few ways you can use Facebook milestones today:

Highlight the launch date of your business

Highlight a milestone in fans reached e.g. 10,000 fans

Highlight the launch of a new product/service

Highlight your brands history – How and where it started

To add a milestone above your Facebook status bar select “Offer, Event” > Click Milestone > Add a headline, location and details of your milestone > Choose to add a photo > Click Save. Milestone photos display at 843 wide and 403 pixels tall. Below is an example shared by Samsung Mobile UK celebrating its milestone when releasing the world’s first consumer camera phone

Celebrate your successes with Facebook Milestones 12

Add the following steps to your social media strategy and watch the relationship with your fans blossom and most importantly don’t forget to have fun with it!



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