How to improve customer retention on social media

Social media is a great way to keep engaged with customers. But do you know how you can use social media to improve customer retention? After all, it is beneficial to retain your customers, rather than trying to find new customers. In fact, Market Metrics found it is 60% to 70% easier to convert an existing customer than it is to convert a prospect.

So how exactly can you use social media to increase your customer retention?

1. Know who your audience is

The most important part of customer retention is knowing your audience. If you don’t know who you’re communicating with your message may not be as well received.

Use analytics tools to find out necessary data about your audience. You’ll want to find information such as their social ID, and pair it with information such as their email address, and compile a customer database. Note consumer behaviour such as how they interact with your organization and their purchasing behaviour.  

Once you know this information, you will be able to post more accurate and personalised social media posts, which you customers will actually be interested in.

2. Be easy to find

You’re never going to end up with loyal customers if people can’t find your social media accounts in the first place.

You need to make sure your business is active on the social media pages you have. Sometimes it’s too hard to be active on every single social media channel, it’s often too time-consuming.

To avoid this problem, make sure you know what social media platforms your customers are using. Sure, Facebook is one of the most popular platforms, but is it what your target audience uses? Maybe they are more active on platforms such as LinkedIn or Instagram. Look at where your brand name is being mentioned, and make sure to stay active on those platforms.

To make customers aware of your social media platforms, make sure to include social media buttons on your website. Even consider having links to your social media pages in your email signature so existing contacts will know to follow you.

3. Share testimonials

Word of mouth is extremely powerful. In fact, word of mouth marketing has been identified as the most valuable form of marketing. This is because people trust the recommendations of their peers over the advertisements of a company. So if you get a glowing testimonial online, why not take the opportunity to share it? If people have taken a particularly creative photo of your product, consider sharing it on Instagram. Remember to tag the original person in the caption so they can see you have shared their content. Sharing positive testimonials will help increase your social proof and help with customer retention.

4. Have good customer service

There’s nothing more annoying than trying to get in contact with a company, and hearing no response, or receiving a rude, unhelpful response. That’s why you need to ensure your business has good customer service.

Facebook now displays response times, so you can get an idea of how quickly a business will respond to your query. Followers will be sure to appreciate receiving a timely response to their questions. While it may not be realistic to have someone looking after your social media account 24/7, make sure someone in your business is monitoring your accounts during business hours.

Make sure that all your responses to customers answer the question. If you can’t answer the question in comments, invite the customer to directly message you, and you can then message them one-on-one.

It’s also important to ensure your responses are always polite. If customers are leaving angry comments, it’s often tempting to leave an angry comment in response. However, this could potentially damage your brand’s reputation and end up with you losing customers. Always remember to remain polite while responding to customers on social media.

Your customers will look favourably upon your brand if you are known for having consistent, quick and positive customer service.

5. Measure

As with any strategy, the key to success is to analyse your data to see if you’re achieving your goals. Metrics you’ll want to measure include:

• Engagement
• Conversions
• Customer acquisition
• Participation

Are you posting on the right social media platforms? Do you have customer loyalty programs in place, and if so, how does it compare to the competition? Do you respond to customers and engage with them online? These are the questions you should be asking yourself when analysing your data. This will help you to see what you can improve to increase your customer retention on social media.

Got any other social media customer retention tips? Let us know in the comments.