Social Media For Customer Retention And Getting A Mention From Unique Visitors!

Jan. 13, 2012 - PRLog -- Some 2011 surveys suggest a growing acceptance of social media by UK businesses as over three quarters say they will be investing more in social content marketing over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, other surveys claim only around 40 per cent of site owners are involved in blogging and social messaging. A further 15 per cent believe social media is not even relevant to their business!

In all the above responses, it may be assumed that their view is based upon using social media content for the singular purpose of attracting new audiences and developing potential market customers. Yet today’s search and social online experience requires an understanding of social engagement’s bigger picture.

Web owners love seeing huge spikes in the unique site visitor count as a successful outcome and vindication of their online marketing campaigns. Page bounce rates to conversion ratios may very well reveal a different story. The same principle applies to social strategies.

The key is always to encourage a first conversion to loyal follower, word of mouth advocate and content sharer, online and offline. In other words, customer retention! In today’s integrated approach to the multichannel web, retaining interest and creating community are the markers around which trust, credibility and site authority are built.

This means a constant supply of fresh, quality content that delivers valuable and exciting information and insight to sustain long-term relationships. Too often, customer retention  has been the preserve of email marketing newsletters, acting as regular reminders and wake up calls to past customers, information collectors and one off leads.

Except, chasing the sales dragon in this way is less likely to succeed today when around a third of consumers expect to find and engage with brands on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If eCommerce is social, so is brand identity too!  According to some estimates, nearly three quarters of followers say they wouldn’t purchase from a new company that did not have a social presence.

Increasingly, the preferred channel of search is social followed by brand browsing and further interaction via customer reviews, price comparison and possibly bookmarking, opt-in and comment feedback. At this critical stage, retaining interest will be reinforced and encouraged by the quality of current and ongoing content on both site pages and networking sites.

The indexing of social signals in support of site authority has come to play a significantly greater role  for Google in 2011. Not only did they launch Google+, their Facebook ‘Like’, earlier in the year, in November it was announced that Google would also now be able to index public comments made on websites that use Facebook.

The implications for search and social ‘ranking’ are very clear and underlines the importance of social media for retaining follower loyalty, re-engaging with former customers as well as a means to discover new audience segments interested in a brand’s products and services.

If a site owner  still believes that social media is not relevant to their business online in 2012, they should really think again, seek advice or else they will simply be edged offline!

Visit http://www.weprovoke.co.uk for more information and advice.

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Provoke positions companies just like yours to succeed on the web.

Digital and marketing expertise has enabled businesses throughout the UK to successfully :
- Reach new audiences
- Drive sales
- Gain online/offline brand presence.

Visit http://www.weprovoke.co.uk for more information and advice.