The Social Media Marketing Secret Weapon that is Right Under Your Nose

Can your customers boost your social media marketing return on investment?  You bet they can. Instead of always focusing on creating engaging content for your social network communities, spend some time involving your customers in the process of amplify your social media messages.

Share the Load

Customer participation – whether it is commenting on a Facebook for business post or retweeting your Twitter content – is an integral part of every business’s social strategy.  Companies go to great lengths to create valuable content to share across their social networks.  We’re going to show you a few ways you can let your social community – especially your customers – do the heavy lifting for you.  Ready to learn how?

Raving over Reviews

Before making a purchase, many individuals spend time reading customer reviews and often base purchasing decisions on those reviews.  Your business can harness the power of customer reviews by using them in your social media marketing strategy.  We could write an entire post on this very tactic, but we’ll point you to this step-by-step guide instead.

No Camera Necessary

If you haven’t been hiding under a rock, then you probably have heard that Instagram is quickly becoming a extremely popular photo-sharing social network.  What if I told you that your business could take advantage of this popularity without even having to use your own photos?  Create an Instagram hashtag and ask your customers to share photos of your products with that hashtag.  Always follow-up by thanking them and then featuring those photos on your business’s website to drive traffic and extend the life of your customer-generated marketing.

Pin to Win

This next strategy is a simple three-part strategy.  Start a Pinterest account, pin photos and ask your followers to repin your social content.  While this social marketing strategy doesn’t necessarily rely on your customers to generate unique content, it does count on them to spread your branding message for you.  And with one study showing that about 70% of brand engagement is being generated by users, it definitely seems that they will gladly boost your brand’s Pinterest presence.

Check This Out

If your business has a physical location, then a sure-fire way to boost your bottom line with social media marketing is to ask your customers to check-in when they come to your business.  Take it a step further and ask for a rating and recommendation.  With Facebook’s emphasis on mobile users and newly introduced Graph Search, these actions will ensure your business is found and seen by Facebook mobile app users.

Have you harnessed the content produced by your customers to grow your social media presence?  Please share your success stories in the comments below.