Social media is an invaluable venue for businesses promoting their products and specials, but its value doesn’t end there. Social media isn’t just for blogging, tweeting and Instagramming your about business. Intelligent social media allows your company to gather insights and analyze trends from the direct and unbiased feedback your customers share online and you can use this information to create, drive and implement your marketing strategy. It can be a powerful lever to stay competitive, whether you’re an established brand name or trying to make inroads in your field, using social media insight is relevant for you. If you are looking to increase your market share, use the following strategies:
Customer Profiling
Every company has a target audience. For you to reach the right target audience, you need to create the right content. Which means you need to learn more about this audience. Social media listening allows you to identify segments with the best potential, what your customers expect, the language they use and which channels they use most to express themselves online. These are important insights to have. Using social listening to create and maintain profiles of your customers will let you adopt new positioning in the market.
Discover Competitors’ Strategies
Apart from gathering your own insights, there is something to be said for monitoring and getting insights from your competitors’ social media activity, and in fact that could give you an advantage. A few ways to understand what your competitors’ strategies could be, are:
- Track their events
- Keep yourself up to date on trends and innovations in your field
- Understand how competitors adapt their strategies
Tailoring Your Strategy
There is no ‘one size fits all’ strategy. Identifying key trends means you will be able to tailor your strategy to best understand your customers’ needs as well as your competitors’ strategies, as mentioned above. When you can adapt your content to your customers’ expectations, and also create content about trending subjects, you may be able to snag a unique position in the market, and keep one step ahead of the competition, by demonstrating industry expertise and build customer loyalty along the way.
Understand Your Customer
User generated content is a powerful lever for your brand. It means content created by users who talk about your company and products. If these users are conveying a positive message, that’s the most effective word of mouth advertising you can get, and it makes them free brand ambassadors for you. It is essential that you capture these messages and include them in your marketing strategies, analyze them and use them successfully to highlight your reputation.
Identifying Influencers
You’re probably aware of the influencers in your sector. However, they don’t all have the same reach or provide the same purpose. Do a little research and identify the opinion leaders and experts in your field, who can potentially serve as relayers of your content and marketing campaigns. This will amplify your reach, and because it’s coming from an unrelated party, will increase your authenticity.
Strengthen Product Development
Social media monitoring can improve your product development process too. Here are some ways how:
- Develop new products or improve existing products and their functionalities to meet specific customer needs
- New technologies can be integrated into existing product lines
Customer experiences don’t take place in a vacuum. It’s fair to say that you’re constantly being compared with your competitors, and simple brand loyalty isn’t going to be enough to keep your customers coming back. Turn social media into a competitive advantage.