How do you build and strengthen relationships with your audience (as a whole, and as individuals) to increase your Return on Relationship, ROR, #RonR?
1. Listen
If you want to be heard above the ever-growing social media “noise,” you need to first listen to your consumers and audience so when you do speak, you get it right. What are they saying, what are they feeling, what are their pain points, what solutions do they need? The key to continued success for any brand/retailer/e-tailer is identifying with the customer. Listening is finally getting the respect it deserves through the abundance of Social Media platforms that appeal to every demographic… listen and adjust your message to make it relevant to your audience and consumer. Brand loyalty declines due to lack of relevance… a direct result of not listening.” “Number one is always try to understand who your customer is and pay attention. Listen for “Moments” — and Make it Personal.
2. Make it be about THEM
First think about and address what matters most to your audience. Give them the ability to show you what they need, want, are interested in, and expect. Whatever matters most to them should become what matters most to you! We marketers like to think that social media is primarily a set of tools for our marketing purposes, but in reality, social media is ALSO a strong set of
tools our consumers use to share and influence opinion about our brand. Our consumers now have “the channel of me.” Consumers’ opinions now create the “reality” of the brand — if enough consumers say negative things about your brand, your brand loses its credibility, and (thankfully) vice versa. Start thinking about “MeMail” Marketing instead of Email Marketing. People care about themselves.
3. Ask “How can I serve you?”
Taking the “ME” mentality one step further, when we are advertising instead of building relationships, we are focused on what our consumers can give us instead of how we can best serve them. Your consumers will recognize in a heartbeat if you are simply trying to get something from them – and they will not stick around. It’s not that you aren’t allowed to want anything from your consumers, it’s that there must be a give to go along with every take. If you truly want to make an impact, aim to always put more energy and attention in your “give” column than in your “take” column. It will pay off.
4. Aim for Ongoing Engagement
Building relationships is about starting meaningful dialogue and taking the time to thoughtfully and genuinely engage in ongoing conversation. Relationships focus on getting to know your consumer and giving them reasons to stay engaged — not just getting them to react. This needs to be all the time… not simply campaign or initiative based. That is the biggest mistake being made today by marketers and brands… with consumers, and especially with influencers. Relationships are like muscle tissue, the more you engage them, the stronger and more valuable they become.
5. Know the People in Your Audience
Short and simple: if you are only focused on the money, you risk completely overlooking the people. Don’t make that mistake! If you don’t know who your people are, you might as well toss your marketing money down the drain.
Now it’s a whole different world with social media, with almost instantaneous personal connections to people all around the world… and throughout our organizations and like-minded communities. Instead of just one-to-one connections, we get one-to-very-very-many connections as we can now tap into the extensive networks of everyone on our own social graph and the social graph of our employees and communities. A Network gives you Reach; A Community gives you Power! Networks Connect… Communities Care.
#Trust #CreateTrust #EndHate… #NoLetUp!👊🏻