6 Ways to Improve B2B Customer Relationships With social media content

Improving customer relations, so they endure over time, translates into a successful business. Compare your company’s plan with the six points listed below. Are they in sync? If not, you’re probably out-of-sync with your customers.

Using social media content to improve your b2b customer relationships is an art, not a science. Once you get past the mechanics, you have to watch, evaluate, and listen to your customers. The new face of customer relations is social media.

1. Keep Your Social Media Content Current

Outdated graphics bloated descriptions and bad information are guaranteed to hurt customer relations. Here are three simple but often overlooked ways to achieve the opposite:

• Keep it fresh. Old graphics reflect an old message. New graphics mean, “Take a look.” How often should you change your graphics? When you are tired of looking at them.
   
• Use brief but accurate descriptions. Details here are not important. Understanding what you do, what you offer, and why your customer should care is vitally important. Convey the essence without answering every question.
   
• Update contact information. Things change. Have a plan for reviewing and updating critical data on a regular (scheduled) basis.

2. Keep Your Social Media Content Engaging

How often do you update your company’s LinkedIn page? How many times a day do you Tweet something original? The answer to the first question should be “several times a week,” if not every day. The answer to the second question should be daily, if not several times a day.

Does your company Have a blog? If not, how do you educate your customers, which is key for creating loyalty? Tweeting and posting are important activities. They do not and cannot provide the confidence-building information your customer needs. Post to promote. Blog to educate.

3. Customer Relations Is About Everyone

Look carefully at your social media content. Is it all about you? Guaranteed, your customers will love hearing about their business - what you like about it - what they do well - what their company does that’s unique. Don’t be afraid to compliment, retweet content, tout strengths, and answer questions. Create loyalty through friendship.

4. Know Your Customers

Knowing your customers defines the “what” and “how” of social media. Knowledge promotes effective interaction between you and your customer. Do your homework. Do not assume you know. Prove it on paper. Gather statistics, and then decide.

5. Value Your Customers

Respond quickly to complaints and questions, which conveys at least two things to your customers: (1) You are important; and (2) I appreciate how important you are. Customers who retweet your Tweet should be thanked. Customers who compliment you or your business should be acknowledged. Respond to ideas and suggestions. Their time is valuable, so value their participation.

6. Analyze What’s Working - Know What’s Not

How often do you measure results? Facebook is great, but is it right for your business? Maybe it is. Do you know? If CEOs are your target, is targeting them through your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts working for you? If not, is your social media content an accurate and positive reflection of what you do? Analyze your customer base vis-à-vis the content on your social media sites. Remember: After knowing your customers and where to find them, content is king.

Finally, Twitter is the social media of choice for business. Evaluating your Twitter account through the logic of this review free "Checklist to Optimize Your Twitter Account" is the next step to help revamp your social media strategy.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc