7 Best Practice Tips for Social Media for Customer Service

Understanding the difference between the networks and using them to your advantage is one of the most important takeaways when approaching best practices on social media.

Scheduling plays an important role in developing consumer confidence; if your posts are erratic and/or infrequent, your audience will lose interest and go elsewhere – to establish yourself as a brand authority, you need to find that all important balance between being seen regularly, but not posting so often that you annoy your audience.

Knowing where your customers are is a vital step in developing your social media strategy – there is no point promoting yourself on one particular network if your customers all frequent another. Likewise, spreading yourself thin across all networks when your audience is largely found on one may not be the best use of your time or budget.

Regardless of which channel/s you choose to utilise, conducting yourself with one ‘voice’ and style will enable your brand to develop with consistency and integrity. If your social media channels are all over the place with different styles, tones and approaches – your audience will become confused, and find it harder to trust the company. You must know your brand and use social media to communicate this ideal.

Whilst remaining ‘professional’ is important, your customers also want to see the ‘human face’ of the business – there is nothing wrong with having light-hearted posts or developing less rigid connections with your followers, but there still has to be a line that your social media channels do not cross – it is vital to remember that your business account is NOT your personal account, it is not the right platform to air complaints or express divisive opinions.

Respond to your followers in a timely manner – acknowledge and thank those who are talking about your brand, and don’t ignore negative feedback. How you deal with a negative customer experience is just as important as giving customers a good experience in the first place – with the right customer service, it is possible in some circumstances to change a negative opinion of the company into a positive one, and generate customer loyalty with someone who may go on to be a brand champion.

Your audience likely follow many other companies and individuals, to stand out – you need to promote your brand with authenticity, purchasing likes or reviews may sound like a good way to boost your numbers and attract genuine customers, but the fallout from this being discovered is rarely positive – people want to know that a company has their best interests at heart, and isn’t just out to take their money.