Social Media for Small Businesses: Best Practices for Engaging with Your Connected Customers #smb #smallbiz #socialmedia

Meet “Customer 2.0”—a highly social, increasingly plugged-in and incredibly powerful breed of customer who probably knows more about your brand and products than you know about him.

In today’s wired business landscape, customers can use the power of the internet, specifically social media and consumer reviews, to find the information that helps them spend their dollars more smartly. In fact, over two-thirds of customers say that they use online tools to help them decide which products to buy, and nearly half share their experiences on social networks.

But that doesn’t mean that small businesses are helpless against the powers of the social web—in fact, understanding how customers use social media can help your company engage more customers and provide the service that “Customer 2.0” expects.

Customer service goes social

Social media tools like Twitter and Facebook have proven to be an ideal place for customers to share personal experiences and information about the products they use every day, especially when they are negative.
This online trash-talking may seem like a headache for brand managers and marketers, but in reality, negative reviews represent a customer service opportunity for small businesses, especially considering 58 percent of customers say that when they post a bad review, they expect the company to respond.

Social media for small businesses

Smaller businesses may have an inherent advantage engaging customers through social media, since there is often less red tape to get through and customers are more likely to be speaking with a higher ranking employee than in large conglomerates.
So what do you need to know in order to use social media to your advantage? Here are some tips to start:

• Listen first. In order to address customer concerns, you have to know where to find them. Free or cheap social mention tools such as Tweetdeck or HootSuite can help keep tabs on and consolidate what people are saying about your company, based on keyword searches.
• Make the conversation personable. Customers don’t want to deal with a faceless company; they want to deal with a real live person. Create a personality for your online profile and give your business a face that your customers can relate to.
• Choose your battles. Understand the difference between a customer who has a frustration with your product that you can solve and someone who is ranting without any due cause. Addressing the former will often save you a customer and build positive word-of-mouth, while confronting the latter may lead to more profanities and negative exposure.
• Social is not a magic bullet. It’s important to remember that while addressing customers via social media might be effective for some, it’s not an end-all-be-all. Instead, use social media to complement your existing customer service vehicles and strategy.
• Know the gatekeepers. If you have limited resources and can’t respond to every mention, learn to identify the customers that are most active on social networks. Chances are that if you alleviate their concerns, they’ll spread their positive experience with the rest of the web.

Understanding the value of customer reviews

Social media streams are great ways for customers to see what their friends, family and coworkers are buying, but when it comes down to the greatest influence in making your customers click “Buy now,” customer reviews are king.

• In a recent survey of online shoppers, 29 percent of respondents said ”positive customer reviews” were the most influential factor in their decision to purchase, second only to ”price” at 38 percent.
• Not all negative reviews are bad—70 percent of customers trust a source more when they can see bad reviews as well as good.
• “Customer 2.0” craves content; a major reason why adding customer reviews to a website can double a visitor’s browsing time.
• Time is money, so don’t make customers search too far to find reviews about your product; 47 percent of customers prefer reviews to be found on the website that they are buying from.

Simply put: if your small business doesn’t already provide a way for customers to post reviews on your website, you should. At the very least, you need to be actively trolling popular customer forums for reviews on your products. Every piece of feedback is valuable, whether leading to a customer service opportunity, providing insight into customer viewpoints or pointing towards influential thought leaders.
As with all social media endeavors, you won’t fully know the rules until you jump in. Explore social networks, post on customer review sites, and search for your most common product or services names and see what pops up. As a small business owner or marketer, the only way you can learn how to better serve “Customer 2.0” is to be a more plugged in and social customer yourself.

For more information about building customer relationships and utilizing social media for your small business, check out the following 367 Addison Avenue posts:

· “Social Media: Does it Fit?”

· “Building Customer Relationships Starting Right Now”

· “LinkedIn and the SMB: Tips for Success”

Thanks for reading,

Melissa Zieger

Melissa Zieger (@HP_SmallBiz) is the editor-in-chief of HP's SMB blog, 367 Addison Avenue and a worldwide public relations manager for HP's Personal Systems Group.