The Easiest Way to Boost Your Customer Engagement and Social Media Buzz

This is no magical fix to all your social media woes. You probably won't even notice any empirical results. However, this is a simple way to give your Facebook page a little extra push.

The default setting for a Facebook page is to show your posts only. However, this robs you of so much potential buzz and word-of-mouth. Consumers will never trust your biased promotional jingles over the raves of impartial fellow consumers.

If you want to truly take advantage of the fanbase you've worked so hard to build, showcase all the positive things they have to say. In addition, this is great if you interact well with your customers.

To switch the setting to show both your posts and your fans' posts, simply go to your page while signed in and at the top right, you should see a button that says "edit page". Click this. Now there will be an option called "Wall tab shows". Select all posts and you're all set.

You just made your Facebook page 1.5% more engaging.

Great Example of a Conversation with a Customer Through Social Media

Here's a little example of a conversation with a customer. It's meant to be read with this post about responding to positive feedback on social media websites. This is a dialogue between a fine Italian restaurant and a customer who just praised it:

Reviewer: Hi there, I loved your restaurant! The veal parmigiana tasted very authentic.

Italian Restaurant: Thank you so much! That really means a lot. We really do strive to remind everyone of the tastes of Little Italy through our food. You seem like someone who really appreciates food; what’s been your favorite experience with an Italian restaurant? It’d be great to have your input so we can make our atmosphere and food even better :)

Reviewer: Haha, I vacationed in Italy for a month last year so I guess I know a little bit about Italian food. :) I guess my best experience would be at this restaurant in Italy where the chef himself took the dishes to our table and finished off the garnishes at the table. Needless to say, the food was great!

Italian Restaurant: That's awesome! Maybe we'll include some of those ideas in our experience for next time! What part of Italy did you go to?

...and so on and so forth...

How to Respond to Positive Feedback through Social Media

For an entrepreneur, there is nothing sweeter than the feeling of positive feedback, especially through social media. But don’t get caught in the moment. Positive feedback is an opportunity to advance your brand even further, in the eyes of both the reviewer and the general public. This is your chance to turn fans into fanatics and transform brand loyalty into the coveted “loyalty beyond reason”.

Thank the Reviewer

After all, they probably just augmented your profits by one or two percent.

Engage Him or Her Even More

Start an entire conversation with them by prompting them to talk more about themselves and their idiosyncrasies. Ask questions that they would be proud to answer. Here is a link to a great example of an exchange between a positive reviewer and a fine Italian restaurant. I highly recommend that you take a look at it.

This sort of conversation can go on for several days back and forth. Also, in addition to engaging this particular customer, through this conversation you gain valuable insights into how to improve your own restaurant experience. And as you begin to see commonalities in the people who praise your brand, you can better target your marketing toward a particular niche.

One day, maybe you’ll come across a million-dollar conversation where somebody gives you the suggestion that can immediately drive your brand to the top. That’s the ultimate reward for the fifteen minutes per day that you spent responding to feedback.

Give Out Tokens of Appreciation to Reviewers

First of all, this should only be done occasionally so your costs are not too high and your fans do not come to expect rewards. To add, these can just be coupons or small gift certificates; there is little correlation between the extravagance of these gifts and how loyal they will be. However, do not expect them to tell their friends about your brand, in exchange. Do not ask for anything in return. Period.

Do Not “Feature” the Feedback on your Facebook Page

This is not only pointless (the post is already public), but comes off as desperate. If you are using Twitter, occasional re-tweets of positive feedback is OK. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with motivating and praising employees by sharing the feedback with them during meetings or presentations.

As soon as you apply these principles, your brand loyalty will skyrocket.

How to Ignite Word-of-Mouth for Your Brand on Facebook and Oher Social Media

One of the most attractive facets of Facebook marketing campaigns is the massive word-of-mouth potential. However, a vast majority of promotion on Facebook does not take advantage of the most efficient platform for sharing, in the world.

To figure out how to spur sharing, we can go back to the roots of why Facebook is so addicting. We love Facebook because it is an opportunity to show our true colors to a network of people who are interested in them. If you have Facebook, you know what you share: status updates often detail your accomplishments of the day, you might post your child's graduation photos, and you may put your political or religious views in your information section.

The common denominator of all these items is that you are proud to showcase them to the world. Why do people spend time filling out their favorite bands, movies, and athletes on their profiles? Because they're proud to show how unique and special their preferences are.

Clearly, the best way to trigger word-of-mouth on Facebook, is to position your product in a way that your customers can be proud to use it.

Nike + iPod (a device that tracks and shares running statistics) users are proud to share the fact that they are avid users because it gives them the image of being fit and determined.

Meanwhile, charity donors love to flaunt their generosity and restaurant-goers like to show off their good tastes.

All of these people would take pride in sharing their love of a specific brand on Facebook. How can your brand make customers feel the same way?

For more posts on promoting social media buzz, go to the sharing portal.

Creating Funny Experiences to Generate Social Media Buzz

Facebook users love to entertain their friends. We'll share jokes, funny stories, and odd things that we notice with life. Why not make your brand one of these interesting or amusing status updates, that are the lifeblood of Facebook and Twitter?

Use either your product or your marketing to create experiences that don't happen every day. There are no boundaries on what you do, as long as it's unique enough to solicit an emotional reaction. This reaction can be surprise, laughter, the classic "awwww... that's so cute," or anything else that resonates with your target audience.

Burger King made people laugh with the interactive "Subservient Chicken" marketing campaign. Basically, this campaign was a website where users would see a video of a man dressed as a chicken; they could type in commands to get him to do things like "peck ground" or "walk like an Egyptian" (all pre-recorded, of course).

The entertainment value of this website triggered sharing and word-of-mouth like no traditional advertisement could ever dream of doing. Meanwhile, it furthered Burger King's brand of "having it your way" and drove up profits by 30%.

Stores should use the intimate environment that they create to form these interesting experiences. Imagine how many teenage girls would scream their heads off on Facebook and Twitter if, at Abercrombie or Hollister, the models (or even just the attractive-enough employees) started talking to them.

Take these examples and adapt them to your business, to generate the buzz your revolutionary idea needs.

For more posts on promoting social media buzz, go to the sharing portal.

Cultivating Brand Advocates Through Social Media: Involving the Customer

Customers truly enjoy engaging with brands that include them in their operations. Generally, companies subject even their most loyal customers to sitting on the sidelines, as mere spectators. Why waste these valuable brand advocates that you've likely spent years building relationships with?

Social media is a tool that can make customer involvement much easier.

Free the Children, a charity group whose goal is to eradicate child poverty, demonstrates this perfectly. They've partnered with various sponsors who have agreed to contribute $1 for every "like" they get on Facebook. This allowed supporters to be a part of the giving process, with a simple but meaningful gesture that they could feel good about.

Several brands have also created "name this product" contests on Facebook, as well as YouTube-based contests to make advertisements.

These sorts of engaging campaigns can create lifelong brand loyalty with winners and fun memories for other participants. Once you make a customer feel like a part of your organization, she feels sincerely good about supporting your brand.

How to Build Brand Loyalty with Facebook and other Social Media

To truly create a strong emotional connection with your customers, you have to give them good experiences that make them feel special. After all, a brand is is simply a sum of every positive and negative experience a customer has with your business.

For many high prestige brands, stroking a customer's ego is never a bad thing. Tiffany & Co., the legendary jeweler, allows loyal customers access to a back vault stocked with highly exclusive merchandise not available to the general public.

These sorts of loyalty programs can extend to Facebook with the "closed group" feature where membership is by invitation only. Here, you can pamper your most die-hard fans with special deals and early access to new products. Obviously, the feeling of being part of an exclusive group, can make the 2% of customers who drive 80% of sales, feel very special.

This is excellent for companies who are selling a revolutionary new technology that only a small segment has bought into. Reward these first supporters and they will reward you.

Although the closed nature detracts from direct online sharing, word-of-mouth in the real world will be strong, as your proud brand advocates boast about their membership in this group.