Are you a friendly company? While you might be friendly in person and focus on customer service as you train your employees, you could present a different persona online. Don't just advertise on social media; hold a conversation with your clients and leads.
How to Be Friendly
Think about what happens when you walk into a favorite store. It's familiar. You know the space, and you know what is there. Yet there are surprises sometimes too, and since it's your favorite store, you often find items there that delight you. It's as if the proprietors know what you love and bring in items just for you. When you walk in, you feel welcomed. Someone there knows your name, or at the very least they've interacted with you before. As you engage in a purchase, the staff there are polite and warm, and they ask questions about your purchase that make you want to return again.
How to Be Friendly Online
That's how to be friendly in person. Online, the process is remarkably similar.
Your clients might be behind a computer, but they still want to feel:
As if they are in a familiar space. They know your online persona, and they know what to expect from your blog or social media feed. If you want to be light and humorous, you can be. If you want to be thoughtful and reflective, you can do that too. Just create an online persona that accommodates the various ways that you'd like to interact online so that people don't get alarmed and feel like you've suddenly changed the way that you engage.
As if the content is curated just for them. You know your audience, and you've found products and information that will be useful to their needs.
As if they are known. They want to engage with you online as a person, not as a faceless customer or lead. They want to feel valued.
Getting To Know Your Customers on Social Media
However, since engaging with customers online isn't something that many people grew up doing, it doesn't always come naturally. How can you engage with customers in a friendly way on social media?
According to Cision, you still need to make small talk on social media. Here's how you can do so without seeming awkward.
Introduce yourself and ask about your clients.
Talk about the weather – or rather, the latest happenings in your industry.
Listen to your clients. Just as you would in offline life, try to spend time hearing what they have to say. Encourage them to share.
Talk about your common interests. Pose questions to leads about their interests as well.
Invite questions and answer them in public, so that the answers can be useful to others too.
It's easy to go wrong online as there are no visual cues to help people understand your tone. Use language that doesn't have a lot of other connotations. Repeat what you have to say in different words so that people understand.
At American Agents Alliance, we want to help you build your insurance marketing. Talk with us about how you can expand your network. Contact us today.
