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 How to Get Customers Using Social Networks
Like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Business Success Stories You Can Use
You can get customers for your business by using social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. These are only a few of the social network websites engaging people online. Social Networks are not just for playing online games, taking quizzes, sending virtual gifts or stay in touch with friends and family. Companies have discovered that social networks help you build your business, connect with people, and get more customers. Plus, social networks are free or almost free.
- What Your Customers Expect on Social Networks
- Will It Blend? Blendtec Entertains Customers on Social Networks
- The GEICO Mascot Chats Up Insurance Customers
- Comcast Takes Customer Service to the Social Networks
- With Tyson Foods, It's Not Business, But Philanthropy
- Quicken Loans Runs YouTube Testimonials for Customers
- Zillow Gets Customers by Blogging
- Threadless Sells T-shirts on Social Networks
- Target Connects to Customers on Social Networks
- CompareTheMarket Introduces Its Meerkat to Customers
What Your Customers Expect on Social Networks
The traditional assumptions about business, customers and marketing crumble to pieces when you enter a social network. For your business to be a success with customers on social networks, your approach should be authentic and real, the way you would treat a customer in person. Your business should never lie or fake it. Customers always find out.
Social networks are all about honesty and transparency. What does honesty mean? If the customers in your video are paid actors, disclose it. If you paid a blogger to review your product, disclose it. What does authentic mean? It means that the company spokesperson has a name and a picture customers can identify with. It means that you don't pretend, and you don't hide behind company PR verbiage. It means that you go the extra mile for a customer whenever possible.
Transparency means that your business accepts criticism and encourages comments. You can reply to customer complaints in public. If you run a survey, don't fudge the results. When you talk to your online followers, treat them as personal friends.
You want to get customers for your business, but with social networks, it's also important to listen to others. Then you can engage with your customers in a relevant and interactive way. Here are some success stories of businesses that know how to get customers using social networks.
Will It Blend? Blendtec Entertains Customers on Social Networks
Blendtec makes blenders in Utah. At the factory they check the reliability of their product by blending a two-by-four of lumber. Fascinating to watch a blender demolish it, yes. Then an inspired employee wondered what else Blendtec could handle, like a cell phone, a bag of marbles, or a game controller. They made videos of CEO Tom Dickson blending all kinds of unusual items and posted the videos on YouTube. This little marketing strategy went viral across the Internet, got Tom on the Jay Leno show, and built up the Blendtec brand. All because they used social networks.
The GEICO Mascot Chats Up Insurance Customers
GEICO, the insurance giant, uses the gecko mascot to make the insurance business more personal. The gecko has been a busy reptile meeting customers. He has a Twitter presence, http://twitter.com/TheGEICOGecko with 2700 followers. There are 199 videos you can watch on his YouTube channel. And his Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/thegeicogecko has 151,764 fans. The Gecko also appears in copycat videos as the "laughing baby," as the third participant in "two talking cats" and as the Gecko "that takes a picture of himself every day for two years." The gecko can show you a thing or two about how to get customers with social network marketing.
Comcast Takes Customer Service to the Social Networks
Comcast is a cable giant who uses social network Twitter for customer help. The account is http://twitter.com/ComcastCares. Comcast is using Twitter to turn customer service around. When a customer complained to them on Twitter about poor picture quality during an exciting sports game, Comcast got right on it and sent a worker to fix the problem. The customer repaid them with a glowing tweet about the good customer service. It happens often that, instead of phoning your business, customers go to Twitter with complaints about a product. Your business should be on Twitter to answer them.
With Tyson Foods, It's Not Business, But Philanthropy
Tyson Foods, the huge chicken processor from Arkansas, uses Twitter to promote charitable contributions of food to disaster areas around the world. Their Twitter account links to one of its websites, http://www.tysonhungerrelief.com. Hunger relief around the world is the main topic of interest. The topics for Tyson tweets are food banks, relief efforts, and volunteers doing good work. See http://twitter.com/tysonfoods.
Quicken Loans Runs YouTube Testimonials for Customers
Quicken Loans, a large online lender, asked its customers to explain in a video how a loan from the business helped them with a home purchase, an investment or remodeling. These homemade videos are testimonials for the business, posted on its YouTube channel to share with prospective customers.
Zillow Gets Customers by Blogging
Zillow is a real estate website with home appraisal values, real estate listings and mortgage loans. The company added a popular blog to its website. The blog covers items of interest to homeowners, topics like new tax credits, National Good Neighbor Day, and how to improve your home resale value. The blog also features pictures of the homes of Hollywood celebrities for sale. Zillow's blogging success comes from the value they provide and the connection they make with customers.
Threadless Sells T-shirts on Social Networks
Threadless is a community-based tee shirt business that prints awesome designs, designs that are created and chosen by its public! Threadless is a success using social networks to get customers. You might not have heard of Threadless, but millions have. Threadless has 1,573,539 followers on Twitter at http://twitter.com/THREADLESS !! When Threadless announced a special $10 sale of t-shirts and put the discount coupon code on Twitter, the enthusiastic response actually brought down the Threadless website for a while. There's also a prize giveaway with Bob and Kristen from Threadless spinning the prize wheel for their followers, and posting the videos on YouTube. Here's a sample at YouTube http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12599589.
Target Connects to Customers on Social Networks
Target, the retail chain, used its Facebook page to promote its charitable contributions. Visitors to the page voted for the charity that should receive Target money. The vote appeared on each person's feed, so that more friends learned about the promotion. When the promotion finished, Target contributed to each charity in proportion to the votes it received. Now Target has 3,855,944 fans on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/target. On its Facebook page, customers can also sign up for MyTargetWeekly, a weekly online store magazine of new deals.
CompareTheMarket Introduces Its Meerkat to Customers
The British website for auto insurance comparison called CompareTheMarket.com uses a meerkat as its business mascot, to make insurance more personal. The meerkat is a big success on social networks. Their TV ads featuring the meerkat named Aleksandr(sic) Orlov really took off so they posted the ads on YouTube. The meerkat is a familiar face on other social networks. He also has his own website http://www.ComparetheMeerkat.com where he his drole humor promotes the insurance business. 768,751 people like his Facebook fan page, http://www.facebook.com/CompareTheMeerkat.
I hope life brings you much success.
I wish you a very happy day.
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