The first social media site was created in the late 90’s and fired up in early 2000 when big names like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, and more were launched. Mark Zuckerberg and others might never have thought how a photo/video sharing site would leap from just creating connections to a gigantic customer service platform. Today, social media channels are used as a two-way communicator between customers and businesses for feedback, grievances, updates, and more.

Before directly diving into strategies for social media customer engagement, let’s check some stats

• 54% of customers prefer social media messaging channels than phone or email
• 74% of millennials report that their perception of a brand improves when the company responds to customers’ social media inquiries
• 48% of consumers expect a response to social media questions and complaints within 24 hours.
• 55% of people aged between 18-34 have praised a brand or its customer service over social media.

The percentages are enormous and have a real opportunity for your business to build loyalty with these strategies

• Respond to messages/tweets – Customers active on social media try to get in touch with brands through messages, posts or tweets on the brand’s wall. Never mistake to ignore these messages or tweets else the customer feels ignored. But scrolling all social media channels can be a tedious task. Your reps need to have a system that integrates social channels and notify them instantly of incoming messages. CXInfinity – the new digital omnichannel customer engagement platform –  is a single console, integrated system. It saves the agent’s time lost in toggling between channels or missing out any message from the customers but being there where your customers are.
• Take issues offline – It is necessary to understand when the discussion is heating up and needs to be pulled down to an offline mode. Contact the customer through direct message.This makes him feel valued. And in case of heated conversations, things can be handled calmly when offline. It saves your brand from making mistakes publicly or getting your reputation spoiled by any chance.
• Intelligent routing – Social media queries can be department-specific. There can be a query related to the HR department or sales. To save a rep’s time lost in sorting out the questions, get a system that offers automatic routing basis skill, department, and more. This makes sure the right person responds to the query in the best possible manner, and everything is checked at your end.
• Share knowledge – Social media has enormous content to read. So, people come to a brand page not just for complaints but for information also. For instance, a customer who needs to install a product bought from you will never want to Google the installation process. Rather, while gazing at the social media page, he would scroll a post or video, if unsatisfied, he would connect with the representatives then and there. So, offer your agent instant access to Knowledge Base to stay updated and provide a relevant answer to your customers. Knowledge Base has the option to share content directly with the end-user without undergoing a tedious login process. Have a customer engagement software that allows access to Knowledge Base on the same interface instead of making agents struggle with switching software. CXInfinity enables you to access everything on a single interface. It allows you to even share relevant articles with your customers for self-help.
• Case management – To handle endless tickets or issues over multiple social media channels, it is necessary to have a case management system in place to handle these cases efficiently and don’t miss any of them. It would be best if you have an integrated case management tool that can record queries from all channels, offers updated notifications, SLAs and more for a smooth customer journey with your brand.
• Don’t spam – Social media marketing is on its boom, but that doesn’t mean you keep posting offers, sales, promotions or keep pushing reminders and so on. This becomes annoying, and your customers might soon unfollow you. Don’t overdo anything because your prospects are around. Such activities can make or break your online reputation.
• Analyze how customers respond to your campaign – Another essential engagement activity over social media is analyzing how customers are reacting to different marketing and sales activities posted by your brand. What kind of campaigns or promotion is liked by them and what not?
• Make the content more accessible – Content on your social media page is what your customers and prospects are reading. It is what engages them and initiates communication (other than issues 😊) Make sure your content is created in different formats; it is updated, stands on social issues, always active on occasions, and so on.

For your organization to have smooth customer engagement over social media and other digital channels, you need to showcase the human side of the business instead of just pushing your product/service. You need smart agents and smartly-integrated systems to seamlessly transit between channels and not applications. CXInfinity empowers your reps to handle customer queries and engage in real-time. Know more about this revolutionary product and its endless features that will grow your revenue and CSAT percentage like never before. Click here.