Netizens or generally known as “followers” are the ones who composes the whole social media community. These people are the reason why most companies have joined the online marketing bandwagon, because they, for emphasis, also exist in the real world; they have the power to materialize online sales into actual sales.
Given this fact, most online companies misunderstood the essence of having many followers. The first 500 ‘follows’ or ‘likes’ may make your site look real, but at the end of the day that’s what they’ll ever be – a front for your page’s authenticity.
Authenticity is gravely different from credibility. Yes, your business and website is real; you even have papers to back it up to show that you are authentic and a real deal. But what about your marketing promises, or your product’s quality? What can you give your online audience to make them believe that what you’re saying is real? What can you show them that will make them recommend your products to someone else? More, importantly how can you convince them to buy your products/services?
Followers who doesn’t retweet, share, like or react to any of your marketing posts are like a trinket that’s only good for displays. It is better to have 100 active and conversation-engaged followers than 1000 page-default follower who doesn’t give you any profit. SEO-wise, the latter people mentioned wouldn’t even help generate any traffic on your site, thus making your product/services unknown to any willing online customers.
Thankfully, social media also has the solution to produce active audience to your site –that is @reply. This technique should not only make conversation with your followers personal but should also create a thread of discussions that can raise interest among spectators. Facebook and Twitter’s capability to detect a popular/trending topic would also help in this situation.
Another factor in using @reply is the social media etiquette, if you are talking to someone who is familiar with this rule, then his obligation to reply or at least ‘like’ your @reply should also generate traffic to your site. Conversational @reply is also a must in using this technique or it will defeat the whole purpose of replying. For example, Instead of just saying “@you thank you for sharing about the usefulness of @reply”, to engage the other party in a conversation you can say “@you your post about @reply was an interesting read. Is this method limited to twitter and facebook?” depending on your answer, this exchange of information can build-up your site’s reliability.
In addition, you should know that your @reply isn’t limited to your own page or posts. Making an effort to comment on interesting matters that may or may not be related to you company will make you seem like a strong prospect. In the marketing directive it says that it is better to focus on your target market, but it doesn’t state that you should totally disregard those that are outside of your comfort zone; although they are not your first priority, sales are still main concerns. The purpose of this whole exercise is to gain a bigger reach, resulting to more active followers and raising brand awareness in the process.
img c/o pixabay
