A lot of people forget to listen to their customers and their followers. But it’s not enough just to listen; you have to respond, too. It’s about engagement, community, and connection. Otherwise you were just talking at people, and not talking with them. There are three ways that you can navigate this.
- Reviews: Reviews give you the chance to get feedback on your product or work. Unfortunately, a lot of times these are in public spaces and without notice. This is all fine and good until they are negative and it takes you by surprise. But that’s OK, it doesn’t stop there. This gives you a chance to respond to the review. You can engage the customer in a positive way to resolve the issue, or at least inform your other customers or potential customers that the issue was not as stated. You can give your side of the story.
- Comments: When someone comments on your product, your services, or your social media post, it is your job to reply. Don’t simply let people post a comment without any response or reaction from you. That is unprofessional, and irresponsible on your behalf. You must engage. Engaging with customers/followers makes you real and relatable; it shows you care about your customers/followers. Customers don’t want a large company that routes you to outsourced people, and they want their experience to be personal. This means that it is your responsibility to kick the canned responses and truly engage each comment and review.
- Likes: You may think your content is great and your photos are super engaging. But if they are not getting a lot of likes or comments compared to your other content, please be real with yourself. Your audience will tell you if your content is good for them enough or not. When I’m handling social media for a client and they try to convince me of how great their content is, but it is not getting any reactions or engagement, I have to level with them and tell them it’s just not working. And even though they think it’s great, their followers and customers are the real judges of it. So if it’s not right, change it up. Don’t take it personally, treat it like the business that it is.