Why does every company aim to gain 15,000+ likes on Facebook and 1K followers on Twitter? These are just fancy numbers that make brands look socially active, create competition and mislead new companies on the market. Many social media mangers have a clear goal to drive a certain number of unique visitors to their web sites who will take an action (aka conversion). However, does this mean that fans who click the “like” button on the brand’s Facebook page are the most loyal customers of your brand?

Let’s face it: users follow you on Twitter and may never read your tweets. They may like your Facebook page, but then never visit it again. Many social media managers run analytics for all the social media activities by using lots of different tools, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights etc. They have a nicely written report with your target market, estimated traffic of the social media pages and budget for the Facebook ads.

How many customers are truly engaged with your brand? Do they really care on which online shopping website they bought a camera two years ago? Are you sure that your social media audience are your loyal customers?

This may sound a bit scary. A very small conversion rate could potentially be a sign of low correlation between your website visitors and top advocates. Let’s dig deeper into this problem and investigate what can be done to understand who your most loyal customers are.

Analytics rock! When they make sense…

Click through rates (CTR) and traffic analytics won’t make any sense if there isn’t any awareness about what your customers prefer. Smart analysis should include a complete understanding of customer buying behaviour: what are the reasons they visit your page? You need to know who your top advocates are, and how they share with their social community. Thus, it is important to add social media buttons such as “like it”, “share it”, “pin it” and “tweet it” on your website or blog. Also, don’t forget to stay up-to-date on the trends, such as hash tags, keywords and number of shares from your page. For instance, if you have a wedding event planning website, don’t choose only keywords like “wedding cakes” and “wedding venue” for SEO.  Be creative; use slang words such MOH (Maid Of Honor) and other keywords that are largely used by your target audience.

One sided love is the worst kind of love.

Always give something back to your customers. Something as simple as one tweet from your  top brand advocate could increase your revenue by a couple percent.  Social media contests have become an effective way to engage users and reward them for the participation. For example, if you have an online designer boutique, ask your customer to fill in your survey and give them store credit. This gives them one more reason to come back to your company.

Make your customers happy.

Always keep track of trending conversations in social media networks about your brand. Respond to the comments positively to create the personality of your brand. It can be extremely difficult and challenging to manage negative comments on social feeds about your company. Nevertheless, negative comments are also a type of engagement with users. Using sweepstakes is a solution to reward customers who have had negative experiences with your brand.

Be personal.

Your brand image should not be associated with business and customer conversion. Make them think that you enjoy making customers happy and that you like what you are doing. Create a pinboard about your company culture, delivery process, and creative and inspiring moments in your company life.

We actually exist.

Many apparel companies face challenges to promote their products online without a physical shop.  Go offline, meet up with your customers! Create fashion meetups or organize free workshops.   That could create brand awareness and potentially additional revenue for your company. Reward participants through discounts and store credit, publish pictures on facebook and other social media feeds. One more reason for the user engagement!

Moving the earth.

Current time is about mobility, convenience and simplicity.  Think of the following facts:

• There are 7 billion on the planet
• Of those 7 billion, 5.1 billion have smartphones.
• 91% of all US citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7
• There are more mobile phones on the planet that have TV ads
• 57% of teens view their cell phone as the key to the social media

Despite these facts, again you need to know who your demographic is. If you offer complex products, it might be a waste of time and resources to make it mobile.