Social media can help turn your customers into brand ambassadors: here’s how

Even though creating and curating relevant magnetic content is at the heart of social media marketing, it can be quite time-consuming and expensive. In my experience, three of the biggest challenges with creating magnetic content for your marketing campaign are creating relevant original content, devoting enough time to create it, and finding the right content. If you are into digital marketing, you know that coming up with good content is a huge challenge. What if your customers could help you churn out good content to share with their connections?

If you have customers that are highly satisfied with your service, did you know that you could use them as a marketing weapon? Whether you provide services to customers, manufacture goods or have a retail business, play your cards right and you can turn your customers into brand ambassadors that will help you spread the word about your business. These people can be used to create magnetic content that will help you promote your brand online without asking to be paid for their help.

Do you know your customers?
One of the first steps in helping your customers become brand ambassadors is finding out who they actually are. What do you know about them? An easy way to find out is by creating an old school survey that will contain a couple of questions. Ask them to complete the survey on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or your website where they feel comfortable. Ask them to rate you on a scale from 1-10 on how likely they will recommend you to their family and friends. Those who answer above eight are potential brand ambassadors.

True brand ambassadors recommend their preferred services and products because they like them and would want to tell others about them. Make it easy for your customers to create testimonials, reviews, Facebook likes, tweets, photos, and videos that boost engagement about your business. Offer them the tools to create content and interact with you.

Help them spread the word
Also, there are many social media sharing and bookmarking tools that integrate with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and other social media channels that you can include on your website and blog so that your customers can share their experiences with their own networks. Encourage them to use these tools.

When your brand ambassadors share their experiences with their network by posting recommendations and comments on your website and social media channels, recognise and acknowledge them. Measure these results and keep track of them. What was the reach of the comments and shares generated? Using this data can also help you discover new areas and channels where you can further your digital marketing campaign.