I believe there is a missing ROI potential that many people are missing out on. That missing revenue stream is in your page comments. Too many times businesses don't comment back to their customers and they leave them hanging because they are either too busy, don't know how or don't understand the importance.
I've been wanting to write this piece for a long time now. My company Grand Apps is a digital shop that helps clients with mobile app development, web design, video production, public relations and social media. We love the digital aspect of marketing and have found some success in it. We currently manage almost 30 social media clients with everything from strategy, content creation to execution.
Let's be clear, social media "marketing" is not some new magical form of marketing, it's still marketing. It's just a new medium with a shift of attention, that's all. Carry on...
But social media presents a pretty unique chance to speak directly with customers and gives you a chance to sell them in advance with communication.
"You must comment back to every single post, even if they only send an emoji or tag someone. Open the conversation up and communicate. This is our first priority at Grand Apps."
Here are some examples of engagements and how to turn them into ROI for your business.
Here is a perfect example on potential ROI in comments. This person is very curious about the pricing for kids. The business page should immediately reply with pricing and offer that person some incentive to come in today. If you look they commented at 9:41am, if you catch them quick enough you can have them come in for lunch. That would be an easy say and some money made. #ROI
Another great example of someone really considering coming in, but they just don't know the hours. Sure the hours are probably on your website and FB page, but don't be lazy. Comment back 1 on 1 with this person and engage with them. Ask them if they've ever been to your location and if they can come in.
Again, someone interested in the hours. Communication and engaging with them is key here to drive them in. When you comment back you should tell them the hours then ask them if they've ever been to a location before.
We found majority of the time customers simply don't know you offer something. By using social media effectively, you can share your products and services and create a demand, like we see in this post. This person clearly needs it in their life. Now it's our job to talk to them and convert them to come in. You can also barely see that they tagged someone in this post, that's huge!
This means they took the time to comment, like and tag. Now their friend sees the ad as well. We suggest giving them a $1 off the item and have them both come in. You can easily drive traffic this way and it's the businesses responsibility to sell them and retain them when in store.
This is probably my favorite comment of all time. Someone is clearly telling us that our sponsored ad worked. They're admitting we got them! Okay maybe not. But we did engage back with this person to ask them "did it work? lol". They replied "technically no because they're in a different state". But you can be sure that if they were around we could have drove them in.
This comment comes from a post that was doing well and they were at a loss for words from how good something looked. This is a simple brand awareness comment. I suggest that you post back with "at a loss for words ey?" or "we totally understand *emoji laughing crying*". Engage with this customer and keep a conversation going.
This is another favorite of mine, ha. They tagged someone saying they're crying because they can't make it in. We then commented back and they replied when they come in September, they're stopping in. By doing this, we just created a future customer through social channels by engaging with comments.
Last one, I promise. This is a great result in using awesome content on social media to get people so excited they tag someone saying they have to try it out. When you really break that comment down it says "try this place out". That would imply they didn't know about this place and through social posting they found it. This is a more form of direct ROI than your traditional magazine / billboard would ever give a business.
Bottom Line: You should comment on everyones post. You should start communications in the community and engage, always. This will lead to more excited, loyal customers that will come to you the next time they see that sponsored post for $5 floating in their timeline.