You’re in the business of helping your customers succeed, whether it’s getting the word out on fresh product releases, garnering interviews for their smartest thinkers, lining up media coverage, helping them win awards, or enabling thought leadership in the form of blogs and other content. But are you amplifying those wins enough?
Talking up your customer partnerships and the wins you’ve created together is one of the best ways to showcase your credibility, and the effectiveness of your marketing strategy and your team. Customer news can also catch fire and become some of your best-performing content, with visibility and reach far beyond your own set of contacts. And of course, it only helps your clients further their mission of getting notice and recognition for the amazing work they’re doing.
One of the most indispensable ways to show your customers the love they deserve is having a solid social media presence—but it’s important to have a smart strategy to get the most out of your efforts on platforms like LinkedIn, X, Threads, and more.
Here are five ingredients for turning your social media platforms into a successful recipe for customer visibility and bolstering your firm’s profile.
- Track their coverage—and share it. If your customer is mentioned or quoted by a publication or mentioned in an analyst note, make sure to congratulate them across your social media channels by posting a link to the article, or link back to the news when it’s posted on their site. It’s easy to track this via paid monitoring platforms, RSS feeds, or even Google Alerts. And don’t forget to craft a catchy, unique call to action, headline or descriptor for your posting.
- Credit where credit is due. It may sound obvious, but to encourage shares, make sure to tag everyone involved, including the customer, any relevant executive handles, the publication, reporter or editor, and so on. On platforms that use hashtags, don’t forget to include a relevant topic to widen your post’s exposure even further. Also, consider re-sharing the content from your own personal accounts as well. Sharing their news generates good will—and links your company back to a successful customer.
- Ask customers to guest blog. Customer-generated content is nearly free except for the time that someone in the marketing department or PR spends soliciting posts and then editing what comes in. By adding the customer’s own voice to your blog or LinkedIn page, you now have existing customers talking to potential customers, some of whom prefer hearing from their peers. Ask your customers to focus on the challenges that caused them to look for a solution like yours. By being specific with their story, they can help you move potential customers through their own buyer’s journey.
- Don’t forget about second-day posts and evergreen content. Social media feeds move so quickly that sometimes things get lost in the constant stream of updates. That’s where longer-tail strategies come in. Don’t forget to re-up your content with second-day shares, and keep more evergreen content such as customer blogs, quarterly reports, whitepapers and case studies in the hopper to post on a rotating basis. By repurposing your client’s appropriately, you’re maximizing their marketing dollars and your own amplification efforts.
- Connect social engagement to business success. Finally, a social media strategy isn’t complete without leveraging the engagement that you find there. Pay attention to metrics around likes, shares and comments, and use that information to inform your posting strategy going forward. What’s working? What isn’t? It’s equally important to use the engagement data from social media to inform your content development and marketing roadmap efforts; that can lead to more revenue and share of wallet down the line, as you deliver proven ROI for your customers’ marketing spends.
Sharing your customers’ success just makes good business sense. Want to learn more about ways you can turn your social feeds into customer fan zones? Contact Calysto.