Tweet

Boost Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty with Local SEO and Social Media

Guest post by: Sarah Carter

Article Overview: Social media isn't just for catching up with friends and family anymore. Now local businesses are using social networks to connect with their target audience, increase customer service and loyalty.

Boost Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty with Local SEO and Social Media

What business owner doesn't want to make his or her customers happier? Happy customers equal more business and referrals for you. There's nothing better than positive word of mouth advertising, because it's totally free. What if you could help your chances of making sure your customers were satisfied with your product or services?

Social media and local SEO can help business owners connect with their customers to make sure their needs are being met and they're happy with the interactions they've had with the business. Not sure how social media and local SEO can help? Here are 5 ways.

1. Attract new customers. Using local SEO techniques and social media can help you attract new customers. Creating a Google Place page for your business and optimizing it for search engines can help your business appear in the letters of the Google Maps results where potential customers are most likely to see you. Adding enhancements to your page like photos, videos, a full business description, coupons and more will help attract customers to your page and away from your competitors. Making sure your business is listed on review sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle and more can also help attract new customers to your business. Potential customers will read your positive reviews and choose to work with you. Customers can also leave reviews on Facebook. Twitter tweets are now indexed in Google. This means if you use keywords in your tweets, when people search for your products or services, your tweets may show up in the results and entice them to check out your business.

2. Brand recognition. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube get more exposure for your business. The more exposure your business gets, the more recognizable your brand becomes. Soon, when the time comes for your consumers to choose between you and your competitors, they will choose you, simply because they remember your company was the one with the funny video on YouTube that they enjoyed. Local SEO helps consumers find your social network pages, photos and videos. Optimizing your page or videos with the right keywords can help them show up in the search results above your competitors. This will help guarantee potential customers do business with you rather than your top competitors.

3. Customer loyalty. Social networks allow for businesses to connect with their customers on a more relaxed, personal level. When a customer actually likes a business or feels attached to it in some way, customer loyalty is created. Making your social media network a place where your target audience feels comfortable and entertained will make them more apt to do business with you over your competition. Posting entertaining or interesting search-optimized information on your Facebook, Twitter or YouTube pages will increase the chance of your followers sharing the information with their friends; which means more business for you.

4. Customer satisfaction. Social media networks let your company interact directly with your customers. Customers can post questions, concerns, praise or even complaints on your social media pages. While complaints are not something you want on your pages, they bring dissatisfied customers to your attention so you can fix the problem. Never underestimate the power of one disgruntled customer. It’s much better to get the problem taken care of than to wait and see what kind of damage they can do. Keep in mind that you have full control over what shows up on your pages. You have the power to remove any unwanted posts that may appear and you can choose to be notified by email whenever someone leaves comment. Social media networks also allow for you to post questions or polls for your customers to answer. Want to know what they thought of your newest product? Ask them on Facebook. Getting their feedback will help you better serve them, which will increase customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth.

The power of social media combined with local search can help your business in many ways. Whether you need to attract new customers or keep your currently customers happy, these techniques can help you grow your business and increase your profit.What business owner doesn't want to make his or her customers happier? Happy customers equal more business and referrals for you. There's nothing better than positive word of mouth advertising, because it's totally free. What if you could help your chances of making sure your customers were satisfied with your product or services?

Social media and local SEO can help business owners connect with their customers to make sure their needs are being met and they're happy with the interactions they've had with the business. Not sure how social media and local SEO can help? Here are 5 ways.

1. Attract new customers. Using local SEO techniques and social media can help you attract new customers. Creating a Google Place page for your business and optimizing it for search engines can help your business appear in the letters of the Google Maps results where potential customers are most likely to see you. Adding enhancements to your page like photos, videos, a full business description, coupons and more will help attract customers to your page and away from your competitors. Making sure your business is listed on review sites like Yelp, Merchant Circle and more can also help attract new customers to your business. Potential customers will read your positive reviews and choose to work with you. Customers can also leave reviews on Facebook. Twitter tweets are now indexed in Google. This means if you use keywords in your tweets, when people search for your products or services, your tweets may show up in the results and entice them to check out your business.

2. Brand recognition. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube get more exposure for your business. The more exposure your business gets, the more recognizable your brand becomes. Soon, when the time comes for your consumers to choose between you and your competitors, they will choose you, simply because they remember your company was the one with the funny video on YouTube that they enjoyed. Local SEO helps consumers find your social network pages, photos and videos. Optimizing your page or videos with the right keywords can help them show up in the search results above your competitors. This will help guarantee potential customers do business with you rather than your top competitors.

3. Customer loyalty. Social networks allow for businesses to connect with their customers on a more relaxed, personal level. When a customer actually likes a business or feels attached to it in some way, customer loyalty is created. Making your social media network a place where your target audience feels comfortable and entertained will make them more apt to do business with you over your competition. Posting entertaining or interesting search-optimized information on your Facebook, Twitter or YouTube pages will increase the chance of your followers sharing the information with their friends; which means more business for you.

4. Customer satisfaction. Social media networks let your company interact directly with your customers. Customers can post questions, concerns, praise or even complaints on your social media pages. While complaints are not something you want on your pages, they bring dissatisfied customers to your attention so you can fix the problem. Never underestimate the power of one disgruntled customer. It's much better to get the problem taken care of than to wait and see what kind of damage they can do. Keep in mind that you have full control over what shows up on your pages. You have the power to remove any unwanted posts that may appear and you can choose to be notified by email whenever someone leaves comment. Social media networks also allow for you to post questions or polls for your customers to answer. Want to know what they thought of your newest product? Ask them on Facebook. Getting their feedback will help you better serve them, which will increase customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth.

The power of social media combined with local search can help your business in many ways. Whether you need to attract new customers or keep your currently customers happy, these techniques can help you grow your business and increase your profit.

Related Articles
  Social Media and You
  What is the Return of Investment (ROI) for Social Media Strategy?
  Social Media and Customer Service How The Disconnect Continues
  Grow Your Retail Fan Page with Samples & e-Coupons
  Some Companies Feel That Having More Than One Profile is Distracting ...what do you think?
  Loyal Customers Build Sales
  Getting in Social Media Marketing
  Resourcing B2B social media
  Revealed key elements of a successful customer loyalty programs
  Social Media Principle 4 – Relationships Come Before Sales
  “Your PR Doctor’s Prescription For Healthy Local Media Relations”
  Effective use of CRM software
  Creating Customer Loyalty
  How to Maximize Local PR
  Apply Social Media Marketing To Your Advertising Campaign
  What Does a Social Media Agency Do?
  The Customer Satisfaction Trap
  Are Your Customers Satisfied or Loyal?
  “Should I or shouldn’t I”
  5 Social Media Don’ts You Should Avoid

Article Tags: internet marketing, local splash, online marketing, social media marketing



Related Forum Posts
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff
Re: Kevin needs "social glue" ideas - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":gvtxsu7g]Hi, I like the idea of "10 items that could act as "social glue" because I am an internet marketer. But I agree with the rest that the 10 recent post is nice. Maybe we should open up a new section in the forums on Social Media...or Social Media Marketing. I will tell you that the world is about 1 1/2 behind when it comes to understanding social media. Building a section now will put EvanCarmichael.com is a great position a year down the road when people realize Social Media can produce more traffic than SEO. Jeff[/quote:gvtxsu7g] Hi Jeff, Thanks for the suggestion. Why don't you start a new post (with a poll) to see if there's enough interest in your idea for a social media section?
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: Marketing 2.0 - What Are Your Thoughts - Hi Shri, Thanks for posting this. I also read it and I believe Social Media is here to stay, until the next best thing comes up. Social media proved to be useful for me many times and I think everyone should use it for their business.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Steps For Starting A Small Business

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Unharnessing Creativity in Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.