Guest Blog: 10 reasons your customers are not engaging on social media

This week on our Friends on Friday guest blog post, my colleague Ravi Shukle describes 10 actions you may be doing that are preventing your customers from engaging with you on social media. These are excellent tips and I will make sure to follow all of them! – Shep Hyken

Have you ever wondered why your customers don’t engage with your company on social media?

Could it be something you said or posted?

If these questions have run through your mind when managing your social media profiles, then you have come to the right place.

You are reading this because you want to increase your engagement on social media and want some answers as to why your content isn’t doing as well as it should.

In this post, we are going to explore the top 10 actions that help to explain why your customers are not engaging on your social profiles.

#1 You don’t respond

Simply not responding on your social channels shows your customers that you don’t value them, which causes them to go elsewhere, or even worse — complain.

The key to any successful relationship is to have two-way communication. This also applies to your business. Having two-way communication with your customers on social media not only shows your customers you value their contributions but also acts as a great way to get feedback on your content and conversations. (How should you engage with customers? Should you respond to their comments or questions? Should you post questions to get them involved?).

#2 You don’t post valuable content

If all you post is humorous content or content that doesn’t help to solve their problems, your customers will quickly lose interest, as they are not getting any value in return for following or liking your pages.

Valuable content on social media can be categorized as content that helps to solve your customers’ problems or adds value. While there is nothing wrong with adding in humor or entertaining your customers on social media, it shouldn’t be the only type of content you post.

#3 You don’t encourage customer feedback

Ignoring customer feedback can prove to be a costly mistake, as your business is missing out on the chance to get direct feedback and suggestions from its users. Without this, your business may never get the same level of feedback from a survey or research. (How do you encourage customer feedback? Are there any tips to get them more interested in sharing their feedback, like a special discount or promotion that they will receive for sharing their feedback?).

You never want to assume you understand what’s best for your customers, as this could lead to your business creating a product or service with no demand.

#4 You don’t acknowledge your customers or employees

By not taking the time to acknowledge your customers or employees on social media, you are showing them you don’t value them as part of your community. You are also losing out on the chance to help spread word of mouth.

Spotlighting your customers and employees on social media is a great way to let others know your business recognizes its most loyal members in the community. This attracts more fans to engage and also encourages those who get featured to share the content. (How do you spotlight your customers or employees? Do you write posts about employees that are giving superb service? Do you give thanks to customers in some way?).

#5 You’re too technical

I completely understand that some support issues require a more technical approach. However, not personalizing this approach or explaining it in an easy to understand manner will only confuse your customers and cause your business to come across as unapproachable. (What are some examples of being too technical?).

You want to personalize your responses on social media by adding in a name and your own tone of voice, rather than just copy and pasting. This helps your business to become more relatable and shows the customer you have their best interests at heart.

#6 You post at the wrong times

You may have a great piece of content to share with your customers on social media, but posting it at the wrong time, or not posting often enough could mean no one is there to see it or share it.

To make sure this doesn’t happen, you want to track your analytics to find out when your customers are online and try posting at these times. You also want to make sure you post on a regular basis to help you stay top of the customer’s mind at least once a day.

#7 You only share your own content

Now, I get it – your goal is to increase visits to your website. But only sharing your own content can cause your fans to lose interest (Could explain more here. Why do they lose interest if you only share your own content? Do they get bored of company news?)., and you’ll miss the opportunity to expand your reach to new audiences.

By sharing content from others and tagging them in the posts, you not only open up your customers to fresh new content, but you also enable your content to get noticed by new audiences. You will also notice that if you share content from other businesses, they are more likely to return the favor.

#8 You bought likes

Truthfully, nothing positive comes out of this scenario. Fans that have been purchased in bulk have not been carefully selected to ensure their interests match that of your business. (Is there a process that goes into how Facebook chooses fans? Do the selected fans know anything about the business?).

As a result, you will experience lower engagement on your content and your content will also reach fans who will never engage.

NEVER buy likes to boost your numbers. Instead, use targeted “like ads” to find your ideal audience.

#9 You don’t vary your content

Only posting the same type of content (What does the same type of content entail? Does this mean that they are always posting the same types of subjects or that they always post pics, videos, etc.? Need more description.) This will cause your fans to lose interest, as it doesn’t offer them an alternative way to engage.
Instead, you want to develop a social media strategy so you know which types of content to share and the desired outcome of the content (i.e., more views for your blog).

You want to create a mixture of content each and every week, such as pics, videos and text updates. Find out what works and share that type of content the majority of the time, but never limit yourself to one post style.

#10 You constantly promote your own products –

I hate to break it to you, but constantly promoting your own products or services on your social channels will not help to increase sales. (Does it annoy customers?). In fact, it will do the opposite and actually put your customers off doing business with you on social media.

Instead, you want to have a good mix of content that provides value and you want to be sure to engage with customers — then you can create an offer. This way, your customers get the most value through the content and conversations and will be more likely to purchase when you do decide to sell.

Final thoughts

The key aspect to remember when looking to increase engagement and sales on social media is to put the needs of the customer first. Always look to find new ways you can add value and make your customers’ lives easier. This, combined with encouraging customer feedback and spotlighting your customers, will help to create more loyal customers who engage more, and as a result, are also more likely to purchase.

Ravi Shukle  is the Guardian of Customer Happiness who loves to help businesses create happy customers for life through customer service. 

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com. Read Shep’s latest Forbes Article:

How Quickly Do Your Customers Get The Answers They Want And Their Complaints Resolved?