Social messaging platforms tap into people’s innate desire for communication, and the 1:1 engagement they’re designed for offers marketers a host of new opportunities to connect with consumers and build their reputation in a crowded market space.
In a variety of circumstances, communication helps in the creation and maintenance of personal brands; this is, in part, why social messaging platforms, which are designed for communication, are so popular.
The ability of individuals to choose whatever aspects of their identity to display — and through which media — is now so engrained in their minds that it appears intuitive. People learn which aspects of their own self-image to broadcast on each channel by engaging with the communications and content posted by others on those channels. How, then, can brands follow suit?
Not all social messaging platforms are created equal. Where businesses connect with their consumers matters just as much as how they do so. Here are three strategies for brands to strategically increase their social messaging presence to boost customer engagement and maximize their CX investments.
Also Read: Top 7 Tips for B2B Customer Engagement in 2022
Understand the Audience
The consumer must be at the forefront of all engagement activities. Although it seems clear, too many brands ignore this. Who are the current customers? Which social messaging platforms see the most activity from them? Brands must then think about what percentage of the target market they aren’t connecting with through social messaging platforms. Where are they active? Brands can evaluate which social messaging platforms will work best for improving their CX by examining data on existing and target customers and broader demographic data.
Boost Customer Engagement
To respond to every social media message, brands cannot merely rely on their customer support or social media teams. Most businesses would need to hire a team and perform a large amount of moderating to maintain responsiveness on social messaging platforms, and even then, the consumer may become impatient with wait times. Customers are generally less likely to purchase from a company with prolonged wait times. While social media teams and live support agents will always be involved in responding to client concerns on social messaging platforms, businesses can ensure rapid responsiveness at scale – without recruiting a fleet of staff.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated right into social messaging platforms to provide consumers with always-on customer interactions at scale.
Over the past few years, NLP has undergone significant development. It can now comprehend more than 100 languages, understand consumer messages even when they contain typos or slang, and conduct analytics on customer conversations to deliver increasingly personalized and relevant insights.
NLP-powered platforms can help businesses quickly respond to questions, check order statuses and inventory, and guide customers as they make a purchase, all within a social messaging channel. This results in a rich experience that customers would typically expect from a branded mobile app. Other, more proactive uses of NLP are growing in popularity, particularly with e-commerce companies. Examples include sending tailored offers to customers who have recently made purchases. AI and NLP are crucial for creating a truly personalized two-way interaction with consumers on social messaging platforms.
For many, these solutions can be daunting, but as more Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) vendors include NLP in their software offerings, an automated and intelligent social messaging inbox is becoming more accessible and seamless to brands of all sizes. Additionally, using NLP activation will ultimately be far less expensive to maintain consumer satisfaction on social messaging platforms.
The Brand Persona
Businesses have the opportunity to express their brand persona on social messaging platforms just like customers can. They can strengthen their brand persona by automating consumer engagement on the appropriate social messaging platforms. They can even alter the tone of an NLP interaction to fit their persona; for instance, integrating the brand persona into a chatbot to further differentiate the consumer experience.
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