How You’re Annoying Your Customers (Without Realizing It)

For the first 16 years of his life, my younger brother’s name was “STOPJON!.” STOPJON! blew raspberries, jumped on the couch, yanked ponytails, trudged mud through the house and threw water balloons. STOPJON! never heard his name unless it was shouted in annoyance. Eventually, STOPJON! matured and graduated to “Jon,” but not before leaving a legacy of frustrated family members and teachers in his wake.

My point in sharing this charming childhood tale with you? You don’t want your company to be a STOPJON!.

With a selection of competitors at their fingertips, your customers are more discerning than ever. They have the power to walk away, no matter how small or petty your slight against them was. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: social media is one of the key decision makers your customers use. If they don’t like what they see, they’ll unfollow and take their business elsewhere. What makes them leave? The folks over at Sprout Social took a deep dive into customer behavior on social media. The results of their study may surprise you.

What’s Annoying Your Customers

With the rise of Facebook advertising, your social media pages no longer need to be a catalogue of your products/services. Use your ads to drive sales and make your posts about highlighting what makes you an authentic, likable brand. 

What Makes Them Unfollow

This is where you need to do some balancing. Customers want to follow your page because they’re interested in what you have to offer, but they don’t want to be bombarded with advertisements. And again: be authentic. You don’t have to be a hip startup to make people like you. Just because millennials are the hottest market to tap into right now doesn’t mean you need to drastically alter your content to try and appeal to them. In fact, going too far down that direction embarrasses your customers and makes them unfollow. 

What Generates a Sale

At the end of the day, you need to see an ROI from social media. Even if you’re not selling a product directly online or through social, what you post on social media has a direct impact on purchasing decisions.

Here’s the kicker: a sale doesn’t happen right away. Considering that customers on average need to see something 2-4 times on social media before purchasing, that means it will take time. Don’t expect each new Page Like to immediate translate into cash. Keep giving your audience what they want and eventually they’ll take the next step on their own.

Now that you know what your customers don’t want to see, find out what they do want with our Drive New Business with Social Media BizzyWebinar on February 8. Can’t make it? You can watch it anytime after broadcast on our YouTube channel.

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Stop the Chorus of “Buzz Off”

Are your clients annoyed? We can help. Our Buzz Builders online marketing programs handle social media for you, so you can give your customers the content they want that keeps them coming back.