In an era where digital landscapes are constantly evolving, understanding the role of social media in business growth is more crucial than ever. Sitting down with Kostas Alekoglu, a digital marketing expert and managing director at Digital Aesthetics, provided a unique opportunity to delve into his innovative strategies for leveraging social media.
His approach, which pivots from traditional content posting to fostering more meaningful interactions and dialogues, offers invaluable insights into transforming an online presence into lasting digital relationships.
Emphasising Interaction Over Posting
Drawing on his experience as a renowned business consultant in the marketing industry, Kostas first and foremost emphasises meaningful engagement with customers, going beyond the routine of regular content posting. In his view, while consistent content is certainly the backbone of digital presence, the soul of it lies in interactive engagement.
This focus on engagement is particularly vital considering that users now spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes daily on social media, offering businesses ample opportunity to engage in meaningful interactions. As Kostas puts it, “Engagement is the currency of social media. It’s not just about being seen; it’s about creating a dialogue that resonates with your audience.”
In addition, projected social media ad spending in 2023 is forecasted to be over USD $268 billion in 2023, with USD $130.5 billion generated through mobile users by 2027, further showing its ever-growing role in advertising. A skilled marketer will also identify the need to stand out more than ever in a market quickly filling up with generic content.
Again, this paradigm shift is not just about staying visible but rather about creating a space where customers feel heard and connected. The focus is on building trust and fostering loyalty, which in turn, transforms followers into genuine and loyal brand ambassadors.
Building Relationships through Conversations
Kostas’ approach to engaging with audiences on social media centres around fostering direct and sincere conversations. This method goes beyond traditional broadcasting, focusing on two-way dialogues that create deeper connections and a sense of community.
This approach gains significance when we see that 60% of the world’s population uses social media, presenting a vast audience for businesses to engage in rich conversations. For instance, Facebook is still the most-used platform by marketers globally, with a user base of about 2.96 billion, and it remains a vital channel for most successful digital marketing strategies.
Kostas focused on the interactive nature of social media by saying, “Social media should be a two-way street. It’s about listening and responding, creating a conversation rather than a monologue.”
Beyond that, he went on to share his top 5 strategies for fostering good relations with customers, which are as follows:
- Initiating Discussions: Here he stresses the importance of sparking conversations around topics that resonate with your audience. This might involve creating posts that provoke thought, ask open-ended questions, or share insights to invite audience opinions. By hosting regular themed discussions or selecting a ‘topic of the week’, a brand can maintain relevance and encourage ongoing engagement. The goal here is to create an environment where the audience feels their opinions are valued and integral to the community.
- Prompt Responses: Quick, thoughtful responses to comments and queries are crucial for showing that a brand values its audience’s input. Kostas advocates for responses that go beyond mere acknowledgement, focusing on personalised, context-aware interactions. Implementing efficient customer query resolution systems and regularly interacting with frequent commenters builds a loyal and engaged community.
- Live Q&A Sessions: Hosting live sessions, such as Q&As, allows real-time engagement and adds a human touch to the digital experience. Kostas encourages brands to use these sessions for various purposes, including answering audience questions, showcasing behind-the-scenes content, or conducting live demonstrations. Encouraging the audience to submit questions or topics beforehand can make these sessions even more relevant and engaging.
- User-Generated Content (UGC) Initiatives: Here he recommends encouraging your audience to create and share their content related to your brand. This could be through competitions, challenges, or campaigns that prompt customers to share their experiences. UGC diversifies the content on your platforms and fosters a sense of community, showing that the brand values and celebrates its customers’ voices.
- Regular Polls and Surveys: Conducting polls and surveys involves the audience in decision-making processes or helps gauge their opinions on various topics. This strategy, ranging from product preferences to broader industry-related questions, not only provides valuable insights but also makes customers feel like active participants in the brand’s journey.
Integrating these strategies into a social media plan can significantly enhance how businesses interact with their audience. It shifts the focus from one-sided communication to interactive, engaging, and relationship-focused interactions, enriching the user experience and nurturing a loyal, active online community.
Using Customer Feedback as a Growth Tool
Beyond fostering good relationships, Kostas places great emphasis on the role of customer feedback in driving business growth. In his view, this goes beyond simply monitoring comments on social media; it’s about actively seeking, understanding, and acting upon what customers are saying. He advocates for the development of robust mechanisms for collecting and analysing feedback, which can offer invaluable insights into customer preferences, behaviours, and pain points.
Highlighting the value of feedback, Kostas noted, “Feedback is a goldmine. It tells you not just what you’re doing right, but where you can improve to truly meet your customers’ needs.”
Selecting the right platform is key here, as some social media platforms offer far greater advantages than others. For instance, Instagram’s role as a pivotal platform for social selling and its high ROI for product sales make it a key focus for marketers, with 29% planning to invest more in 2023. Kostas identified the key aspects of utilising customer feedback as follows:
- Feedback Channels: Establishing dedicated channels for feedback, such as surveys, comment sections, or direct messaging, can facilitate easy communication for customers. He suggests integrating these channels seamlessly into the customer experience, making it convenient for customers to share their thoughts and opinions.
- Analysing Feedback for Insights: Once feedback is gathered, the next step is thorough analysis. This involves identifying common themes, understanding underlying issues, and recognising opportunities for improvement. The goal is to translate raw feedback into actionable insights that can guide business decisions.
- Responsive Adaptation: According to Kostas, the real power of feedback lies in a business’s ability to respond and adapt. This could mean tweaking a product based on customer suggestions, altering a service to better meet customer needs, or even changing communication strategies to better resonate with the audience.
- Closing the Feedback Loop: He also stresses the importance of closing the feedback loop by communicating back to customers how their input has been implemented. This not only shows that the business values customer input but also enhances customer loyalty and trust.
Tailoring Interactions to Audience Needs
Understanding and adapting to your audience’s unique needs and preferences is another cornerstone of Kostas’ strategy for effective social media engagement. For instance, while Instagram’s engagement rates are four times higher than Facebook’s, they are on a decline, indicating the need for businesses to continuously adapt to evolving audience preferences.
“Every audience segment is unique. Personalisation is about speaking directly to these differences in a way that resonates” ” he advised. Here, he further highlights the following factors that any successful marketing strategy should address:
- Demographic Analysis: This involves a deep dive into the demographics of the audience, such as their age, location, interests, and other relevant factors. Kostas emphasises the need for this analysis as it helps tailor content and interactions to match audience preferences. It includes determining the best times for posting content based on when the audience is most active and understanding cultural nuances to ensure the content is both relevant and sensitive.
- Behavioural Segmentation: Beyond demographics, he suggests analysing audience behaviour. This includes understanding how different segments of the audience interact with various types of content and tailoring communication strategies accordingly.
- Personalised Communication: Personalisation is key in Kostas’ approach. This means crafting messages and responses that address the audience in a more personal and individualised manner. He believes in the power of segment-specific content, where different content types are targeted at different audience segments based on their preferences and behaviours.
- Tailored Offers and Promotions: Using insights gleaned from audience analysis, a brand can create offers and promotions that are specifically designed to appeal to different segments of the audience. This level of personalisation in marketing efforts can significantly boost engagement and conversion rates.
Leveraging Social Media Analytics
Finally, Kostas stresses the role of social media analytics in shaping a successful and dynamic social media strategy. He argues that diving deep into analytics allows for a more nuanced understanding of audience engagement and behaviours, which is crucial for crafting targeted and impactful social media content. Particularly noteworthy is the insight that short-form video offers the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy, aligning with the importance of using predictive analytics tools.
Kostas explained the importance of data, stating, “Analytics provide a roadmap. They show you where to go next based on where you’ve been successful.”
Engagement Tracking
A key component of his approach is the regular monitoring of engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments. These metrics are vital indicators of what content resonates with the audience. By analysing these data points, businesses can gain valuable insights into audience preferences and interests.
This knowledge allows for the adjustment of the content strategy to ensure it aligns more closely with what the audience wants to see, making every post more relevant and engaging.
To enhance this process, Kostas suggests utilising predictive analytics SaaS tools. These advanced platforms offer deeper insights into engagement trends, going beyond simple analysis to forecast future patterns. By predicting how audiences might react to different types of content, these tools enable businesses to proactively tailor their strategies, ensuring their social media efforts are not just reactive but also predictive and strategic.
Audience Behaviour Analysis
Another crucial aspect is understanding how audiences interact with content. Kostas recommends conducting a comprehensive analysis of the types of content that drive engagement and identifying patterns in audience behaviour. This process involves examining the nuances of successful posts, including their tone, topic, format, or timing, and applying these insights to future content creation.
The use of predictive analytics SaaS tools can significantly augment this aspect of social media strategy. By analysing large volumes of data, these tools can identify current engagement patterns and, more importantly, predict future audience behaviours. This level of predictive insight is invaluable for continuously refining content and interaction tactics, ensuring they remain in tune with the ever-evolving preferences of the audience.
In Summary
Digital Aesthetics’ Kostas Alekoglu’s approach offers a comprehensive guide for businesses to evolve their social media strategies. By prioritising interaction over traditional posting, understanding and responding to audience needs, and effectively employing analytics, businesses can engage their audience on a deeper level.
This personalised strategy not only increases reach but also fosters loyalty and trust, paving the way for sustained growth and success in the digital realm. Social media, in Kostas’ vision, transforms from a platform of mere visibility to a dynamic space of meaningful engagement and lasting customer relationships.
