Everyone has customers, or they wouldn’t have a business. But not every customer you have is ready and willing to sing your praises. Yet you need as many of these customers as possible to do just that. So how can you turn a customer into a brand advocate?

Give Them a Voice

Maybe that sounds a bit obvious, because to be a brand advocate they kind of have to be saying things, but you need to do more than simply let them talk about your brand on their own personal social networks. A Brand Advocate does more than let others know how great your product/service is. Brand Advocates can also provide keen insights and suggestions to improve those products and services.

Here are four ways to encourage your customers to not only talk positively about you, but also offer you valuable information to do better.

#1: Build a Branded Community

A branded community is a great way to bring all your customers together to engage with not only you, but other customers. People can share opinions, give advice, discuss issues and more with each other. You, as the owner of the community should be doing several things: listening to what is being said, responding and engaging appropriately (and we aren’t talking marketing speak here) and rewarding those who are most active and provide useful information for others. Done right, a branded community will encourage customers to go outside of the community and continue to say good things about you across their social networks.

#2: Listen, Learn, Reward

Customers want to be heard, and not only that, they want to know that you Read more…