With the rise of Social Networking over the past couple of years, we now have even more ways to connect with our fans and customers. One thing to remember, your fans and customers are your best source for helping to continue to grow your online presence. This is why it is extremely important to reward them for not only providing commentary on your content, but also for sharing your content with others as well.
Remember, without fans or customers, it is pretty hard to grow, so it is important to give back.
Here are 5 ways you can interact with and reward your best fans and customers:
- Respond to comments
- Publicly reply to them on Twitter
- Mention them in a blog post
- Link love
- Contests
It’s nice to get noticed – take a couple of minutes each day and respond to the people who took time to comment on your blog post or status update. Those two minutes will go a long way in letting them know you read their content and acknowledged it.
Social Networking isn’t about being anti-social. If someone sends you a tweet, telling you how much they love your site, a product, etc…send them a public reply on Twitter. Not only will they see it, but so will the millions of people on Twitter. Giving back again will pay itself forward many times over, just for taking those couple of seconds to show someone you’re listening to them.
Let’s face it, we love to be mentioned. If you’ve seen something interesting, whether in a news article, on a blog, on Facebook, etc…and you use it on your site, consider mentioning that person in your blog post and linking off to them, whether it is to their blog, their Twitter account, their Facebook page, etc…it helps to justify their work and the time they put into it.
One part of building a successful blog or website is to network. I’m not talking just about having people link to your site. Instead, I’m talking about giving them some link love too. If you have a blog roll on your site, consider reaching out to other sites that also cover similar topics and ask if you can exchange links. Be social — you add a link to their site on your own website, they return the favor by adding one back to your site.
The last way you can reward your best fans and customers is by well, giving them something. I’m not saying you have to go out and spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on prizes. Instead, give them a free product, a gift card, a 15 minute phone call if you’re a business owner – what’s the cost — your time, etc…
By interacting with and rewarding your fans and customers, it will make them feel better connected with you. It will also encourage them to share and recommend your content to others.
So tell me, what other ways do you reward your fans and customers to keep them interested?