In this episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan Mehta is joined by Brooke Sellas, Founder & CEO of B Squared Media. They delve into Brooke’s aha! moments, her journey into digital marketing and social media management expertise. They discuss building brand loyalty, taking negative feedback, converting Negative Nancies to super fans, using social media to connect with customers and improve conversion rate, and using augmented reality in social media marketing. 

Brooke Sellas is a digital marketing consultant specializing in done-for-you social media management, social media listening, customer experience, and community & customer care through social media. She is a social media speaker and Companion of The Marketing Companion podcast. Brooke is also an adjunct lecturer at the University of California teaching a digital marketing 1.0 certification course, and she is currently working on releasing a book titled “Conversations That Connect.” 

👉 Seek out negative feedback. If all the feedback you get from people are positive, you would have no incentive to change as everything already appears perfect

👉 If you take the time to listen to, understand, and work on easing customers’ pain points, developing brand loyalty among customers will be a piece of cake

👉 A lot of brands find it difficult to apologize or accept wrongfulness. Whereas, if they can just be open, authentic, and transparent, it will be easier to gain the trust and loyalty of consumers 

👉 Like every other kind of relationship, the relationship between brands and customers thrives on reciprocity and trust. Brands can successfully create a strong bond between their customers and business by moving past cliches and fact-based information to communicate opinions and feelings

👉 “Nearly everyone's in a camp of facts. Very few are in the camp of opinions and feelings. So if you want to differentiate, if your strategy is stagnant, this is where you have to go to — conversations versus campaigns”

👉 Customer-centric conversations should come first. Campaigns can then be a supplement to that

👉 To connect with your customers, understand your own brand values, figure out how you can connect your values with the values of your audience, and then use conversations to have topics and themes around these values through opinions and feelings

👉 Use social media to build loyalty and relationships at scale and on an individual level

👉 Customer care does not begin post-purchase. It starts right from conversations had around your brand even before your product is purchased

👉 Use KPIs to track your business and social media goals. Develop a social media strategy. First, know your social media goals and how they tie to your business goals. Then come up with KPIs that will help you meet those goals. Benchmark them, write monthly goals, and keep track of whether or not you meet those KPIs

👉 Focus on getting engagement on socials rather than accumulating followers, as this helps with easy conversion

👉 It’s not about the number of posts you make; it’s about the quality

👉 The higher peer-to-peer recommendations about a product are, the higher the share of voice on social media

👉 Identify your customers and tailor your content to their interests

👉 Use social listening to mirror your customers. Avoid corporate-speak and use words or phrases used by customers for content marketing and brand messaging

👉 “If you truly want to focus on CX, social media and social-led customer care should be a part of your budget…”

👉 Look at what's happening on socials. Understand how much of it is acquisition and how much is about support. Then make a plan for meeting people there and make sure that your response times are as fast as possible

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