The importance of customer reviews in an ever-growing social media-focused society

Social media has changed the way we all communicate with friends, family and our favourite brands.

Allowing businesses to connect and engage with their target market in all corners of the world, social media is now widely recognised as one of the most powerful communication tools when it comes to boosting awareness, increasing engagement and generating sales.

With this in mind, social media now has a huge impact on business growth, especially when it comes to achieving business goals. After all, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media channels are used by billions of people worldwide and have massive potential when it comes to marketing.

And as social media is extremely influential when it comes to influencing buying decisions, customer reviews are now more important than ever before!

Why? Customer reviews not only help to optimise credibility and boost sales but they can also help brands to show up higher on search engines such as Google. In fact, research has suggested that around 57% of consumers rely on online reviews before making a buying decision.

Here’s how you can utilise customer reviews as part of your social media strategy.

Ask for reviews

First and foremost, it’s important that you actually ask your customers to advocate your product or service once they have made a purchase! If your customers are satisfied with the service they have received they should be more than happy to leave a review.

If you can, it’s highly beneficial to personally ask your customers to leave a review however, if this not possible, a personalised newsletter, email campaign or blog post containing a link to your page is just as effective.

Share reviews

Sharing positive experiences is one of the most powerful ways to inspire action and generate sales. People buy from people and are more likely to invest in your product or service if they are inspired by other people’s experiences.

With this in mind, you should share customer reviews across all of your platforms, so that if your target customers visit your page, the first thing they will see is positive words about your brand.

Once you have gathered your testimonials, make sure that you integrate them into your social media strategy for optimum impact.

Review your testimonials

Finally, it’s important that you respond to any testimonials left in a professional and timely manner, regardless of whether they are positive or negative.

This is because testimonials are a great customer service tool and in circumstances where a bad review is left, it provides the perfect opportunity to respond and put things right. After all, things can go wrong from time to time and it’s important businesses of all shapes and sizes do everything they can to rectify any issues.

When handling negative customer reviews, you should also never be tempted to converse in an argument with a customer or delete any comments.

As technology continues to advance at an unprecedented rate, social media is set to become one of the world’s most effective marketing tools. With this in mind, you should take every opportunity to utilise these platforms and the many benefits that come hand in hand with them.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes