How to Use Social Media to Answer Questions
Your followers on social media have questions—and you, as the business owner and expert, have answers. Social media is a great platform for answering those questions in a public way, whether it’s frequently asked questions that everyone seems to have or specific niche questions that you only hear from a particular demographic of your customer base.
Social media gives you a way to reach a broad audience and address these questions. Some members of your audience might not even realize these were questions they had until they hear somebody else ask it (or they hear you answer it)!
Plus, answering these questions is good for you as a business owner. You’re able to demonstrate that you have expertise in your field, a well-thought-out approach to business, and consideration for all aspects of what you do. These questions can prompt some of the best content you share on social media, where your goal is always to engage, educate, and entertain.
So, what are some of the best practices when it comes to answering questions on social media? Here’s what you should know.
Listening and Monitoring
Social media is one of the best ways to keep your finger on the pulse of what people are talking about, whether that’s related specifically to your business or simply to your industry in general. If you are a business owner who understands people’s thoughts, concerns, wants, and needs, then you are in a prime position to provide value to their lives.
One of those wants and needs, of course, is understanding. People want to understand what you do and why it’s important. In some cases, they may be asking these questions or expressing these concerns in the comments section of your own posts, or they are tagging you in posts. If you have a brand hashtag you encourage your followers to use, they might be using that as well. In any of these cases, it’s easy for you to monitor the conversation.
Fortunately, the algorithms on many social media platforms are now getting so powerful that account tags and hashtags aren’t always necessary. You could simply search for your brand name or industry keywords to see what people are saying. It might even show up in your feed without you even having to search for it.
Some questions may warrant a response right away, especially if it’s timely or if it’s critical of your brand. Other questions may be more evergreen—in those cases, keep a list of those questions. This leads to the next point…
Creating Educational Content
Now that you’ve noticed the topics people are particularly interested in, and you know what specific questions they have, you can use this as inspiration or jumping-off points for content. Use these as prompts when creating blog posts, planning webinars, or designing an infographic for social media.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you run a home landscaping business. You frequently hear people ask questions about the best plants for them to grow in their yard. What is best for the environment? What’s the easiest to maintain? Based on those questions, you could:
Write a blog post about the benefits of native plants
Host a webinar about 10 native plants in your state and how to care for them
Create an infographic for Instagram showing how to identify native plants
Based on a general question—“What are the best plants for me to grow in my yard at home?”—you’ve just created three pieces of content that are valuable to your online followers.
Negative Feedback and Criticism
In most cases, questions are constructive. People genuinely want to learn about your brand and your field of expertise. But occasionally, you’ll deal with negative questions or outright criticism. Although it’s tempting to simply ignore this negativity, this is actually a great opportunity for you to address concerns in a public way—which is just as important as answering questions, if not more important.
Addressing negative questions right away demonstrates that you, as a business owner, care about the customer experience. It can help turn a negative situation into a positive one. It will likely turn a dissatisfied customer into a customer who will return. Others will see you resolve the complaint in this public forum and will feel comfortable patronizing you in the future because they see that you are a business owner who cares about your customers.
However, there will still be times when you run into a problem that can’t be resolved publicly. In these situations, the best thing to do is to make a public invitation to the person to contact you privately, either through direct message or through a customer service email account. Even though you and the customer aren’t dealing with all the details of their problem in an open forum, other followers will still see this initial interaction and understand that your brand is addressing the concern.
At ASMM Digital, we see everything as an opportunity to further develop your brand, whether it’s the questions people have about you or the criticisms they want to give. For more ideas or to work with us, give our team a call at 443-679-4916.