For many software companies, teaching customers and prospects the “why” and the “how” of your product is a massive pain point. Creating content that demonstrates your value and clearly describes how your product works is difficult to pull off. And, once you’ve built that content, how do you make sure both customers and prospects can actually find it? Over the last ten years, we’ve watched as social media platforms have transformed the way we communicate, share information, and yes, learn. A large majority of those entering the workforce today were 10 years old when Jack Dorsey started Twitter, and as of 2021, 82% of Americans are on at least one social platform (60% globally). These are channels where your audience is already highly engaged.
Launching customer education content on social media is an effective way to build and maintain strong relationships. By offering valuable and informative content through social media for your enterprise learning program, you can establish your brand as an authority in your field, engage your customers and prospects, and ultimately drive leads and sales.
How to Use Social Media for Your Customer Training Program
In recent years, social media has become an instrumental channel to get the attention of your prospects, partners, and customers too. The best way to demonstrate the value of your product is to show, not tell. Most audiences would rather see and experience your main points, rather than go through a content gate. Social media democratizes what you’re presenting – and allows an even wider audience through the door of your learning content.
If you want to get started with social media for customer learning, look at the content you already have. What can be repurposed for a short-form video on LinkedIn, TikTok, or YouTube? What can be leveraged as a shareable infographic, or a bite-sized feature spotlight? Leveraging existing learning content makes for a low lift for your education team while providing highly valuable entry points for prospects and customers alike.
Benefits of a Social Media Strategy for Customer Learning
Providing enterprise learning content on social media can provide a range of benefits, including increased brand awareness, improved customer engagement, generated leads and sales, enhanced customer retention and loyalty, and increased online presence and reach. When your social media strategy for customer learning better reaches and engages learners who most need the content, everyone thrives. Check out this list of top benefits of implementing a social media strategy for customer learning:
Increased brand awareness and recognition
By providing training content on social media, you can increase your brand’s visibility and make it more recognizable to prospects. This can help to establish your brand as an expert in your field and build trust with your audience. According to a survey by Social Media Examiner, 69% of businesses reported they’ve gained customers through social media.
Improved customer engagement and satisfaction
Educational content can help to engage your customers and build relationships with them. By providing valuable information and answering their questions, you can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This can lead to increased customer engagement on your social media pages, such as likes, shares, and comments. A study by Forbes found that companies with highly engaged customers have 60% higher profitability compared to companies with low engagement.
Generated leads and sales
Educational content can also help to generate leads and sales for your business. By providing valuable information that helps to solve your customers’ problems or address their needs, you can encourage them to consider your products or services as a solution. This can lead to an increase in leads and conversions from your social media channels. According to a survey by Hubspot, companies that publish educational content on social media have more than double the number of leads compared to companies that don’t.
Enhanced customer retention and loyalty
Providing educational content can also help to retain customers and build loyalty. By continuing to provide valuable information to your customers, you can keep them engaged and interested in your brand. This can help to reduce customer churn and increase customer lifetime value. A study by Bain & Company found that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-95% increase in profitability.
Increased online presence and reach
By publishing educational content on social media, you can increase your online presence and reach a wider audience. This can help to expand your customer base and improve your visibility in search engine results. According to a study by Optinmonster, businesses that use social media have an average of 2.5 times more website traffic compared to businesses that don’t.
Metrics for training content on social media
You may ask yourself, “Even if I start posting learning content through social media channels, how will I know it’s working?”
To measure the effectiveness of your social media strategy for enterprise learning, you can track metrics like brand mentions, social media engagement, leads generated, customer churn rate, and online presence and reach. One of the best features in most social media platforms is the feedback loop of likes, comments, shares, and more. Some platforms even offer built-in reporting and analytics.
By regularly tracking and measuring these metrics, you can continually improve and optimize your educational content strategy to maximize its benefits for your business. Check out this list of possibilities to get you started tracking a social media learning campaign:
- Social media engagement (likes, shares, comments)
- Brand mentions and mentions of your educational content on social media
- Search engine rankings for your brand and educational content
- Net promoter score (NPS) or customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
- Customer feedback and reviews
- Lead conversion rate generated from your social media education content
- Revenue generated from sales driven by social media
- Increase in social media reach (impressions and views) for your training content
- Number of visitors to your website from social media
Providing educational content on social media can be an incredible addition to your broader marketing strategy for software and tech companies (and your customer education engagement strategy, too!). By offering valuable and informative content, you’ll better engage your customers and community, build trust, and drive leads and sales. By regularly tracking and measuring the effectiveness of your educational content strategy, you can continually improve and optimize it to become a core function of your business.