Here Are The Exact Words To Use On Social Media To Get More Customers

Every month, I consult with a variety of entrepreneurs and brands on their social media strategy. When I first meet with them, they always raise the concern that they are generating likes and followers on social media, but not a high enough percentage of them are actually being converted into customers.

The biggest hole in their strategy is often that they either are not using calls to action at all, or they are not using the right words to convince their followers to take the next step. Their customers simply don't know what to do next after reading a post.

People's attention spans are shorter than ever these days, and if your company doesn't have a compelling call to action in your posts, people will simply move on.

Here are several ways your company can create more effective calls to action increase traffic to your website and convert more followers into customers.

Customers love to learn

Research shows that people love to learn. It's one of the main reasons they come to the Internet. So when your company offers customers the opportunity to learn rather than an overt sales pitch, it increases the likelihood of them engaging with your post and going to your website.

This is the perfect opportunity to showcase that new blog post or video to educate your audience on something new that your company is involved in.

Here are the words to use to inspire your customers to want to learn more about your company and its products:

• Learn more here and get started toward...
• Check out how this will help your company...
• Discover this new way to...
• Find out why so many companies are using this to improve their...

Sharing beats algorithms

If you're like many out there, you don't have time to keep up with the latest tweaks the social media networks make in their algorithms. However, the one thing that will always remain constant when it comes to content being distributed to a wider network on social media is getting a lot of people to share it.

Asking your audience to share a piece of content can often result in more shares. However, to get results these days, you have to be more strategic than just saying "please share" or just putting "RT" in your tweets hoping people will retweet it.

Here are the words to use to get more shares of your content:

• If you are as passionate about this as we are, please help us spread the word about...
• Share this if you agree with...
• Share this and tell your friends what you think of...
• Share this and show the world that you support...

Let your audience sound off

In case you haven't noticed, people are eager to give an opinion these days. Savvy marketers are able to use this to evoke an emotional response from their audience.

While enabling your customers to give their opinions, you will get some negative feedback. However, it has been proven over and over that the most successful companies can use negative feedback to get over the hump with their products and make massive improvements to the customer experience.

I was reminded of this yet again by a recent post on LinkedIn from Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes. In the piece, he told the story of the time where a customer used a rather aggressive tone (that I won't repeat here) when describing Hootsuite's UI via a tweet directed at their customer support. Holmes credits that tweet as being the catalyst to moving Hootsuite's interface through the major revamp it needed to keep pace with their competitors.

To start more conversations with your audience, use these words:

• Our product team is fresh out of the lab, so tell us what you think about our new...
• Tell your company's story about when you used...
• Today we want to know what you think about...
• What frustrates you the most about...
• If it were all left up to you, how would you improve...
• Today, we want to hear from our audience! Share your voice with us about...

The words you choose matter, and having the right calls to action in your posts on social media will make all the difference. How does your company use calls to action on social media, and what have the results been like?

Originally published on Inc.