This can be achieved by allowing users to post comments, if the particular social media platform allows it.
As a social media marketing professional, you can post replies and try and encourage further discussion.
You can also use Twitter to encourage conversation: invite your organisation’s users or customers to send public and private messages via the site.
Social media experts suggest an organisation should be represented by a named person on Twitter, as users tend to feel more comfortable messaging a person, than they do a faceless organisation.
Several organisations are already successfully using Twitter as an extension to their customer services operation. They allow customers to post questions and make complaints via the site.
Twitter also uses a tagging system called hashtags. Tweets can feature a hashtag: usually a word preceded by the # symbol.
This is useful when searching for tweets about the organisation you represent. In Twitter parlance, multiple references to the same hashtag are said to be ‘trending’.
Most social media marketers are not disappointed if the organisation they represent is trending all the time, because the reason is positive.
The Mashable website features what it thinks are the best brands on Twitter, and many sites have posted advice about how not-for-profit organisations can effectively use Twitter to raise their profile.
See our social media marketing course