Social Media for Businesses; Four Can’t-Fail Social Media Maneuvers

When learning how to employ social media for businesses, it’s important to be aware of the tactics that have consistently worked for other companies. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, the tweet, or the Facebook update. Here’s a quick overview of some effective popular strategies.

1. Take on the role of the trusted authority.

Displaying your expertise will demonstrate that you are a reliable source of knowledge regarding your field. Offer advice to your followers. They will begin to think of you as a resource for information, and will even ask you for help.

2. Offer great content that followers will be eager to share.

This is one of the linchpins of social media for businesses. Your content should be compelling, so compelling that it inspires those who read it to pass it along to others. Social sharing is a modern cousin of word-of-mouth. Doesn’t it feel great when your customers decide to do some of your marketing for you?

3. Add value constantly.

The effective users of social media for businesses know it’s crucial to provide customer value. A classic example is to provide exceptional customer service to clients who are unhappy about a problem regarding your company and what it has provided or failed to deliver. Make things right for them, and not only will your response to their complaint be publicly visible on your social media page, you may find you’ve turned a squeaky wheel into a loyal customer who is vocal about why they love doing business with you. Another way of offering value is to simply reach out to users of Twitter who mention that they are looking for something your company provides. As in the first example, you are solving a problem for a customer or a lead. Who doesn’t want to give their business to a company that has a proven track record of looking out for its customers’ needs?

4. Crowdsource your next move.

Social media for businesses should be an interactive experience. Asking for input is a great way to engage your followers and grab plenty of attention. Yes, you’ve established yourself as a trusted authority in your field—which makes it all the more flattering for your followers that you’re asking what they think. If you’re preparing a new product, why not make a contest to see who can design the best packaging for it? (You don’t have to actually use their design, of course.)

Social media marketing may be a relatively new development in the history of marketing, but it has rapidly evolved and become extremely popular. (As of August 2013, Facebook has 1.15 billion users, and Twitter has 500 million.) Many time-honored, pre-internet marketing strategies are effective in social networking, but it’s essential to be aware of the emerging methods of engaging clients and leads through social media for businesses.