Everyone is online nowadays, so of course – social media is one of the best (free) marketing tools for your business, no matter what niche or industry you are in. If you have not yet taken the time to create and use social media accounts you are missing out on huge marketing and branding opportunities for your business. However, social media is not just great for regular “day to day marketing” (i.e: ads ) – there are more ways it can benefit your business and today we are here to let you know about these “extra perks” and additional uses.
E-commerce
If you have an online store, it’s more than likely that the e-commerce program you use has a custom app that you can use to sell your products right on your social media account. Imagine just how amazing it would be to link your store to social media. This makes the shopping process so much easier for customers – allowing them to browse products, make purchases, manage orders, redeem gift certificates, submit product reviews and more — without ever leaving sites like Facebook!
Recruiting
Looking for new talent for your business? Tired of the endless unqualified responses from places like “Craigslist”? Use social media! You can easily create a detailed listing of what you’re looking for and post it on your social media accounts. Ask your followers (and friends) to apply – or share if they’re not interested in the position. In fact, Facebook has a specific option for this available on your business page and (unless you choose to boost/sponsor the post) it’s free!!
Recognizing Your Employees & Customers
If you have an employee of the month program – post it on your social media accounts! Give a little public shout out to those star employees – it will give your business a more personal feel since your customers are able to see the people that make up your business. Plus, a little employee gratitude and praise on social media is a great way to encourage and motivate them.
Giving customers public praise and shoutouts are great too! Customers love to share posts where they are mentioned, pictured and praised. If you are in a business where it may cause embarrassment (i.e: a plastic surgery patient who wants to stay private about procedures done) – make sure you ask permission first. Otherwise – use this to picture, tag and announce winners to contests, spotlight their results of using your product, thank them for being a loyal customer and more!
Monitor Trends And Competition
Keep you up-to-date on trending topics! Using social media to stay on top of trends can provide you with potential ideas for new products and services, website/blog content, and more. You can easily monitor trends through the use of hashtags. Most social media platforms provide (daily) “What’s Trending” information, making this much easier. You can also set up Google Alerts for your brand, your industry, and other keywords that you want to track as well.
Social media is also a great way to look at whats working (and what’s not) with your competitors. Take some time daily or weekly to look through their social media accounts; see what is making them shine (or go viral) or what their current weaknesses may be (what customers may be complaining about ). Don’t copy their successes, but find a way to incorporate it into unique ideas for your business. If your company is great at something that maybe is a weak point for your competitor – you can definitely use this as a way to possibly win over their unhappy customers. Just don’t be shady about it!
Customer Service
Nowadays, many customers will SKIP the process of going to your website and use the “contact us” option if they have issues with products or services. Instead, many will turn to the company’s social media account to get help with customer service. Make sure you are paying attention and that you (or someone on your team) is checking Social media daily and responding quickly! Don’t let customers think you are ignoring them, just because you are not actually checking the social media comments. Customers rely on quick responses online. If a customer is complaining – you can ask them politely to email or chat via direct messaging (so it’s not a public back and forth).
You can also set up Facebook groups for your customers and fans/followers. It’s a great way to build a community and speed up communication between customers.
Stay connected with your followers and stay involved with social media. This will help your business improve customer perception and increase employee satisfaction. If you are not on social media yet – you NEED to get started! Just make sure you are creating a social feed that is helpful, interesting, and valuable to your audience. Let us know how you’re using social media to build your business community in the comments below!