5 Ways Businesses Can Use Social Media to Expand

Social media has become a large part of American culture, as well as culture worldwide. Because of this, businesses can utilize social media to attract and retain more customers than they would otherwise. In this article, I describe five ways that businesses can utilize social media pages to expand.

Advertising
Advertising is the most obvious way in which businesses can use social media networks. With a Twitter account or Facebook fan page, it's possible for a business to distribute information about new products to existing customers and to generate new customers. A key point to note is to exercise restraint in advertising. For example, post or tweet advertisements once a day. Do not overwhelm your target audience.

Feedback
A social networking page is a great place for a business to get feedback from customers. Questions such as what customers like and dislike about a new web page and whether a service was performed adequately can be answered quickly and from a statistically-significant population with a social networking page.

Customer Service
A Twitter page is also a good place to deal with customer service issues. It allows for issues to be dealt with in the open and may allow common issues to be dealt with once and for good. Namely if a customer tweets about a problem that they have with your business, you can respond to them and hopefully resolve the issue in a public fashion. This has been done in the past and reflects extremely well on a business that manages such issues in a positive manner. Social media allows for positive attention as well as negative attention. Doing some customer service publicly allows for management of negative attention.

Limited Offers
Limited offers are an incentive that can be offered to fans or followers of your business's social media page. For example, offering special one-day coupon codes or a free piece of merchandise to the first 200 followers that respond to a post is a great way of attracting business and attention. Doing this regularly will increase the number of followers, and likely customer, that your business has.

Personalizing a Business
A social media page is a great way to personalize a business. For example, notable accomplishments of employees can be shared there, as can business milestones. This is especially important for small businesses to consider, as the human element is often why individuals choose to consume from small businesses as opposed to larger chains.

Things to Keep in Mind
Keep your postings mature and well-written. Remember, you are representing your business. Try to keep politics out of any postings as well, unless it is extremely relevant to your business. And if you choose to make a limited offer, realize that your audience will share news of the deal with friends and family that don't necessarily follow you. Because of this, be prepared to put out more money than you might expect to. Consider having a separate Twitter account for each department of your business, or at least one for your business in general and one for your customer service department. Finally, avoid overwhelming your customers. Two or three postings a day is enough to remind your customers that your business exists without becoming an annoyance.

There you go. Social media has become a powerful tool for small businesses. If you use it wisely, you'll hopefully see its benefits for yourself.

Have any further tips for businesses wishing to use social media to expand? Feel free to share your tips in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!