Eight ways to use social media in your business

Want to introduce your business to social media? What social media sites should you pay attention to? Facebook continues to dominate the social media world but Twitter has really captured the attention of millions. How can you use social media sites effectively in your business? Here are 8 ways to use social media to make the right type of impact on your customers.

1. Insider information. A great way to connect with your customers is by providing them with "insider information". Take a lesson from Woot.com as they offer these special deals to their followers daily. When you offer great deals or insider information, it can help to drive more people to your company. You don't always need to offer discounts but you do need to provide them with something that is valuable, something that they will not get anywhere else.
2. Display your expertise. What is your company known for and how can you display your expertise to your customers? Try using videos and other things to educate them, this will really help you generate a larger online following. Share your knowledge with your customers using informative blog posts and other things that will make them interested in paying attention to your company. A number of companies are using articles to help educate their customers. This is another great practice to try ad it can build your reputation as well.
3. Show customers what you have to offer. Sometimes you could be losing people because they do not fully understand who your company is and what you sell. You need to be clear and direct if you want your customers to capture the message you are sending out there in order to generate the right response from them. Video series can really help you to spread this message quickly and easily and it's a simple way to express the value of your products or services to your customers.
4. Engage your customers. Do you find that you are constantly posting information and no one is responding? You are not making the effort to engage your customers. Engaging your customers comes down to your ability to provide them with interesting content that they have a desire to follow-up with. Ask questions with your posts, it's a simple way to peak your customers interest and to get them to post comments.
5. Link back. To get your customers off social media pages and onto your website, you have to link back to your site. Post the begging of an interesting and engaging blog post in order to have them click on the link and read the rest of the post. This will help you to boost your PageRank status and it will help your customers to find your website.
6. Don't attack. Your competition may come after you from time to time. Be careful in the way you respond to what they have to say. You do not want to risk looking like the bad guys so you must watch out for name-calling and other things that will damage your company's reputation.
7. Start a conversation. If people are posting in the discussion boards, you need to start a conversation with them. Don't just sit back and do nothing. Let your customers know you are active on these websites and that you are here to interact with them. This helps your customers to see that your company actually listens and cares about their customers.
8. Don't outsource social media. Although social media marketing is time-consuming, don't outsource it. People can easily tell when it's not your employees posting on social media sites. The messages usually sound automated and they aren't "real." Customers can tell and it won't help you to win over new followers on your social media accounts.