I appreciate that all of the different social platforms and the different demographics that they attract can be daunting, even overwhelming, but it is an extremely important part of business today and critical in future business so you need to take time and put in the effort to thoroughly understand it. Once you do, you will find that it will make an extraordinary difference to your business. I also appreciate that it’s very difficult when you are struggling to run a business, to invest the time and money and resources to not only learn about social media but also maintain a presence. It does take a lot of time, effort and creative thought.
Among the very simple things that you can do, is to get your employees to help promote your products. Your customers are always looking for recommendations on what to purchase and having your employees share their top picks, irrespective what business you are in, will give your customers great suggestions and help them feel connected to the people side of your brand.
The second thing you need to do is to continually tell current, regular and casual customers what products or services you have that are new in your store. By posting every time you get a new line of merchandise, change your lunchtime specials or create any other initiative that may be of interest to your customers, you can post it, tweet it or put up photographs on Pinterest or the like. Another very simple thing you can do is to have regular events, meet a representative of a manufacturer, provide free samples of a new product, hold a seminar providing instructions on how to use a particular product or even to raise funds for a local charity. The advantage of holding this type of event is that supporters of the sports team or charity who may have never been to your store before will come along giving you the opportunity to introduce them to your products.
You can promote these upcoming events on your Facebook page to create awareness with customers. You can also offer exclusive deals and offers to your social media community making them feel appreciated as loyal customers. As you develop this relationship they may share this information with their contacts and you may get some additional customers as a result. Social media is another channel for your customers to reach out to you, comment on your store, your products or what ever they want to talk about.
You need to really pay attention to direct mentions on Twitter and comments on your Facebook page and other social media profiles for opportunities to assist your customers with their questions and concerns and respond to all feedback. Being helpful and responsive you will give your customers a positive impression and help build trust in your business. You can also search for general mentions of your business to see what people are saying about you online. This will help you find who your advocates are and identify opportunities to turn a dissatisfied customer into a loyal one. You can search for brand mentions using free tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Search.