How to Use Social Media for Your Business: Expert Insights

When used correctly, social media allows your business to reach a large number of prospects and to interact with them as often as they are on Facebook or Twitter (which tends to be pretty frequently, thanks to smartphone apps).

However, your company’s presence on social media sites also presents a risk, because it makes you vulnerable to criticism and public complaints.

Or maybe your social media accounts are actually hurting your business more than helping, because you are unsure of what you should be posting.

In this post, we have gathered some of the most important social media articles for your business to give you new ideas about how to use social media to your full advantage.

On Your Retail Business and Social Media

Retail companies are quickly realizing the importance of implementing social media strategies, and it’s no surprise why. Due to the ever-growing popularity of smartphones, it is now easier and more convenient for customers to use their mobile phones to shop, do product research and to visit social media websites – and this provides a useful marketing platform for many businesses.

With 55% of smartphone users visiting social media platforms every day, it’s critical for your company to take advantage of social media by expanding your marketing efforts to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Click here to learn more about why and how your brand should be using social media.

On Responding to Complaints

Customer complaints are inevitable. However, there are positive and constructive ways to respond to these complaints that can put the customer at ease and make them more satisfied with your company.

These strategies include adding a little humor to the situation, responding to the complaint in a timely manner and making sure that your employees are personable – and that they realize they can make all the difference.

Andy Sernovitz explains more in his post Andy’s Answers: 3 Inspiring Ways Brands Respond to Customer Complaints in Social Media.

On Spying on Your Competitors

Are you unsure what to tweet about or to share on your company’s Facebook page? Looking at your competitors’ engagement per post or engagement per tweet is one of the best ways to keep tabs on how successful their interactions with prospects are via social media, and to get ideas about what may work for your business.

This can be done by following a formula to assess the number of likes, shares and comments on Facebook – or retweets and favorites on Twitter.

Jon VanZile elaborates on this in his article “Spying” with Social Media to Get a Leg Up on the Competition.

Which of these expert insights on social media had the most impact on the way you look at your business’s use of social media? Leave a comment below!