14 Tactics to Exploit the Power of Social Media for Business

Small and medium sized businesses, entrepreneurs, law firms, web design companies, etc. always aspire to make a name for themselves in their respective markets. This can only be achieved by building a brand. Your brand is all about portraying yourself, your business, and the products and services you offer. In other words, brand is actually your image. Fortunately, the evolution of social media has given everyone the opportunity to connect with likeminded people or their targeted group. For this, you need a content strategy and a small amount of time on a daily basis. Everywhere you aspire to succeed, there needs to be proper planning and foresight. The following are great tactics on exploiting the power of social media for your business.

1. ) Knowledge sharing is most effective

Use social media as a method to showcase your expertise. One of the major methods to achieving this is by simply answering the other’s questions. You need to invest some time at places like LinkedIn’s Q & A section, Ask.com, Yahoo and other similar places. When you see people asking questions pertaining to your niche area, where you have an expertise, it is always recommended that you answer some of these questions. By sharing your knowledge and expertise with people in the form of answering their questions you can connect with your target group effectively.

2. ) The ‘Social’ element is an important aspect of social media

With social media you need to be social. Ironically, the social aspect is often ignored. Being social over these platforms is the most important skill any entrepreneur must learn, in order to carry out any type of social media campaign or strategy. Hence you are supposed to interact with the people in your network and showcase your various personality aspects, which gives others a reason to understand you. Though, this does not mean you share every inch of your personal life with them, but share the things, which can help others in order to form your good brand image.

3.) An ultimate resource for information

You can use social media sites to find followers’ views and opinions on the current trends within the market. For instance, you can carry out a survey to check how your new product or service is doing within the market or you could find out what your followers have to say about your current offers. In this way, you can collect a comprehensive view of opinions about your target market and enhance your offers. Hence, you are not required to guess what your target market is demanding from you. Thankfully, social media gives you a platform to know all these things from your target audience.

4.) Following your brand on the web

One of the important methods to building a relationship with your potential clients is to address their concerns and issues. You need to regularly search and research what people are talking about your brand and at the same time focusing on answering the concerns and questions of your clients. Do not just care about selling your products or services; rather you should address your clients’ questions as soon as possible in a professional fashion. Take this opportunity to build a positive impact on your potential clients especially on those who have some concerns about your brand.

5.) Make your presence felt via rendering information

The biggest impact you can create on your readers and potential clients is by sharing your knowledge over social media. Hence adopting the educational and informative strategy can really influence your target group. If your readers like what you share over your different posts, they are more likely to share with their friends and co-workers. This will really help you in getting noticed among your targeted audience over the various social media outlets.

6.) Social media and chess strategies

If you play chess, you can understand how different strategies can help you win the game. With social media you need to think and try a couple of different strategies, similar to the way you would try them over a game of chess. You are supposed to determine your moves ahead of time while thinking two steps ahead. When you plan to use a social media platform, you certainly require a purpose for this. You are supposed to set goals and various targets and in order to achieve them, you must chalk out a proper action plan.

7.) Blogging

If you do not consider blogging as a part of the social media game, think again. Blogging is one of the most powerful platforms to interact with your target market. By having and managing your own blog, you can show expertise and build your credibility among your followers and readers. If you have loads of information in the form of news, views, tips and tricks to share with your people, it is highly recommended that you start your own blog or simply associate with any competent blog as a guest writer or blogger. You as an expert in your niche would certainly help your brand to improve in the market with the idea of blogging.

8.) Steer good news pertaining your brand

Social media can help you to share your brands achievements and milestones. If you have any news about your brand including any awards, recognitions, contests, or product reviews; don’t forget to share them with your followers! The idea here is to spread any good news or achievements (whether big or small) with your audience over the social media platforms.

9.) Maintain brand consistency

Whether you are using Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or simply checking Foursquare or posting a video on YouTube, you are never supposed to lose sight of your brand. You are required to maintain your brand consistency by presenting yourself with utmost professionalism. This will also include using appropriate fonts, colors, logos and graphics to convey your business message.

10.) Network Both on and Offline

The moment you start using social media for networking, it is always recommended to engage your connections or network offline as well. Hence visiting any networking event related to your niche area would be a great idea to try. You can think of calling your connections and express your desire to know more about them. If you stay close, you can meet up with your contact for a coffee or a lunch. Further, if you travel to other states, you need to let your connections know that you are visiting their area. Thus you can think of having a nice get together with your connections. In this way, social media can be effective only if you move beyond the online world and into the real world of networking.

11.) Things over social media are irreversible

Social media has no do-over. It is an irreversible thing. The moment you post something online, despite deleting it instantly,  many  active users over the various social media platforms would come to know what you shared or said. It is very important to think about what it is you are going to say over the social media along with the correct way of saying it. It takes a long time to establish your brand and just a few seconds to ruin everything.

12.) Facebook is not confined to family and friends

Facebook is generally underestimated as an effective business tool. People often comment about Facebook as a place to play games or find your old school friends. To an extent this is true; however, what you get to see is a massive amount of people present over Facebook. It can prove to be a great resource for your business. You just need to think about a couple of ways to tap into these people. There are a number of tools available for business promotion over Facebook, you just have to check them and start using them to build your brand. By using Facebook for your brand, you end up connecting with your likeminded people (your prospective clients) over this platform.

13.) Never stop networking

If you are serious about building your brand, you will never give up the process of networking or making connections. The more people you are able to connect and engage with, the more likely your business will benefit. With every increasing connection you dramatically increase your probability of reaching more and more people. For instance, on LinkedIn, even when you have a modest 200 connections, the small figure has the potentials of connecting millions of people with your brand. The idea is never give up at any stage to make connections or network.

14.) Uncover the power of social media

When you are over social media like Twitter, simply allow people to connect to you directly. They should be able to message you directly rather than getting things via any other complex channel. If you build some barrier in between, you simply mar the purpose of social media. Also, the complex procedure to connect with you can certainly miss out the number of opportunities you have for your business. So unless you are a known person like a celebrity or politician, you should avoid all sorts of barriers in your social media accounts and make yourself more accessible to your target audience.

With the suggestions discussed above, you can easily exploit social media platforms for your business. These ideas should help you use the power of social media to develop your brand by engaging your prospective clients, monitoring quality and connecting people.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of cars and fancy accessories. Recently an article concentration breakers on attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Facebook themed Volkswagen.