Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a plucky entrepreneur with a small business, social media is one of the best marketing tools at your disposal, but getting the most value for your time and effort can be challenging.  Take advantage of these three simple social media tips however and you’re guaranteed to see more digital marketing success, complete with growth in both brand awareness and online credibility.  Never forget that your competition is undoubtedly using social media as well, so you’ll need every trick and technique you can find to keep the edge online!

1.) Empower Employees to Spread the Word
Social media’s marketing power comes from the digitization of word-of-mouth–the oldest business technique in the game–and there’s no better promoter of word-of-mouth advertising than a company’s employees.  Encourage employees to post on the company social media pages, share company content and tag friends in topics relevant to their personal networks. Reward employees that create the most customer engagement and keep track of those employees that put in extra effort for future promotional opportunities.  By combining incentive programs with social media advertising campaigns, you can boost your workforce morale and increase your online presence at the same time!

2.) Toast Testimonials
Brand loyalty is directly proportional to customer satisfaction, and nothing satisfies customers more than knowing their opinions matter.  Several times a year (usually quarterly or seasonally) select a few loyal social media followers that have written good online reviews and/or engaged in the most social media content and give “shout outs” that celebrate their efforts.  Even a few simple words of thanks posted for all the world to see not only reaffirms that customer’s loyalty but also demonstrates to other customers that the company cares.  Valued customers are the foundation of every business’s credibility, but this fact is especially critical to a company’s social media success.

3.) Shh!  Send Secret Promotions
One of the few universal truths in marketing is that every customer wants to feel special, and nothing grants “special” status more than customized offers.  Do some data mining to pinpoint your most loyal customers with the largest social networks, then send each customer an individual message of thanks with a personalized promotion made just for them and their own online followers.  Not only does this technique boost customer loyalty, but secret promotions also can help identify repeat business trends and market reach by tracking the frequency and use of the codes themselves.

Author: Joshua E Rood
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