One effective strategy for generating traffic to a business is the use of social media marketing. Your followers will share reviews, deals and other content which you post, boosting your reputation. It is up to you to inspire your readers to pass on your message. You can do this by offering incentives, such as free products. Competitions to see who can draw in the most visitors can also be profitable.

Listen to your followers! Follow up on every bit of feedback you get. Thank everyone who gives you feedback, and offer some follow-up questions in order to understand the feedback more fully. If you notice a recurring comments, use them in your social marketing.

Want your customers to check in from your store? Set up a Facebook place and give your users a reason (read: discount) to check in and visit. You can offer a discount to any customer who updates their status on your Facebook place page. Have them show the cashier that they have updated their status. Consider using Foursquare to accomplish this practically automatically.

You will likely find that tweets you make at certain times of the day are more likely to draw responses and even to be re-tweeted. Sift through that data to optimize the timing of your messages. You can do things like send out tweets automatically around the time that you’re impacted with a lot of tweets from other people.

To get the most from your social media campaign, learn as much as possible about your target market: preferences, background age and so forth. If your product or service appeals to one or more identifiable demographics, you can create advertising that appeals specifically to their tastes.

Every post you make on your blog should include a link at the top to share it on Facebook. This makes the site convenient for visitors to share with others. They can forward blog posts to their friends. Ergo, the blog is suddenly available to a lot more viewers than previously, and this could then lead to a business boom.

Make your page attractive by filling it with great content. Create “how-to” articles which explain a task that many would seek the answer to. Post a comprehensive review of a product that includes images and video. When you add in content that is appealing, you have a better chance that people will go ahead and visit and share your material.

Figure out how much you want to engage with your customers. Drive sales to your site with simple advertising messages delivered via social media. Send a message that arouses your customer’s curiosity and encourages them to respond. Follow your customers’ lead after this.

Investigate the possibility of creating a Facebook game. Take advantage of the popularity of games on Facebook by developing an interesting game that showcases your product or service. Some well-known companies have been able to leverage Facebook’s game functionality to create viral properties that attracted millions to their Facebook pages. If you are able to pay the price, you can hire a professional to design a game about your niche. Then you can share your game on Facebook.

Making sharing easy is the key to social media marketing. Try putting a “Share to Facebook” button at the end of each of your blog entries. Take the time to create content people will want to share on Facebook.

Avoid repeatedly quoting others in your tweets as this often appears to your followers as if you don’t have enough to say on your own. It will be annoying to them and they will stop following you. If you include any quotes, they should be quotes you have written yourself and should relate in some degree to the brand.

Think twice before retaining the services of a social media promotion firm. It is not uncommon for these agencies to use unscrupulous and unfair business practices to cheat business owners of their money. These companies use proxy servers and registration bots to create thousands of accounts on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. You will not have customers seeing your marketing though you are shown high view counts. Basically, the only thing you will be doing is spending money for false results.

Don’t push products, so that you can get more followers through social media marketing. Post links or stories about providers that are relevant to your niche or industry. Running contests, asking interesting questions and displaying intriguing pictures are other ideas for possible posts. Converse and have a dialogue with your subscribers and followers. Instead of focusing on product placement, focus on product engagement. Unless your business competes solely on price, be certain you also focus on other attributes of your product or service that illustrate the value of your product or service in a consumer’s life.

Keep in mind what a conversation really is. A customer leaving feedback is an opportunity to open a dialogue. Take your customers’ feedback to another level by starting a conversation. Show interest in their needs, and design your next campaign or product according to what you have learned about your customers.

When it comes to social media, company branding is important for your company. Prominently locate your company logo on key pages, by making it your background or avatar. All of your accounts and pages across different networking sites should use color schemes that are identical, or at least very similar. Customers and followers will identify with you in this way, and will trust the various sites if they can see the connection easily. Branding clearly will make your customers trust you more.

The potential gains to be made through social media sites are huge. As more people join these sites, your potential customer base expands significantly. These tips have opened your mind to the things that social media makes possible. Get to work right now on your favorite site.

Richard Vanderhurst