You likely already use at least one social networking service to keep in touch with people all over the world. What you probably aren’t aware of, though, is just how you can personally use the power of social media to advertise your business. Throughout the tips below, you will learn a lot about social media, and how you can use these methods to market your business.

Facebook games can be a great way to attract attention. Design a unique game that is related to your company’s products and services. Facebook’s games have proven invaluable for some popular brands, especially when they go viral. If you are able to pay for it, hire a game designer to create some kind of game for you to put on Facebook.

Your social media profile can be used to bring customers to your retail store or to direct them to your products online. You can post news and announcements about discounts, openings of new stores or other information that may be of interest to your readers. Make your promotions special by limiting them to users who friend your business, or link to a printable coupon for a great deal. If you want customers to add you on Facebook, you must give them compelling reasons to read your page.

Ensure that your site contains mention of your social media pages. Make it easier for your existing customers to forward the content of your articles by including a share button. Always put these share buttons on all of your pages, your visitors can share your content easier.

Observe what works for your competition. Try to pinpoint the ways that they are succeeding and try to mirror this. Apply the methods that seem to work best with your target audience, and do your best to stay ahead of your competitors.

Make sure you respond to all the comments that pop up on your Facebook page. This should be true even for negative comments. People will perceive your company as being more caring if you go out of your way to response to people’s comments. Make sure to respond in a timely manner to avoid making customers feel ignored.

Attention-grabbing headlines for posts are key. The headline determines whether your reader is going to be interested and keep reading or move on to other things. It is important to grab the attention of your readers and entice them into reading the whole article. So careful thought is necessary when thinking up headlines and titles to catch the readers attention.

Marketing companies specialized in social media are not always a good solution. Media companies of this nature are often scam operations out to bilk novice marketing businesses. Some of these companies use fake YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts by using proxy servers with automated registration bots. Your advertisement then falls by the wayside, because real people will not likely view it and you end up losing all the money you paid to the marketing company.

If formatting isn’t a strong point for you, consider using a list style for your social media posts. Using the list format, you can give your readers good information in an efficient format that makes it very easy to show information in order or importance or priority. Those who use social media more prevalently tend to be young audiences with lower tolerances for abundant information at one time.

Placing a Facebook “Like” option on your blog will make it easier for viewers to like your Facebook page, without leaving what they are reading. Having immediate and easy access to this “Like” button will make a consumer more likely to click on it. Anything that makes it easier on your reader makes it more likely that he or she will come back to read what you have to say.

Your customers can check into your store with their mobile phone if you enable Facebook Places on your page. 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. This type of service has proven especially successful on Foursquare.

It’s vital for customers to feel comfortable commenting on your blogs. This method of communications ideal for anyone is uncomfortable giving out private contact information. Leave each post open for comments, but carefully monitor them. Any rude comments, spam or advertisements should be deleted.

Add a Facebook “like box” where visitors can easily see and click it. People will find it easier to like your page and give you more of a fan base. Visitors won’t need to navigate away from your blog to give you a “like”. Doing it this way helps your exposure and keeps people on your page longer.

It is important to decide how involved you want to be with your customers. If you’re simply looking to increase sales, then you should advertise using social channels. Always keep it simple. To establish rapport with your target market, you should take the initiative to make the first move. Rest assured that your potential buyers will get the ball rolling based on that.

Put a review page on your company’s Facebook profile or link to it on your website. People can then write and share a review with everyone on Facebook. Of course, the power is still in your hands to weed through the reviews left. Organize a contest to encourage customers to write reviews.

In order to get the most amount of people sharing your content, you have to find good ways to make your content accessible outside your usual target audience. Add in some humor and positive information to your site that people can appreciate. Even if your followers are able to understand what you’re saying, they won’t share unless they think their friends will be able to understand too.

These tips can help you grow your business. The sites you are using every day for your personal life, can be just as helpful, effective and fun for business use. By applying the information you have learned above, you will be able to use social media to strengthen your business position.