Unless your business has been suffering from some out of dated belief that the internet doesn’t exist, you’ve heard all about the benefits of social networking for business.

No longer are Facebook and twitter just for old school friends who want to catch up, savvy business owners have found that these platforms have the potential to reach thousands of new customers every day. Better still, it’s relatively free, yet, there’s more to social networking than just setting up a page and hoping for the best.

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your business public profiles:

Keep Your Pages Updated:

Not with personal information though, your customers don’t need to know about your family gatherings or your weekend away. They do, however, want to know about any special offers you may have on, new products, reviews of your services, and links to your website.

Fill with Information:

Just like you would your website, Facebook is a great tool for uploading your blogs, newsletters or articles. These don’t have to be recent, once a customer shows an interest in your services, they will be keen to learn more about the company’s history, so bring all your copy out of the archive.

Keep Your Profile Business-like:

If you have a fan page on Facebook, your profile page should hold all the information that your website does. Its great if your social networking site encourages customers to your website, but greater still is if they have all the information they need to hand right away. Make sure you have an address, telephone number, and website URL on your profile.

Secure a Good Facebook/Twitter URL:

By securing a Facebook URL early, you will optimize the amount of customers you will reach. People don’t want to have to remember facebook.com/your14579235business, instead if possible, try to keep it to your business name. With an original business name you should be in with a chance of this URL being available.

Keep Tweets Short and Sweet

There is a character limit on tweets, so be wary of linking your Facebook page to your twitter account. Posts on Facebook will show up as links on your twitter account, giving just a list of garbled numbers for a customer to click on. Instead use variety. Use twitter to advertise special promotions, short and sweet such as, “Sale on Now – Here!” Or amusing rich content then use Facebook to be a little more in depth when you have the space to do so. Most twitter account owners hold a Facebook account too.

Encourage Customer Interaction

In the world of internet marketing, the personal touch is lost. Customers and clients understand this; however you can stand out from the crowd by bringing that personal touch back. Everyone is craving the good old days when buying a cucumber we’d chat about the weather or the latest instalment of Coronation Street, however, now that we’re all too busy to chat, we do like to have a little personal service. Businesses that stand out seem to care about their clients. Although you won’t have personal information in your social media platforms, your clients will, and by returning the follow on twitter, occasionally re-tweeting their tweets or liking their status on Facebook, you can make sure that when the computer is turned off, they are still talking about your excellent service and customer care.

Follow, Join, Belong!

It may seem like a waste of time to follow celebrities on twitter, or join groups on Facebook, however, these are untapped resources just waiting for your advertising. For example, if your business is shoe sales, and you join the Facebook group, “I love shoes”, when you have a special offer to announce, you can share it on the groups wall potentially reaching thousands, sometimes millions of members. Make groups relevant to your business not your personal life. Also following celebrities on twitter, you can reply with a witty comment to their tweets, which will reach all of their followers and you only need one per cent to be curious and click on your profile!