Social media allows businesses to communicate with their customers instantly and easily by responding to customers’ comments, questions and concerns and allowing consumers to instantaneously receive help.

According to recent research 78 percent of small businesses attract new customers through social media, so make the most of your social media networks and send the right message to your potential users.

Social media can be a great customer service channel. Although you may have a dedicated customer services team that are on the phones and one email, many consumers would rather use social media so you should try and include this in your method of contact for your customers.

Every blog post, image, video, and comment can lead to a site visit and eventually a conversion.

Building your followers on social media improves conversion rates, and the more followers and fans a business has, the higher the trust and credibility of the brand.

Many businesses simply do not have the time or resources to manage their own social media accounts. There are many different social media websites and having a presence on all of them can build up your brand and bring in sales.

When choosing someone to manage your social media accounts you may opt for a third party. These companies or some individuals that offer this type of management are usually experienced in dealing with social media marketing so can not only save you time from having to do it yourself, but they are likely to get better results s they will know what works and what doesn’t. If someone if managing your social media for you it is vital that you do keep a check on it. What they say or do can have an instant reflection on your company so you need to ensure that it is 100% accurate and that they are replying or forwarding any responses you get in a timely manner.

Many businesses still do not use social media to marketing their company and they may be missing a rather large trick. Social media has grown vastly in population over the last ten years and initially was only used by individuals.

Some marketing agencies and businesses quickly picked up on potential that social media could have in terms of marketing their company, products or services. In my opinion all companies should have some sort of social media presence and with many social media sites not charging for the use of their site, it makes sense to use this as part of your marketing strategy.

If you are not sure of how to go about it, then you could speak to a marketing agency or specialist social media marketing person who will either offer you support and advice on how best to set up and manage your accounts or who will actually manage it for you .

If you do not have the time to manage your social media accounts of feel that you do not know what you are doing then you can chose to outsource it. Many companies are doing this now as they realise the potential social media marketing has and how it can grow their business.

Knowing what to write on the social media sites and how often to post can be tricky and therefore it is advised to speak to someone in the know.

Most online marketing companies offer a range of packages to suit the individual client’s needs. These are usually based on the size of the business, how much money you want to invest in social media, the competition for your products and service and the geographical reach.

Social media can literally build a business overnight so it is worth spending time and money in this avenue of marketing if you seriously want to increase your customer base.