Social media allows the customer to take the wheel and show businesses what they want. It has transformed the way products are marketed today and has specifically changed the cosmetic market. Estée Lauder recently held a poll on their Facebook page for their brands MAC and Bobbi Brown where they asked customers to vote on their favorite discontinued products. They had more responses than anticipated receiving over 600,000 votes. Based on these votes, select products were brought back into production and available for purchase online. Asking for customer opinions can definitely benefit your business since it allows customers to get involved and have the opportunity to choose what they like best.

In this case, Social Media worked successfully and contributed to the satisfaction of customers. It can work just as well for your business if used properly. There are many ways to take advantage of all the social media outlets and below is an outline of a few things to keep in mind.

Create a fan page
First things first, you need to create a page. Creating a Facebook fan page is free and has almost become a business essential now with the popular use of Facebook and social media in general. You should also have a business Twitter account and a company page on LinkedIn. There are other social media outlets you may consider including Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, and a few others. Having a presence on more than one network gives you more exposure and allows you to cover all possible angles. These pages allow people to obtain information and updates about your company, comment on what you are doing, and share it with their friends.

Customize
Having a page is important, but you have to keep in mind that the more interesting your page is, the more people will like and follow your brand. If you are willing to put some money into it there are companies who will design and customize a more attractive fan page for you. If you would rather keep it free, you can still do things to make your page more appealing. One thing is to create a cover photo that makes a statement about your business. Many companies change this photo periodically to stay relevant and keep their page updated. You should also add additional photos, humorous posts, and a continuous flow of content that others will want to share.

Offer extras
Host a giveaway or contest. This could be set up multiple ways including entering everyone in a drawing who likes your fan page, retweets/shares a specific post, or refers your page to a friend. Coming up with creative contests could get your current customers involved and even attract new people who want to participate. You could also offer little freebies to those who like your page which could be anything from an e-book you created or samples delivered to their door. If people have a sample of your product and end up liking it, you’ve just gained a new customer.

Use Paid Advertising
If you want to go the advertising route, you can create ads on Facebook and other social media sites. These of course cost money, but may be another way to gain exposure. It is important to understand what you are doing when creating and monitoring ads or you could be out of a lot of money. If you want to take this route and are unsure of how to go about it, you could hire someone to manage your campaign or consult a friend who has experience. Research this option first before you decide to put money into paid ads.

Emphasize your product characteristics
Products with certain characteristics tend to get noticed more on social media. According to Fast Company for example, products that evoke an emotional response will create more chatter overall and get people interested at a faster rate. If people feel connected to the product that you’re offering, they will not only want to buy it, but will also want to share it with their friends. Tell a story about your product and the idea behind it. Show the different ways people can use your product and why it is important. All of this will depend on what you are selling and is different for each company, but it is necessary to find that unique selling point that can catch people’s attention.

Lastly, make sure you update everything as often as possible. Having a page on a social media site alone is not enough, but it requires constant interaction and monitoring in order to benefit from it. If you want to read more on social media, check out this post we wrote in March.

image source: shoutmeloud.com