Social Media for Business: Marketing, Customer Service and More

How to use social media for business

Below, we’ll cover the ways social media can be used for a range of business purposes, including:

• Marketing
• Customer service
• Sales
• Recruiting and hiring
• Crisis management

1. Use social media for marketing.

When you incorporate an effective social media presence into your small business marketing plan, you can reach customers and prospects where they are. Here are some tips and best practices for creating a successful presence on social media to market your brand:

• Craft a social media marketing strategy: The best way to ensure success on social media is to go in with a plan. This means devising a social media marketing strategy that includes each platform you plan to use. Be sure to understand your customer and where they spend their time online. “Don’t try to be on every platform at once,” advised Robert Catalano, a digital marketing specialist at Toshiba America Business Solutions. “Instead, focus on where your audience is most active and create content that adds value to them.”
• Create a content calendar: Your followers value a steady presence, so adhere to a consistent posting schedule. While being consistent, avoid posting too much, which can be off-putting for your followers. Veronica Clerkin, managing partner and founder of AMZG Agency, recommended using insights from social media platforms to inform your timing. “Take into consideration where your followers live, their age, gender, job title, etc. Look at the days and times your followers are most active and schedule your content for those times,” she said.
• Develop a clear voice: Create a consistent voice and tone in your social media presence — one that resonates with your audience and influences how they see your brand. Listen to your audience and find ways to relate to them without looking like you’re trying too hard. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to show a little personality. This helps present your business as adaptive, friendly and relevant.
• Be authentic: While you want to create a voice and social media presence that grabs attention, you don’t want to come off as inauthentic or ingenuine. Make sure your posts realistically reflect your company. “Similarly, be authentic to your audience,” said Rachael Amato, content manager at Synaptic. “It’s not necessary to jump on every trend or observance. Share content that is genuine and feels relevant to your business.”
• Have fun with social media: Use social media to increase customer engagement in a fun way. This can include running social media contests, hosting live videos with exciting updates or news, and linking to your website or special offers in your profile bio. Interactive, fun experiences on social media also help with lead generation.
• Know your audience: Use CRM analytics to understand demographic information, customer behavior and social media trends to inform your content. Knowing what your audience wants to see from you and responding accordingly can go a long way toward boosting your engagement rates.

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2. Use social media for customer service.

Because so many customers already communicate through social media, using it for customer service is a no-brainer. Through social media communication, you can address customer problems quickly and efficiently — helping you create a loyal customer base.

• Respond to customer issues quickly: Many businesses approach social media as another channel for self-promotion; they don’t always respond when customers comment on their posts or tweet at them. According to research from Convince & Convert, 42 percent of consumers expect a response to a complaint on social media within 60 minutes, and nearly one-third expect a response within a half hour. Monitoring social media channels and responding to concerns promptly can help you build strong relationships with customers.
• Use hashtags strategically: How hashtags operate within a social media platform’s algorithm is likely to change frequently. So, stay updated on your social platforms’ hashtag recommendations and best practices. Hashtags help keep topics organized and easy to navigate, especially on platforms like X (formerly Twitter). You can also add more information and curate content to your hashtags.
• Take public conversations private: Many angry or frustrated customers leave public comments on a brand’s Instagram and Facebook accounts or tweet at a business. While you shouldn’t ignore these messages, it’s not always wise to handle the entire encounter publicly. Show other customers that you value their input and time by sending an initial response requesting to continue the conversation privately.

3. Use social media for sales.

One of the most direct and lucrative ways to experience the power of social media is through increased sales. You can boost sales on social media in various ways:

• Advertise on social media: The major social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and X, have advertising platforms that help you reach your target audience and monitor your ad campaigns.
• Sell on social media: Facebook and Instagram offer sales platforms and shoppable posts that make it easy for businesses to start selling online.
• Work with brand ambassadors: Finding social media influencers or enthusiastic customers to act as brand ambassadors is an effective way to boost word-of-mouth buzz about your business. This, in turn, can boost sales.
• Improve your business with social listening: Social listening is a process in which organizations take a macro view of what customers are saying online about the brand and use the information to improve the business. Social listening provides a broader view of industry trends and customer sentiment that may directly or indirectly impact a brand and its sales.
• Respond quickly to inquiries: Social media isn’t just about posting messages and ads. It’s also about communicating. “You can answer questions, provide tours or demo your products/services, or share behind-the-scenes looks of your company,” said Kamel Ben Yacoub, co-founder and CEO at Getuplead, a B2B social ads agency. “This kind of interaction can accelerate the buying process and close deals more quickly.”
• Build relationships with your followers: When your followers feel that they have a relationship with you, they’re more likely to engage with your content and follow through with a purchase or commitment to your business.

4. Use social media for recruiting and hiring.

In the modern hiring process, social media platforms provide an excellent way to recruit potential talent. Recruiting through sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and X lets employers access a broad candidate pool and efficiently sort through viable recruits. Here are some tips on how to use social media as an effective recruitment tool:

• Develop a recruitment strategy: Just like any other business operation, using social media for recruitment requires thoughtful planning. “Candidates are just as much your stakeholders as consumers,” said Amato. “You should approach a talent campaign with the same level of intentionality and planning as you would any other campaign.”
• Meet candidates where they are: Whether seeking out potential customers or employees, understanding your target is vital. Depending on the profile of your ideal candidate, you might want to concentrate your recruitment efforts on a specific platform. It’s also a good idea to see what kind of content drives interest — whether that be testimonials, videos, graphics, short texts or a combination of tactics.
• Show your company culture: Company culture matters to workers and your unique culture sets you apart from other players in the industry. “Give candidates a real look into what working for you will be like,” recommended Clerkin. “Share a day in the life of an employee, show behind the scenes footage of events your team was involved in, capitalize on a viral trend and let your businesses’ personality shine through.” While workplace videos don’t need to be perfectly polished, there are many top video apps that can help you create and edit engaging content.
• Demonstrate your values: Beyond showing potential recruits your company’s culture, you should also communicate what you stand for. People want to work for a company they believe in. When recruits see that you share similar values — whether that be through your own initiatives or efforts you support — they will be motivated to join your team.
• Push your openings: Social media feeds are saturated with a constantly refreshing array of pictures and videos. If you want to be seen, you need to push your job ads. “Post frequently and post often about open positions,” said bread & Butter’s chief digital officer Samantha Markiewicz. “If we want to promote a position, we need to talk about it frequently to ensure people in that market see, share and act upon our posts.”
• Be ready to respond: Markiewicz also noted that a key part of the social media recruitment process is responding to potential candidates. “It’s also important to have one-to-one conversations about the role with your followers,” she said. “Our agency will get 20-30 direct messages with follow-up questions from interested candidates. Dedicating time to community management and real engagement following a hiring post going live allows us to have those conversations and move great, engaged candidates into the hiring funnel.”
• Give your current employees a voice: One of the most effective ways to let people know about what it’s like working for your company is by letting the people who actually work for you already do the talking. “I would recommend sharing employee-driven content, testimonials, achievements and the perks of working with your company,” said Catalano. “On Toshiba’s pages, we’ve noticed these posts resonate the most and tend to get the highest engagement.”