Using social media as part of your marketing strategy is no longer optional. We are at the point where customers will choose not to use your company if they can’t find you on social media pages. But just having an account open is not enough. By interacting with your customers on a regular basis, you can build relationships and ensure they remain a customer. It is also a good way to get new customers you may have never reached before. Here are 5 ways you can use social media marketing.

1. Keep everything connected

There are many different platforms for marketing to your customers that you should be using. Text marketing, email marketing, print marketing, online marketing, and social media marketing are all useful in some capacity. But having so many different platforms for reaching customers can  be confusing and may not flow together very well. Your business needs to make sure that all forms of marketing are still branded to your company and are interconnected. For example, a text marketing message could direct a customer to your website or even to your social media contest. By staying connected, you are able to reach everyone and allow your customers to reach you in whatever way they feel is easiest.

2. Get customers to generate content

Really, the best way to get new customers through social media is if you can get your customers to generate content on their personal pages. If someone else is willing to promote your business, you’ll find much more success. Of course, the best way to encourage this is to offer the best and most exciting products or service out there, but most of the time, even if the customer likes what you have to offer, they still won’t promote it on their own. You can instead run competitions where customers are expected to post something specific on their page to win. For example, a baby product company could do a cute baby contest where people have to get their friends to like their picture in order to win some free gear. This is a little more work than simply sharing content, but it also has a bigger payoff because customers will actually talk to their friends about it and about your company.

3. Don’t be afraid to use influencers

Getting an influencer to promote your brand on social media can really help bring in new customers and remind current ones of how great you are. It doesn’t have to be super famous people either. Influencers that your audience follows that have a few thousand followers may still be worth your time. Just make sure promoting your product would be natural for the influencer. If it isn’t already in their personality, their followers won’t believe it is a real promotion.

4. Ask closed ended questions

A closed ended question is a type of question that can be answered with a yes or a no. When interacting with your customers, asking an open ended question is much less likely to get a response because it requires more thought and participation from the user. However, when a user knows all they have to do is answer yes or no, they are more likely to start interacting with other customers and your business on the thread.

5. Run promotions

Another good way to reward current customers for following you while also helping build your customer base is to run promotions and giveaways through your social media pages. You can require that they share your posts. Even liking or commenting on your posts will often show up in their friends’ feeds. Another great way to get new customers is to partner up with another company and run a giveaway requiring them to like both of your social media pages in order to enter. All of these things will help you boost your customer base and increase the number of customers  following your social media pages.