Social media presence is no more just a tool for organizations to use. It is an asset that all organizations small, medium or large to leverage from. The dgital platform has over the years only made globalization of talent and customers easier.

Digital media has kickstarted a global trend of startups in every country. From young to old, every individual now has a chance of fulfilling a dream of running a business of sorts, with no or limited budget to market their company, or even increase sales.

Following certain simple steps will help you in achieving effective and concrete results:

a) Genuine Conversations with Customers

As a small business, you hold the advantage of engaging with your customers on a personal level. Just like any shop owner would engage face-to-face with its customer, social media provides a platform to invest in genuine long-term customers. While, businesses promote their products and services, they can also share these platforms for sharing visually appealing stories, both in print and video. Customers can share stories of their experience using particular products and services. Testimonials by customers, go a long way for small or even large businesses.

b) Focus on Customer Service

Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, have acted as tools to driving revolutionary changes. Using a company twitter handle wisely can either help to gain customers for life, or drive away traffic for your business. Brands can start or jump into conversations with their current or potential customers, and by prioritizing customer service brands can prevent negative impact on the business.

c) Make use of simple technology

Use the power of hashtags that has revolutionized the way customers shop and discover new trends on social media. Take the example of Amazon, that allows customers to add items to their cart by using #AmazonCart on twitter, that links directly to the Amazon shopping cart for purchase later. The good thing is small businesses do not need to use expensive social media management platforms to manage their clientele buzz. There are a lot of free tools like Hootsuite available, for small businesses to track their customer voice.

d) Upsell through Customer Rewards

Introduce your customers to some of your other valued products, through customer reward promotions. Not only will this increase in sales, customers discover something new, and as a business you get to upsell a product, not for free, but at a discounted price. Such customer reward promotions are enticing for customers, and easy conversions for businesses, especially in the food industry. Be sure to package complementing products for your customers, and advertise the same across all platforms to gain hype.

e) Make use of Online stores

All product based businesses should have an online store, to drive sales, by engaged and willing customers. Food businesses can make use of free tools on Facebook like the ‘Shop’ a powerful tool to have an entire menu, or even list of products with prices available. It’s a great way to encourage potential customers to shop virtual, use the power of messenger to get orders online. This is just one example of driving traffic to your website, or shopping cart, use Pinterest to sell itemized products. Explore the social platform to encourage new trends in online shopping.

As a small business you might not have big budgets, but you do have the will and power to gain customer loyalty through direct personal sell. Most of all, keep blogging and sharing your customer experiences, as great stories that will help to create a specific niche market for your business. Remember being small is not a disadvantage, but not using your social space wisely can become one.