Social Media for Business promotion. Which do you use?

[no.stirrups]

My business has a website and an active, if narrow, social media presence. I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to broaden my reach.

So as a business owner/manager, how do you reach new customers, or, as a customer, where do you make more business connections?

[Chancellor]

Oh man, there are so many rules with Facebook promotion. I went to a course in this recently. It's amazing. If you use Facebook, make sure you interact with posts on your Facebook page. If you don't, you are wasting your time because you won't see any return on it. Learn about the insights page!!!
Linked In? I'm not sure that is particularly helpful. I mean, I get a ton of crap from them but it has never helped me find a job nor have I read any of the "publications" my contacts have put out. How much DO people use that?

[clanter]

none, I am anti-social anything... word of mouth ... seems if you put something out on the world wide anything some one becomes offended

[Spotted at X]

I use business cards a lot, tack them to cork boards at horse shows, and at local bridal and tack shops. I've got a website listed on it, phone and email. Don't know how much sharing my photos on fb really helps as a lot of the time people screen grab them and don't buy anything even with a watermark over the image!

[Racetrackreject]

Instagram is a big one now too, for reaching customers. You just have to make sure you hashtag the crud out of your posts so you get a lot of reach in order for new people to see your stuff.

[ProudHorse]

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[Idofly]

What do you do? The social media options that will work best for your type of "business" can vary greatly depending on a lot of variables. A bit more information would be helpful. (Service business? Artist? Consultant?)

What works for my brothers contracting business (literally booked solid via wom- took the website down) versus my cousins corporate level legal consultation services (wom, linkedin only) versus a friends seasonal Etsy store (local facebook groups & craigslist) One of my former riding buddies was a stellar wallpaper hanger (recently retired) and she was usually booked 6 mos in advance, even through the eco downturn, using only an up to date website, wom and her local builders guild online directory. We have some really cool local artisans that I would never have known about if they and happy customers hadn't posted pictures to our local city/surrounding area Facebook pages. Some of them are really growing their businesses due to all the connections.

It seriously comes down to who your customers are, who you want your customers to be...and where best to connect with them.

[no.stirrups]

I'm not asking what you think I should do, I'm asking what you do!
Yes, I agree with you Idofly, but I don't know who is using some of these things. So I'm asking. And actually, all of YOU are my market! So I'm going right to the source.
In addition, geography matters. I hang out with high school students quite a bit. In the northeast part of the state they told me facebook was passe, everyone who was anyone was on Twitter. But in the central part of the state where I am now all the kids are on facebook. Same general demographic, just a couple hundred miles away.

[Snork]

I use Facebook daily. I have a linked-in account which i check about once monthly (so, clearly, not very effective) and I have an Instagram. Technically i have a twitter account but I have never used it. I am sure i have google+ somewhere but i treat it the same as twitter. I have never used myspace.

[emmalou]

Facebook, instagram, Twitter - in that order.

[Spiritpaws]

My company uses Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We are taking a leap in November to podcasts (Horse Radio Network).

I have not found Linked In useful at all.

[angela9823]

DH's business uses Facebook (deer processing). We've got one post that had over 3 million views. It still gets us talked about. The interesting thing is that it has gotten me business when I've brought that post up in the right places - for instance going after another similar business. DH has an employee post daily on Facebook and the hunters love the interaction.

Lots of local businesses also use Facebook. One uses it to interact with customers weekly. She makes some protein muffins that all the fitness people purchase and eat for breakfast. She asks people on Facebook what kind of flavors they want for the week and the top three winners will be produced the next week and sold. She doesn't over make items this way. Then you have the Avon groups and others that run specials to their followers for "one day only".

In my line of work, we use Linked In a bit more - I'm in credit card processing sales. We find Linked In to be very useful in gaining business as well as new employees.

[no.stirrups]

Yay! The results (so far) indicate that I'm doing the right thing and there is no compelling reason for me to increase my social media workload! At least if the 9 of you who voted are representative of the larger population.

My business is saddle fitting, and while most of by customers do reach me through word of mouth, I look at social media as a form of enhanced wom.