By Patrick Garmoe, Social Media Manager at PureDriven

1. View sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as word of mouth marketing channels. Right now most business websites all look the same and sit along deserted Internet highways. Social media tools allow you to reach out to prospective clients and contacts, people who might never otherwise connect with your business.

Think of Facebook as the place where you connect with your current friends and former collegues and friends.

LinkedIn is designed to communicate with current professional contacts.

Twitter is a way to connect with your future contacts.

2. Start by simply listening and talking with people who already have mentioned your business. Type your business name into a search engine like Google.com and see what comes up. If you’re a restaurant and find a lot of positive comments on a site like Yelp.com, thank the individuals who commented. Just the fact that you responded will create another touch point with your business, and prompt them to want to visit your restaurant again. If the comments are negative, publicly promise to do better, or fix the issue. This is a cheap way to get exposure without having to build your own audience.

3. Set up a Facebook fan page or LinkedIn profile, and commit to spending 10 minutes a day five days a week posting little informational pieces your customers would appreciate. If you’re a bank, give five pieces of advice over five days on getting out of debt, for example.  Then after a few months of doing this, add a Twitter account, or maybe add a blog, to further showcase your business.

4. Think of social networking online like attending a business networking function or going to church. You’re there to build connections. If you immediately started flinging your business cards at people without meeting them first, you wouldn’t get results. The same thing happens online. Listen first; talk second. Don’t think about selling anything initially. Even when  you do want to start selling, stick with the 80/20 rule – make your online information 80 percent useful, and only 20 percent devoted to actually selling anything.

5. Humanize your business online. People do business with people. Don’t fill your profiles and status messages full of boilerplate business fodder no one is going to read. Be professional in your profile, but personal enough for people to learn a bit about you, not just your title. Put a nice candid or professional photo of yourself in the profile. These days often a LinkedIn profile or Facebook fan page is how a customer has his or her initial interaction with you or your company. Make sure that first impression is the image you want to project.

Photo Credit: Webtreats