9 Overlooked Ways to Help Your Customers Find Your Business Online

03 Mar 9 Overlooked Ways to Help Your Customers Find Your Business Online

In a recent post I broke down 10 reasons why you’re not gaining social media followers, and the first reason was that your followers may not know where to find you online! There are so many ways to connect your target audience on and offline, and you could be overlooking some of them. Read on to discover a few simple ways to expand your social media presence and help your customers find your business online.

1. Include visible follow buttons on your website.

This seems trivial but I’ve seen some follow and share button blunders out there! Make sure that your follow buttons are clearly defined and different from your share buttons. AddThis.com has great free tools to help you get your social links on your site.

You can be more discreet by keeping the follow buttons on the bottom of your site in a few shades lighter or darker than the background, or take the TechCrunch footer approach. Look on different websites for ideas. Another part to this is to make sure the buttons you’ve added are actually linking to your social media channels correctly.

2. For events, include hashtags on all signage, any promo materials or flyers.

Events can expose you to hundreds or even thousands of people and are a great opportunity to let you potential customers know where they can find your business online. Take this opportunity to let your customers know you’re online. Use social media icons but remember to include “@yourhandle” or “\yourhandle” so your attendees know how to find you. Don’t just pop a hashtag on a piece of paper, remember to include a call to action to encourage people to share moments from your event. Don’t forget to remind speakers to ask the audience to use the hashtag to share photos and videos online – a little verbal reinforcement is always great. There are tons of other places to promote your hashtags and social media presence at events, get creative and have fun with this!

3. Own a store? Get social media vinyl stickers for your windows.

If you own a brick and mortar location, put your space to work! You can get vinyl stickers for your windows, create table tents with your social channels on it or even use your sandwich board to draw attention to your social media handles.

4. Brand original content with your hashtag.

If you made it, put your hashtag on it! This is especially true if you share quotes or lifestyle images. Place the hashtag in a corner where it won’t disrupt your photo or take away from the image. You can do the same with your website link. Now if someone reposts your image, your hashtag will be exposed to new eyes, and they’ll know how to fin your content.

5. Send an email

If you have an email list or newsletter, send an email dedicated to letting your list know where to find your business online.

6. In snail mail

If you send a physical item in the mail include your social media handles in the packaging or within the mail piece.

7. Email signatures and landing pages

This is one is super simple, but add your social media links to your email signature and any landing pages you may have. Some folks will even include a popular post in their signatures to drive extra traffic.

8. Cross promotional posts

Use your established social media networks to drive traffic to the ones that need a little love. This can be as simple as a tweet letting followers know that you’re also on Facebook, or create an Instagram post with all your social media network and handles on it (this can be a great way to use Instagram Slideshow posts).

9. Run a social media awareness ad

I’ve seen more and more TV networks run social media specific ads, and although I’m not telling you to run an ad on TV, you can run a like campaign on Facebook or a Twitter ad for relatively low amount of money to get the word out about your social channels.

These were just a few ways you could be missing out on reach and awareness. As with everything else, don’t be obnoxious in the way that you brand and put hashtags on things, but be conscious of every opportunity you have to let people know how to find your business online or join the conversation.

<3

DhariLo