The business world has been growing and learning how to make better money making plans since the beginning of time. With each advance in technology, it adapts its selling process. The invention of paper money and the coin allowed us to do away with bartering chickens for clothes.

Banks gave us a place to store ungodly amounts of money and thus more motivation to make it. The introduction of the Internet broadened the palette of how and where we can conduct business and when social media entered the picture, we gained an unprecedented opportunity to bolster how we advertise and build our businesses. Below are three of those ways.

See What Your Competitors Are Up To

Law prohibits the creation of a monopoly in business. This is unfortunate for most companies. Because of the constant of competition between businesses of the same order, companies have gone to incredible lengths to know what their enemy is up to. In the early years, it was popular to send a spy of sorts to your competitor’s store and take pictures of inventory and prices.

Later on down the road, there were instances of employees defecting to other corporations that promised higher pay and better benefits for trade secrets. Some privacies were flat out stolen, as in the case of Steven Louis Davis who, in 1997, stole drawings of Gillette’s new razor design and emailed it to competing companies.

He ended up serving 27 months in prison for his crimes. With the adage of social media, the need for industrial espionage is practically extinct. It’s much easier to just sit and listen or read your customer’s reviews and other comments about your competitor’s products.

Advertise Your Company

Advertising has had many faces over the years and as the people have changed, the methods needed to advertise have evolved, as well. Before t.v. and radio, you might find out about a sale via word of mouth or a well placed flyer. Occasionally, you might be privy to an ad in a magazine. Later on, with the invention of televisions and radios, we experienced the commercial boom.

Almost anything and everything you could imagine buying had its own time slot for advertising. As technology continued to advance, we were eventually blessed with the wonder of social media. Social media has made advertising as simple as graduating pre-school. The majority of the time, customers will advertise for you just by sharing their experiences with your product or service.

Occasionally, friends ask for recommendations and, again, your customers will recommend your company. Having a well placed ad on a social media site can gain countless new customers per month and creating a page on a social media site allows customers to keep up with sales and news concerning your business. Each like could be considered rented billboard space on a customer’s page.

Gauge Your Company’s Social Temperature

Ever wonder how your business is really doing? How much money you are making is not the only thermometer involved in gauging how your company is progressing. Your company may sell a vital need for every human on the planet, such as food or clothing. The fact that they are essential for living gives you a head start on the rest of the business world.

What you need to know is what your customers think of your business practices, the relevance of your product to the times, and if they intend to stay loyal. Social media has made access to this information easy, frequent, and exclusive.

Not only can you glean informative thoughts and opinions from public posts, but you can set up a place on your own social media page for customers to offer reviews. You can also use that same avenue to publicly ask your clients targeted questions about certain events inside the company or what they think about particular products or services.  

Social media is the best tool, in the opinion of most, for growing your bottom line. Take the ideas here and capitalize on the biggest opportunity since the invention of the commercial to make your company successful.

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About Author

Hi Im Eddie. Ive been working in finance for most of my life so I thought I would start to show some or my learnings. Hope you find it useful. I have dogs too and cats. When Im not feed them Im running.