The other day I was having a conversation with a new client (I consult with small businesses to help them market their business via social media) about using social tools in their business.

When I asked them why they wanted to use social media. I got a strange look from them.  They asked me to explain why I asked that question.

I assumed that everyone would know the answer to that question, but you know what happens when you assume!

So, I thought I’d just look at a few of the reasons why your businesses might want to explore the use of these tools.  For the purposes of this article, I am going to limit the discussion to Facebook and LinkedIn.  Even though YouTube, Twitter, Yelp and others are perfectly good tools to use, the majority of small business owners are going to find that Facebook and LinkedIn will suit their needs best.  You can adopt the ideas here to other channels as well.

Three of the most obvious uses of social media are to reconnect with past clients, deepen existing relationships with present clients and look for new clients.  Both Facebook and LinkedIn lend themselves to all three uses, but are executed differently.

The process of reconnecting with past clients starts with having a complete profile.  The more information that you share about yourself and your past jobs, schools and activities, the easier you make it for people from your past to find you.  This is something that a lot of people have trouble doing due to privacy concerns.  The more info you make available online the easier you make it for the identity theft bozos and creepy stalkers to latch on to you.

So, you could always turn this around and use the search features built in to Facebook and LinkedIn to look people up from your past so that YOU could reach out to them.  This requires that you know something about the people that you are looking for, such as maiden names or past or current residence information.  If you are going to initiate contact and ask someone to be your friend on Facebook or to connect with your network on LinkedIn I think it’s highly advisable to include a personal message in the invitation to connect.  Both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to include a personal message in the invitations.  Just give a quick reminder on how they know you and you will increase the chances of a favorable reply!

What about current clients?  I think it’s a great idea to include a “Look us up on Facebook” or “Connect with us on LinkedIn” message on your print ads, or if you use email, include those as links in your signature and take people directly to your profile pages so that they can find you easily.

These two methods are what I have heard described as the “unicorn and rainbow” methods of using social media in business.  I like to refer to this as the kumbaya method.  Both terms merely mean that you are going to conduct yourself on Facebook (and to a lesser extent on LinkedIn) in an open, friendly manner by sharing a lot of personal “slice of life” vignettes about you.  This can be very powerful when used properly, but if you have privacy concerns, then the chances of you actually being able to use these methods is slim.

So, here is where the third method of using social media comes in.  This method has you searching for clients among people that you don’t already know or with whom you have no previous relationship.

How is this possible?  Both Facebook and LinkedIn have tremendous knowledge of their users.  Facebook is more socially deep in their knowledge, and LinkedIn has more business depth knowledge of their users.  But, you mine that data the same way in both platforms…you run ads on the respective platforms!

The ability to run ads successfully requires that you have an in depth knowledge of who you want to reach AND that you have the ability to quantify or describe that target person in terms that can be used with the Facebook and LinkedIn ad platforms.  In a future article, I will explore ways that you can quantify your own ideal clients.

So, that was our discussion.  Once I was able to clear that up for the client, they were able to tell me how they planned to use social media to grow their business.

How about you?  Why do you want to use social media in a business?  How is it working out for you?