There’s no denying the power of social media. Although social platforms were in their infancy just ten years ago, today 77% of Americans use at least one social network. Rocketing statistics like that mean one thing: social media is a must for businesses of any size — What a great opportunity to tell your story, drive brand awareness, generate new sales, and foster customer loyalty. (And the list goes on!)

Feeling behind? Don’t worry, it’s never too late to get started. Here are four tips for how you can leverage the power of social media to deliver amazing customer experiences — instantly.

Tip 1: Identify your “secret sauce”

Engaging social experiences must be designed and built from the start. To do that, you need to look at everything your business does through a customer lens and then use that as a way to identify your company’s secret sauce. In other words, what makes your company stand out: your customer service, a product, or maybe even a unique business model?

Once you’ve figured that out, get creative and think of all the ways you can bring this to life on social. Your goal here is to create those “wow” moments that surprise and delight customers, giving them a reason to want to share and engage with your brand in meaningful ways.

And finally, don’t rely solely on your marketing team to push this strategy forward. Empower everyone in your organization to play a role in your brand’s social media experience by using company hashtags, sharing posts, and engaging directly with customers.

Here are three companies that engineered new ways to stand out on social:

• Casper relies heavily on word-of-mouth marketing and invites customers to share their unboxing experiences on YouTube. Some of these videos have amassed 700K+ views.

• Domino’s Pizza launched the capability for customers to tweet their orders, an announcement and functionality which instantly went instantly viral.

• When Trello launched its Gold edition — offering trendy features like custom themes, emojis, and stickers — its rabid user base turned to social to share the excitement.

Tip 2: Be where they are

Once you’ve identified your “secret sauce” and built a social strategy around it, it’s time to get your message out in front of your customers. That means determining which social channels your customers and prospects use most — and then using those same channels, too. How?

• Search for mentions. This tells you where your current customers are and on which channels you can support them. Mine for mentions and search branded hashtags, keywords, and @ mentions to get a sense of what your customers are doing and are most interested in across various social media channels. You can do this natively on each channel or by using a social media monitoring tool.
  
  

• Find relevant conversations. This is a great way to engage prospects. I like to keep a constant pulse on all #smallbiz conversations. When I see someone having a problem, I can send relevant content or connect them with the right people. Sure, it’s a sales and marketing tactic, but it also shows your brand is listening and cares about service.
  
  

• Make social support a priority. Did you know that 88% of consumers are less likely to purchase from a company that leaves questions on social unanswered? That means you have no choice but to make social support a priority and map out a social support strategy that address your unique customers’ needs effectively. This includes training your support team on social (and vice versa) and equipping them with all the tools they need to be successful.