Do you think that you don’t need to build your online brand because your customers don’t buy from you online? Think Again! In this digital age, it is a sin to not leverage the immense power of social media.

But don’t be daunted! Online brand building is not rocket science. Here’s how you can make good use of social media in a few simple ways:

1. Inform your customers about the latest products

Take pictures of your newest products and share them on your social media. If you are more savvy and have a Pinterest account – bless you!  This will pull even your lazier customers out of their homes to check out the new arrivals or drop in for the new Sunday special.

2. Give awesome customer service

Social media has revolutionized the way customer service happens in the world now. You can easily track what your customers think of you with the help of Twitter mentions and Facebook trends. Use that information to address their problems with you.

Be quick to respond and be polite (even if they are not). Treat it like an extension of your store where the thumb rule is ‘be good to your customers’ (online is in fact an extension of your store).

3. Promote your promotional events

You must be running promotional events at your store during festivals and special occasions. Social media is a good channel to promote those events and workshops. You can create event pages and share all the relevant information. Invite them, interact with them and ask them to invite more people – endless possibilities!

4. Share customer stories

If you have happy customer stories, share them online. Nothing builds trust like the words of a happy customer does. You can always find these stories after you have resolved customer queries.

But make sure you have proof that a certain someone said it. Don’t just cook stories up. A genuine story has a very different charm. People buy such stories.

5. Integrate your store

Some of your customers may look you up online. But most of them won’t unless you tell them you are there.  Have links to your Facebook pages and Twitter handles on your store merchandise, price tags and hoardings.

You can create ‘online only’ campaigns and give out coupons to winners which can be redeemed at your store. This reverse flow can also give the much needed boost to your online customer engagement.

Try it out. It is easy, comparatively inexpensive and less time taking. And much more rewarding if done the right way. Because online is where most of your customers are, and the rest are going to be – soon!