We are on Facebook, Twitter, Blog and Linkedin. Now what?

This is pretty much a bottleneck that most companies may encounter. Companies use social media to improve their brand awareness and reputation. Through SEM(Search Engine Marketing)/SEO (Search Engine Optimization), companies generate website traffic and rank higher in search engine. But, so what? How can the companies benefit from social media? How can they make real money sooner?

In my point of view, there are two main ways to monetize social media.

a. Offer promotions for the customers exclusively on social media
 Drugstore did a great job in this aspect. It offers 20% off for people who like them on their Facebook fan page exclusively.

b. Try to engage the customers

• Perform an alive representative online and try to build up a two-way communication. 
• Respond to every inquiry quickly. 
• Helping customers or even potential customers to solve problems is a good way to get the customers engaged. 
• Updating the blog frequently and interacting with people in related industry could also build up a community.