Social media has opened up a whole new platform for marketing and sales, and that\’s a great thing for businesses. The more markets you have to peddle the more eyes you can get in front of, and that means more sales.

The social media world offers much more than just sales opportunities, but many businesses seem to view it as simply another newspaper to place ads in. One major way that social can help your business is through customer service, but there\’s always a fine line there. Doing customer service wrong or badly in a place where the whole world can see your mistakes can be devastating.

Doing it well, however, can connect your company with its customers in a more sincere and intimate way than ever before possible. Great customer service almost always leads to greater loyalty and more sales.

1. Have Dedicated Customer Service Channels

There\’s nothing inherently wrong with using your business profile for customer service inquiries, but maintaining a separate customer service handle offers plenty of advantages to make it worth the effort.

One of those advantages is keeping your primary feed focused on engagement that promotes your business. From the customer\’s standpoint, a dedicated customer service channel gives them clear direction on getting answers to their problems.

In addition, you get the benefit of transparency in customer relations without advertising your issues to other followers who may not be aware of them. You don\’t want to hide customer issues, but there\’s no reason to advertise them either.

AI (artificial intelligence) and voice of customer solutions help businesses gain deeper and contextual understanding of customers and support efforts to create personalized and tailored experiences during times of crisis. Often, customers contact the brand before they vent their frustration on social media. Therefore, it is critical to address the needs of the customer proactively to protect the brand and its reputation.

1. Always respond quickly to customers

Customers want immediate answers and they often turn to social media first to find them. No longer are customers willing to wait out those “Please hold, your call is important to us …” automated voices that leave you on hold for several minutes that ultimately get nothing accomplished.

You can use social media to build customer relationships by quickly responding to questions and concerns via Facebook posts or tweets. When people are upset or have an urgent need, they want a response right away.

1. Make it easy for customers to share their story

People love to talk about themselves. It’s much of what Social media is all about, whether it’s bragging on your kids or posting those look-at-me workout pictures.

1. Show customer appreciation through giveaways and contests

A way you can use social media to build customer relationships is by rewarding them with giveaways, promotions, coupons and contests.

Giveaways and contests are great social media marketing opportunities that can generate a lot of buzz, placing your brand at the top of the daily trending lists and encouraging more visitors to seek out your website.

1. Respond to all of your online reviews

Online reviews are becoming more and more vital for businesses. The quality and quantity of online reviews can increase your local SEO rankings and thus drive more traffic to your site to increase revenue.

Online reviews also present your business with another opportunity to use social media to build customer relationships. Many businesses use reputation management services to generate more online reviews.