Ending Soon! Save 33% on All Access

Three Tips for Finding Customers Via Social Media When it comes to using sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to find customers, persistence and focus are vital.

By Diana Ransom

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Three Tips for Finding Customers Via Social MediaFinding customers via a social media can seem like a mammoth -- or even ludicrous -- task, especially when time is such a precious commodity. But the numbers are hard to ignore: Facebook has more than 500 million users, while Twitter has more than 175 million. According to comScore, 171 million American Internet users watched online video content -- mainly at YouTube -- in January 2011 for an average of 14.5 hours per viewer. And then about 4 percent of adults who use the Web also use location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla, noted the Pew Research Center.

To put it another way, millions of your potential customers are using these sites. Don't you think it's time you do too?

We asked Jeffrey Carr, a marketing professor and the executive director of New York University's Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies to break out his best tricks for finding customers via social media. For even more of Carr's insights into finding customers, see our story: Using Social Media to Find the Right Customers.

Diana Ransom is the former deputy editor of Entrepreneur.com.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business News

Now that OpenAI's Superalignment Team Has Been Disbanded, Who's Preventing AI from Going Rogue?

We spoke to an AI expert who says safety and innovation are not separate things that must be balanced; they go hand in hand.

Franchise

What Franchising Can Teach The NFL About The Impact of Private Equity

The NFL is smart to take a thoughtful approach before approving institutional capital's investment in teams.

Employee Experience & Recruiting

Beyond the Great Resignation — How to Attract Freelancers and Independent Talent Back to Traditional Work

Discussing the recent workplace exit of employees in search of more meaningful work and ways companies can attract that talent back.

Business News

Scarlett Johansson 'Shocked' That OpenAI Used a Voice 'So Eerily Similar' to Hers After Already Telling the Company 'No'

Johansson asked OpenAI how they created the AI voice that her "closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference."

Business Ideas

Struggling to Balance Your Business and Your Relationship? This Company Says It Has a Solution.

Jessica Holton, co-founder and CEO of Ours, says her company is on a mission to destigmatize couples therapy so that people can be proactive about relationship health.

Marketing

Marketing Campaigns Must Do More than Drive Clicks — Here's How to Craft Landing Pages That Convert Clicks into Customers

Following fundamental design principles will ensure that your landing pages lead potential customers from clicking on an ad to completing a purchase.