Many business owners are now relying heavily on social media to help market their products and services. You may already have a business account with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You may also see that with these sites, your sales went up higher than you expected. But you should not stop there. People regularly think of ways to let them connect with others who share the same interests and you have to be updated so that your business can thrive.

The latest addition to social networking media, which can help promote small businesses, is the Foursquare iPhone app. It is a well-known belief that the best marketing strategy is by word of mouth and Foursquare has it down pat. Most local businesses have difficulty in increasing their customer base and the reason for this is because of little visibility. Most consumers just do not know that a certain company exists. Unlike big companies who can pay for TV ads and other advertising mediums, small businesses have to contend with how their regular customers tell their friends that they actually exist.

As a business owner, you have to realize the importance of good reviews from your regular customers before you can even hope to generate more. With the Foursquare application, your regular customers would just need to write reviews and recommend your products and services to their friends using mobile phones. In earlier years, when your customers are happy doing business with you, they would only be able to tell a handful of their friends, just those that they often come into contact with. Because of the proliferation of social networking, those same customers are given the chance to promote your business to a wider network.

The first thing you need to do is to make sure that you are actually on Foursquare. If the location of your business is relatively good, there’s no reason why people would not be able to start checking in on you. After which, you will have to look for tips on Foursquare on how you can be a better choice for customers. You can set up a small promotion, give better deals than your competitors by giving out discounts and such to your customers. You can also give special discounts to the mayor of your business. In Foursquare, the mayor is a person who frequents your business. This is a great way to tell other people that they can be given perks if they are regular patrons of your products and services. Aside from that, it would also let the people know that you are taking good care of your regulars which can boost their trust in you. You have to build customer loyalty and the growth of your enterprise will follow.

The main thing that you need to build on is your reputation to your existing customers. You have to think of ways for your customers to be more invested in your business. There are a lot of networking sites and applications which can offer free advertising for your business but the real asset here is your customers. If they feel that you and your business are not worth mentioning, your efforts at widening your customer base would be put to waste.