Now that you have your Facebook page and your Twitter account up and running, you have ceremoniously blogged about it and put up links to these accounts from your website.  It is quite easy to promote your social media efforts online.  Just put up a link and a short invitation for people to add you up on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. In fact, there are even ready-made buttons and graphics to further make it easier for you to invite people on social media. But what about offline?  How do you get the word out to your customers that they can now follow you on Twitter or perhaps read about the latest news about your business on your blog?

1. Add your social media sites on your business cards.  Remember when business cards were so simple?  All you had to give out were your name, your position in the company, your business addresses, and your contact numbers?  Soon, it became necessary to include your e-mail address and your business website’s URL too. These days, however, it has also become necessary to add your social media accounts.  This way, when a new business contact tries to find out more about you or your company, it would be easy to control what they see on the Internet.

Admittedly, this would become a problem if you keep a number of social media accounts.  With the relatively small spaces of a business card, it would be very easy to clutter it up with all your social media accounts.  The solution is to get creative with your layout or even with how you present the information on your business card.  A good layout can help de-clutter your business card and make it more eye-catching.

2. Put up in-store signs.  It may be very old-fashioned to put up signs and announcements all over your store or beside your cash register, but it is a very effective way of informing your customers that you now have a Facebook page that they could like. While it is enough to just say “Like Us on Facebook,” you might consider giving out an incentive for them to do so.  Try something like “Get a 5% discount on your next purchase if you Like us on Facebook” or “Get a free teddy bear and hug from our cashier. Just like us on Facebook!”

You could also list out the benefits that your customers could get from following you on social media.  How about “Get the latest information on new products and the best deals, and be the first to try out our new offering.  Get exclusive discounts too! Follow us on Twitter!”

More than this, you should also give instructions on how people can find you easily.  This is especially important if you have a very generic name such as Corner Bakery or Smith’s Store.  Making use of Facebook’s customized page URL or giving out your Twitter name is a good way to simplify things. You might also want to put up computer terminals all around your store so that your customers could use them to add you up even before they go out your door!

3. Mention it on your marketing materials.  If you periodically give out marketing flyers or send brochures, then make sure that you include your social media URLs in it.  If you have a printed newsletter, you might as well write an article about your new Facebook page.  You could also include it on your letterheads and memo pads. If you already have your catalogs and materials printed, don’t fret.  If you have enough white space available you can just print your social media URLs on stickers.  You could also print them on envelops.

4. Using QR codes.  QR codes are those square-shaped two-dimensional codes that you see on almost everything from movie posters to product packagings  to flyers nowadays.  Businesses can place just about anything behind a QR code: YouTube videos, website URLs, text message, even business card details. When people scan a QR code with their smartphones, they are immediately taken to the content behind it.

You could create a QR code for each social media account you have and include these QR codes on your business cards, marketing materials and in-store signs. This way, you can make it easier for your customers to add you up or like you.  All they have to do is to scan your code with their smartphones and they are immediately taken to your Twitter account and read your tweets and follow you.  No more typing away lengthy URLs! Also it allows you to get your customers into your Facebook page or Twitter account even when they are still in your stores or reading your flyers.  They do not get a chance to forget you should they want to add you.