Social media can be a great tool for small businesses; it can be used to raise awareness of your brand, promote deals and even serve as a customer service platform. According to an article on Mashable.com, small businesses can gain an advantage by using social media to address customer service needs.

Many in the tanning business community use social media as an effective and transparent way to address customers’ concerns and put a face on their businesses.

“When you engage the community, you personalize your business. Your business is no longer a store or a website: It’s a person,” says Marsha Collier, author of “The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide,” in the article.

In order to effectively engage your clients, it’s important to stay on top of your brand mentions in the social media world. By using tools like Seesmic, Tweetbeep and Social Mention, businesses can keep track of what people are saying about their brands. This can help businesses figure out what matters to customers and how to address their concerns.

Customers don’t want to do business with companies that have a bad customer service reputation and with more customers than ever using social media it’s important to make sure your business is monitoring its online brand image.

To read the full article at Mashable click here