To most people, Facebook and Twitte

To most people, Facebook and Twitter are ways to keep in touch with friends and to let them know What they are doing. For companies of all shapes and sizes, however, Facebook and Twitter have become powerful tools for engaging customers.

Location-based businesses like gourmet food trucks can tweet their current location to loyal followers and fans.

Appointment-based businesses can easily tweet or post cancellations and unexpected openings. Larger companies run sweepstakes and promotions. And companies of all sizes have an opportunity to shape the perception of their brands and to solidify relationships with their customer.
Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve greater visibility. For example, many Facebook ads feature the ability to “Like” a brand, send a virtual gift, answer a poll question, or instantly stream information to your news feed. Twitter has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends. These features give advertisers the ability to have their tweets displayed more prominently when Twitter user search for certain keywords.
Levi’s was one of the first national brands to use Facebook and Twitter to allow consumers to socialize and share their purchases with friends. The Levi’s Facebook page has posted 500,000 “Likes.” messages posted by friends sharing their favorite jeans. Within the first week of its share campaign, Levis received 4,000 “Likes.” The company began using Twitter in 2010 by creating a “Levi’s Guy,” 23-year-old USC graduate Gareth, to interest customers. He has over 6,000 followers and is responsible for responding to queries and engaging in conversations about the Levi’s brand on Twitter In 2011, the company created a personalized Friends Store where shoppers can see what their friends “Liked” and bought.