Studies have shown that consumers trust ads only about 20% of the time, but they trust recommendations from their friends, family and other users 80% of the time. So how to you get your customers to spread your message to their social media networks that you would never had access to previously?

Below are some of our tips on how you can integrate social media into your marketing efforts, engage with your customers, motivate existing fans and create new ones in the process.

It's a game
People love to compete and they love to win something. Anything! That competitive, gaming instinct can drive fans to share your content with their networks and bring new fans to you. Whether it's for a chance to win a prize, or to gain multiple entries into a sweepstakes, a competition can help dramatically boost results.

Identify, recognise and rewards your most loyal fans
If you ran a social media campaign and tracked the online users who shared your content, raved about your brand and drove traffic back to your page or website, you will be able to see that a small number of fans were responsible for driving traffic to your site. These are your raving fans and they should be recognised and rewarded for the influence they have every time they talk about you and your brand to their networks. These raving fans are the ones that proudly tell all their friends and family about your customer service, business and products.

These fans are not necessarily motivated by discounts; they're motivated by their status and the influence they have on the brand and other fans. So how do you get these fans to amplify your message? Give them a reward and make it personal.

Appeal to their altruisum
People are more likely to share if they feel like they are doing something good. For example, The Canadian Red Leaf Project campaign was launched to boost volunteering for parks projects across Canada and plant 100,000 trees. The ask was: volunteer for parks projects and earn free concert tickets. No time to volunteer? No problems. Click a button and plant a virtual tree and Molson will plant a real tree for you.

Give your fans something exclusive
Everyone wants to feel special and one way to make them feel special is to give them something exclusive that is not available anywhere else.

Let your fans co-create value
You can create campaigns where everyone wins if they can get their friends to do something together. For example, HarperCollins' Bookperk website, which keeps readers up to date on new books and special deals, lets members select which books will be offered at a discount. Once members have chosen a book, they have the option to log into Facebook  and share their selection with friends, therefore, spreading the word about the discount.

If you would like more information about social media marketing and how TA Fastrack can help you engage with your customers or to run a competition online, speak to one of the marketing consultants on 07 3040 3588 or on email@tafastrack.com.au.