Whether you are a business or individual, you have no doubt heard of other companies like Groupon and LivingSocial. These brands offer online coupons for businesses both small and large, on both local and national scales. There are a dozen other similar coupon sites, which are offered to users of each site, that provide a “flash” deal that unlocks sales such as a coupon at a store for $25 that can purchase $50 worth of merchandise. Social coupons can be a great way to promote a special deal at your company, and are often highly shared via social media by potential and past customers interested in the deal.

Other social media tools provide great ways to share offers and add value to your current line of products and services. If your business operates in a brick-and-mortar storefront, you can use geolocation platforms like Foursquare to offer deals to customers who frequent your business the most often. These deals, available to the “mayor” of your business on Foursquare, can provide incentive to not only the person who checks in the most to come back to redeem a free cup of coffee or 10% off, for example, but encourages all of your customers to come back as much as possible as they compete for the deal.

Facebook and Twitter are also equipped with features that you can utilize to offer deals to all of your customers. With Facebook, businesses can utilize Facebook deals to fans of the business. Customers simply need to use their smartphone and the native Facebook app to check in and claim the deal when they are at your business. This encourages your customers to not only visit your store, but connect with you on Facebook to stay in touch and keep updated about future sales, events, and news related to your brand. Twitter can also be a great tool for keeping connected with customers by sharing offers, such as via a DM to new followers. A great example of this is when a restaurant auto-DMs new followers with the opportunity to show their server that they are a follower of the business and receive a free appetizer in return. While auto-DMs on Twitter are typically frowned upon for being spammy, this type of promotion can encourage fans to keep following you on Twitter for more deals and also to actually visit your business.

While there are many options for utilizing social media to add value and share offers with your customers, both past and future, be sure to choose the services that will connect you with your customers the best. It is good to be present on all social networks, but if you choose to spend any money on a social marketing campaign, be sure to be conscious of your budget and where it will be most effectively spent for the best ROI — both in short term for increase in sales and for the attraction of future customers.