It’s easier than ever to communicate with your customers, on any platform you like Social media ­consultants constantly advise corporate clients to pay more attention to the “social” than the “media” in their online strategies. After all, it’s not the size of a brand’s following on a channel that matters—it’s the quality. And to achieve a highly engaged social following, businesses need to do more than post regularly; they need to establish a dialogue with their clientele, one consumer at a time. To help marketers, Facebook, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), and Twitter routinely roll out new tools for brands to communicate with their current and future customers. Here are a few socially savvy ways—both established and new—to kick-start conversations with your followers. Direct Messages (DMs) Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all offer direct messaging