Use These 7 Great Tips for Succeeding with Social Media

The allure of social media marketing for business is the promise of reach and virality you can achieve if you do it right. Within that sentence lies the rub: you have to do it right!

The trick is in knowing how to do it right. It's not enough to create a Facebook page for your business and leave it at that. For you to attract the type of engaged, hungry audience eager to hear about you and your products, there is a bit more work involved. We've listed 7 great ways for succeeding with social media to get you headed toward that goal of a thriving, engaged social media customer base. It's up to you to make it happen!

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7 Tips for a Successful Social Media Presence for your Business

Make videos – Video is hands down the most preferred medium people are looking at these days, and not only on YouTube. In fact, videos posted initially on Facebook outperform YouTube videos with regards to interaction and engagement.

Engage your fans and followers – Increasingly more customers are airing their opinions about your business on social media. If you are not active here, you could be getting slammed and not even know about it! Engage, solve problems, and reach out; it's going to pay off.

Utilize Instagram and Pinterest – These two image powerhouses are growing by leaps and bounds, and statistics show that their users are far more likely to convert.

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Keep it short on Facebook – The average Facebook status update has been said to be less than 40 characters. This is likely because of video and image sharing. Whatever the reason, it shows what's working.

Ask questions – One of the best ways to engage with your following and well as gather business intelligence is to pose questions on your social media channels, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Please don't forget to respond yourself to their answers!

Go Visual – Visuals rule on social media, and are shared far more often than any other type of posts. They also lead in engagement, so don't be afraid to post visuals and follow up.

Curate and use authoritative content – You're not tied to using your own content exclusively. Be sure and share (and Cite) authoritative content you find on the Web. Your followers and fans will thank you for this.