Social media is nothing if not constantly changing, which on the surface can be quite discouraging. We may already feel as though it's next to impossible to keep up, but I would argue that most of the time, these changes are improvements, and meant to make things easier and more effective, and not simply change for change sake.

Whether it's a new way to publish content, publicize your wares, or network with your audience, social platforms change constantly, and often for the better.

To help with this, here are some of the latest social media changes to come down the pike in the last few months, what they are, and how they can help your small business!

5 New Social Media Updates that Can Benefit Your Small Business

Facebook Instant Articles – Facebook is debuting a new feature called Instant Articles, which is designed to allow information publishers to more effectively get their message out on mobile devices. Highly interactive and user friendly, this promises to help publishers with monetizing and spreading their content.

Twitter Loading up Characters in DMs – Starting in July 2015, Twitter has lifted the 140 character restriction on direct messages. (Not Tweets!) in an effort to allow better interaction and engagement on the platform. Your mind should be spinning at the possibilities this might afford!

Google Search to Show More Social Results – Look for Tweets to start showing up in Google mobile search results. All you need to do is to type your interest into the Google mobile app and the resulting page will have relevant and recent Tweets on the subject at hand. Right now this only works on mobile, desktop to come later.

Twitter's Killer New Search Page – Even more from Twitter, a new, full-featured search results page which boasts a far cleaner and useful interface. You can also filter your searches quite nicely, to further refine your search queries.

Better LinkedIn Reporting form Simply Measured – If you've been using the social analytics company Simply Measured you might have noticed a new report for LinkedIn publishers that gives a much deeper dive into their analytics. There is a ton of metrics to analyze, and also an updated cross channel social performance report feature that covers 8 of the most popular social networks, including LinkedIn.

Social media is in a constant state of change and up with some of the shifts will help keep your social efforts fruitful.

Social media marketing has progressed to the point where it's no longer just another channel, full of sound and fury, signifying mostly nothing, and is now an essential component of any serious online marketing business. If you haven't yet gotten on board with this, now is the time.

Why Learn Social Media Marketing?

The fact is that your audience, or at least a vast portion of it, is residing on social networks, and if you are not taking part, you can be quite sure your competition is, gathering all the leads that might have been yours. It's also where they go to get ideas, tips and advice, a game you need to be influencing as well. So, it's really important for your business to learn social media marketing.

Related: Use These 7 Great Tips for Succeeding with Social Media

Learn which social media channels you need

There are a handful of major players that you simply need to be on, and few others that might make a lot of sense given your market.

The top five social media networks as of this writing are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube. The next most significant will be sites like Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. This seconds tier is a lot more visually oriented, but drives loads of traffic that is very interested in buying.

Understanding each site's demographic can help you decide how much emphasis you should place on each, together with your particular market.

Using social media sites for business

Finding and growing an audience for your business through the use of social media is in many ways far faster and easier than it is with traditional online marketing. The potential of having your content and sites shared far beyond your own reach is very real, and can help grow your influence.

Related: Harness the Power of Social Proof in Your Marketing

Your business can experience exponential growth if your social media is managed well and allowed to grow. There are a number of techniques for doing this, and as you might expect change is a constant.

To help with that here is a great collection of social media resources that will give you a great foundation and knowledge going forward. One of our favorites on this list is the blog Social Media Examiner. If you're serious to learn social media marketing, this blog should be top on your list.

The rewards of a successful social media initiative are many, ranging from large amounts of traffic to developing a truly engaged and passionate following. Both of those sound pretty good to me!

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!

Related: Take Advantage Of Tumblr For Business – Read These 3 Tips

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.

Related: Advertising Options For Small Businesses

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.

If you have no concept what the idea of social proof is everything about, let's identify it here. Social proof is the idea that people will form and conform their concepts and beliefs to the prevailing knowledge of the crowd, assuming that it is believable.

The capability to convince huge groups of people with a notion entirely supported by the crowd is a heady idea. There are many kinds of social proof out there, and they can bet put to use in the form of reviews, expert recommendations, sheer numbers and more.

Let's look at 5 types of social proof, and let the concepts start to percolate in your head.

5 Powerful types of social proof

Celebrity social proof – You've seen this one countless times, as the latest, most popular celebs endorse items they like. Now I'm sure Peyton Manning consumes pizza, however that's not why it works. It works due to the fact that individuals LIKE Peyton, and trust him. Papa John is smiling all the way to the bank.

Shortage ploy – In this consumer-driven society we reside in the worry of losing out. This is due to the fact that you or somebody else has simply informed them that they actually need this right now, much like hundreds of others much like them have chosen this minimal time, one-time only offer.

Specialist social proof – There's something about placing your trust in somebody who has actually existed, or is considered an authority or specialist on the topic that conveys just enough trust to get individuals to buy into the offer. This is where the term “influencer” stems from, and is a powerful method in sales these days.

User generated – Many times satisfied customers feel compelled, (especially when encouraged) to leave a review. This is golden, as you didn't need to do anything amazing to get it, and it strikes home with your readers as someone similar to them has discovered your product and services helpful. This type supports an authenticity that is tough to beat.

Peer pressure – The power of social networks can extend into the personal lives of users, when they are suggesting things to their good friends. There's an unwritten responsibility to take this more seriously, and possibly give it a chance, based only on their good friends recommendation. I guess the driving lesson here is beware who your friends are!

Have you considered using social media to thank your best clients for their patronage? This is one of the newest and best-received ways to let the people most important to your business see how much you appreciate them! Not only does it complete the service of giving thanks, it does so in a public way, thus performing a dual service. People will see this, and reputations are enhanced, and possible new alliances are born.

One more advantage being whispered about lately, is that even non-linked social mentions will be the recipients of some Google love in the search results.

Let's take a peek at 7 ways you can integrate this into your business.

7 Ideas for thanking your clients using social media

A Shout Out on Twitter – If you have a nice sized twitter following, this can be a fantastic way to give some recognition. Share news, images and links here easily.

Endorse them on LinkedIn – This is one of the purposes of LinkedIn, and it is well set up for this. You can leave a review on your page, their page, your groups, or post in status feed. This can easily result in more work for them!

Leave on online review – Leaving a review on a site like Yelp can help both you and your client! All small businesses need online citations in the form of reviews.

Post about them on Facebook – Your business page on Facebook is another place to get a positive image in front of loads of people fast!

Record a Testimonial for YouTube – Leaving a well done video testimonial is a wonderful way to thank someone. And, if you can show their work, do so! This can help them in search also.

Share an image on Pinterest – Pinterest users are very eager to buy, and sharing images of their work for you there can work very well. Especially with the female demographic! (70% of Pinterest users)

Write about them in your newsletter – Writing a short piece in your company newsletter is a great way to shine a light on them and show your thanks.

Have you considered using social media to thank your clients for their patronage? This is one of the newest and best-received methods to let the people most important to your business know how much you appreciate them! Not only does it carry out the service of giving thanks, it does so in a public way, thus doing dual service. People will see this, and instantly reputations are enhanced, and possible new alliances are created.

One additional advantage that is being whispered about lately, is that even non-linked social mentions will be the recipients of some Google love in the search results.

To help you get the idea machine up and running, listed below are 7 fantastic ways for you to show your appreciation to your clients via social media!

7 Ideas for thanking your clients using social media

Twitter – Giving your client a shout out on Twitter can be a terrific way to show your appreciation. This works well with links and images of the work, and can lead to more work if you have a significant following.

Use the review functions on LinkedIn – LinkedIn is ideal for this type of activity, since the audience there is already predisposed to hearing about business professionals.

Leave a review with an online site – Most businesses are always in need of reviews and leads. Reviews on sites like Yelp will be a big help to them!

Post about them on Facebook – Your business page on Facebook is another place to get a positive image in front of loads of people fast!

Record a video Testimonial and put it on YouTube – An excellent way to show your thanks is by creating a video testimonial. This can be easily shared and potentially enjoy a very wide reach.

Employ Pinterest – Using Pinterest to share this type of news can work exceptionally well also. Pinterest users are primarily female, and not afraid to purchase.

Feature them in your company newsletter – If you distribute a company newsletter, a short spotlight on your client can very easily gain them more leads, and you as well!

Having social media pages represent your business is a good start, however you're not likely to get any substantial gain of social media if you aren't publishing frequently and engaging with your readers.

The majority of businesses truly don't have a plan with respect to social media upkeep. It seems an insurmountable task to preserve, especially if you're wishing to maintain a number of various platforms.

In hopes of subduing your fears and assisting you to produce a plan, let's check out 5 ways to make your social media less of a discomfort and more of what it's expected to be!

5 Ways to make your social media maintenance easier

Give thought to your platforms – Unless you have wise and huge staff, you actually will not be able to handle more than a couple of social media platforms at the same time. Take a close peek at where your consumers are probably to be discovered, and begin there. Ensure you are selecting a minimum of a few of the significant ones: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Have an editorial calendar – Scheduling your postings, with the exception of the spur of the moment posts, can take a great deal of pressure off of your personnel, and help you run social campaigns at the same time. This is also where devices can play a part. You can use Hootsuite, Buffer or PostPlanner to schedule your social media posts.

Use cross promo – Make sure to maximize cross promo by revealing your social posts to all your channels. This can result in a larger and wider reach for your content.

Repurpose other content – Using snippets of blog posts, videos, and other relevant content adjusted for your social media pages can help you put together appropriate material.

Share other remarkable content you find – This is one that your readers will love, and can take a lot of the pressure off of you to come up with fantastic content every day. Share helpful and helpful bits you discover in your day with your audience. One tip though: make sure it is relevant!

It had not been too long ago that small business considered social networks nothing more than a time-sucking distraction; something to keep the workers from whiling away their days upon. Not any more. Now you ‘d offer your sibling's 401k for somebody social networks savvy enough to take your company to the next level.

The fact is, you most likely have staff members investing their time on social media. Exactly what you might not have is a plan for the best ways to use their skills.

What are small businesses doing with social networks

It's now being reported that 74.5 percent of small businesses are utilizing social media to brand and otherwise promote their companies. What's more, they're not scared to invest some money either. 21.4 percent of these exact same businesses list social networks as where their media dollars are spent. They are not doing this for a time squandering activity!

55 percent of these companies have a Facebook company page, and another 20 percent are using Facebook Ads to promote posts on that page.

The other significant players competing for attention from small businesses are LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Google+ could be consisted of in this group, but as it stands now, having actually gone through yet another version, many are unsure what to do with it. Google My Business is the current providing from the folks at Google, and it is an ambitious effort to consolidate Google+, Places, Map and God understands exactly what else under one roofing. We'll see.

What can you do to obtain your business working with social media?

First off jump right in! Make a Facebook Page, get accounts at the social sites that make sense for you, and above all, don't spread yourself too thin. You'll wish to be posting content to these pages, not merely quote from dead people and photos of adorable kittens.

Offer individuals who concern your social networks pages thoughtful and unique material. Share what you find beneficial and valuable, and place your very own remarks and reflections.

Make sure and post distinct, helpful material that will certainly make individuals wish to click through to your other properties, like your website, Blog or YouTube channel, and make an effort to engage with anyone who makes the effort to seek you out socially. You'll discover that the rewards of social media will soon start to show themselves!