Today, with the explosion of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, it is virtually impossible to run a successful business that does not have at least some kind of presence there.

With over 2 billion active users across these various platforms, having an online profile is a way for your company to connect with new people. It also gives you as an entrepreneur or leader a chance to showcase yourself and what you are offering so that potential customers can research and determine if this product or service is worth trying.

By spending time developing relationships in the community, creating conversations, and engaging in discussions, you will draw in new followers and eventually buyers. At the same time, you will expose your brand’s products and services to new audiences who may be interested in what you have to offer.

It is very important to remember that producing content to share on social media channels is only a small part of marketing. Getting out into the community and interacting with others takes work, but will pay off in the long run.

Create a website

After you have chosen your platform, it is time to start building your social media campaign! The first thing you will need to do is create an easy-to-find web page that people can use to access your social media management tools. This way, they can view all of your accounts, change settings, upload pictures and videos, etc.

This should be done very early on in order to prevent confusion down the road. For example, if someone searches for ‘lose weight’ then there could be some conflicting information about whether or not dieting actually works. With a free account, you may want to consider just creating a general health and wellness site at this stage.

As you gain followers, you can update your sites with content, offer services, invite people to follow you, and promote products and services.

Create a social media profile

A business has two main profiles on most major social networks- a personal account and a company account. You can use your personal account to connect with people, but using these accounts as for business purposes is typically not allowed unless you are very clearly defining yourself as an employee of the business or have permission from higher up in the organization.

That being said, even if you do not work for the company, it is still important to have a presence on all of the major social sites because this is where most of the audience lies today. It is also a good way to increase engagement by adding content that people like and sharing information about the company.

By having a social media presence, you give your followers a place to go get more info or support about the products and services you offer. Your followers can easily add you as a friend or follower, which helps promote interaction!

It is also helpful to start gathering email addresses and other personal information such as phone numbers and names so that you can stay connected later. Many companies use social networking to help them find new employees, so staying active on the internet is a great way to expose your self and the company.

Choose a theme

Now that you have done some preliminary work, it is time to pick a social media platform and style yourself as an expert of this medium!

Which one should you choose? This really comes down to what kind of content you want to create and how much time you can dedicate to posting on each site.

Some people start out very passionate about certain sites and then lose focus because they get busy with other things. So, make sure your schedule is solid before picking a site to become famous on!

The most popular sites are usually free to use, so do not worry about paying for software or memberships. Many companies will give you free accounts too if you are willing to put in some effort to grow their account.

Theme is another key factor when choosing which site to be your voice on. Some brands seem to emphasize having different styles across all platforms, while others stick to one brand’s flavor.

Buy products to use as a giveaway

As mentioned earlier, you do not have to use your own money to create engagement on social media. You can instead buy some products or services and use those to promote your business or brand.

By buying a product that benefits your followers, they will likely advertise the product for you. If the product is from another company, it creates buzz and attracts new followers.

Your followers will definitely appreciate getting what you bought, especially if it’s good quality. Make sure to pick a day where there are few people online so their friends don’t notice.

Don’t spend more than $100 because then it looks like you are trying to profit off of them.

Run the campaign

Now that you have done all of the hard work in terms of creating your social media account, establishing yourself as an influencer, and developing engaging content, it is time to actually run your engagement marketing campaign!

The first thing you will need to do is choose who you want to interact with on their platform. This could be through direct messages or comments, posting pictures or videos, or just by commenting on their posts.

Once you have chosen your strategy, you can now start interacting! The timing and rhythm of when best to comment, like, share, or contribute is dependent on what kind of content the other person has posted.

Some people may not respond well to comments at times, so make sure to check out their profile before adding anything.

Monitor and assess

The next step in managing your social media campaign is to monitor and evaluate its success. You will want to make sure that you are keeping up with all of the accounts, that their advertisements are visible to the public, and that people are interacting with them.

It is also important to determine how engaged or interested the followers/fans are in the content that they watch being posted. If they seem more excited about something else, maybe it’s time to shift the focus or re-target using similar strategies.

Lessons learned

As we mentioned before, creating engaging content is the most important thing you can do for your business’s social media presence. But how you manage your social accounts is just as significant.

The first rule of managing your online reputation is never make an embarrassing or controversial post unless you have planned out the next step. This way, your followers will always know what to expect from you!

Another good tip is to only edit or delete something if you have taken time to consider whether it is appropriate. You don’t want to mess up by rushing through your settings.

Promote more

A lot of people start social media campaigns with no plan other than putting up a business profile. They assume that by doing this, their followers or customers will find them online and learn about their product or service.

This is not a bad assumption to make, but it’s not enough!

After all, wouldn’t you want someone who knows your products and services well to join you in any effort to promote them?

The difference between having a few loyal fans and lots of loyal fans is actually spending time developing relationships with others. This takes work and energy beyond just posting a status update every now and then.

Take some time to read about and study how successful businesses use social media for marketing purposes. Then, apply those strategies to improve your own.