Are you currently leveraging the awesome power of social media to grow your business?

If you’re not, then you’re as good as leaving money on the table. Few tools are more powerful or offer greater potential for growth, with the proviso that they’re used correctly, of course.

The next logical question, then, becomes how? How can you leverage that power to boost your bottom line? Fortunately, it’s easier than you might think, and below are a few simple keys to social media success.

Scattershot Doesn’t Work

The sad reality is that there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and because of that simple time constraint, you can’t be everywhere at once.
If you try to create a sizeable footprint on every social media platform out there, you won’t be doing any of them justice. Depending on your time, staff and budget, pick one, or maybe two and focus on those.

The best way to pick the “right” platform or platforms for your brand is to pay to have a customer demographics study done. After all, if most of your clients are Instagram users, then it doesn’t do you much good to put a lot of effort into Facebook. So, the first order of business should always be to find out where your customers (and, by extension, your likely customers) spend time.

Consistency is Key

Armed with the information on where to focus your efforts, the next step is to set up an account and start posting, but here, there are two points to keep in mind. Most consumers of social media want new content regularly, so if you can’t commit to at least 2-3 new posts a week, don’t bother. New posts should be made on a fairly predictable schedule.

The other element of consistency is consistency of tone and voice. Friendly and professional should be the order of the day here, but feel free to deviate from that if some other voice better personifies your brand. Remember, when you make a post, the “voice” you post in is the voice of the company.

If your brand has a refined image, and your social media posts sound like they’re coming from a brash teenager, you’ve got a disconnect, and a serious problem. Voice should always convey the spirit of the brand. Be sure that it does.

Engage!

Before the rise of social media, companies could get away with simply publishing information on websites. Social media isn’t like that. The platform is designed to allow your readers to comment, and they will.

When they do, be sure to respond. Start a conversation. Draw your readers in and make them not just customers, but fans. Do that, and you will thrive.