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The Right Way To Build A Social Media Following For Your Company

This article is more than 9 years old.

By Shawn Porat

Everyone touts the benefits of social media marketing nowadays. There are certainly benefits to this approach. Social media is low cost, easy to implement and, most importantly, almost everyone uses it. These very advantages, however, often cause businesses to overlook some pitfalls and shortcomings of their social media approach. It's important to follow certain guidelines if you want to set yourself apart and attract the kind of audience that will truly help you build your brand.

Narrow Your Focus

With so many social media sites cropping up, it's easy to spread yourself too thin. When it was just Facebook and Twitter, things were a lot simpler. Now, however, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+ and lots of smaller-but-growing competitors are becoming popular. Where do you draw the line? You can only maintain an effective presence on so many platforms.

Even if you outsource your social media marketing, it's better to hone in on those sites that work best for your business. For some companies, visually-based sites like Pinterest and Instagram are a natural fit. If you're engaged in business-to-business marketing, a presence on LinkedIn is a must. On the other hand, LinkedIn might not do that much for a company that sells mainly to retail consumers. You should identify a few sites where your time and investment will reap the greatest rewards.

Provide Content but Don't Oversell

One of the biggest mistakes made by businesses on social media sites is spending too much time selling and hyping their products. Remember that people spend time on sites like Facebook mostly for socializing and entertainment. If your page and updates are mostly links to sales pages or simply telling everybody how great you are, they will quickly tire of it.

But if you focus on delivering helpful and interesting content to your friends, fans and followers, they will be inspired to check out your products. It's best to keep an informal, light approach to your posts. Posting useful information or links to helpful resources can give people a good reason to check out your pages or tweets. Even sharing some humorous images or videos that aren't directly related to your business can be good for connecting with your audience. This doesn't mean you should never talk about your business or toot your own horn. Make sure, however, that your main focus is on providing people with content they can use or will enjoy.

One way to bridge the gap between hype and entertaining/useful content is to create contests or sweepstakes that entice people to participate. You can encourage people to submit their own photos, videos or ideas that relate to one of your products. You can offer additional incentives for people to share the link to the contest. This is how some companies are able to create viral social media campaigns.

Monitor Your Accounts and Be Interactive

Social media is, by definition, interactive. It's essential for you to not only post regularly to your accounts but to carefully monitor any feedback you get. If you get questions or complaints, answer them promptly. If you get trolls or spammers, delete them so they don't ruin the quality of your page.

You should post items that invite responses. Ask provocative questions that relate to your industry. Polls and surveys can be useful for getting people to respond. If you don't maintain a steady and interactive presence on your social media sites, you can't expect your audience to maintain their interest.

Develop Your Own Approach and Stay Informed

While you can study rules and guidelines for social media marketing, you also have to develop your own unique way of connecting with your fans and followers. This is a rapidly changing landscape, so it's essential to keep a close watch on news related to your own industry as well as social media, technology and online marketing overall. This helps you stay ahead of the curve when significant changes do occur.

Shawn Porat is the CEO of Fortune Cookie Advertising, a non-traditional and out of home media placement company selling advertising space within fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants throughout the United States.