When it comes to marketing your business, the internet has never played a more valuable role. Nowadays, when someone is looking for a product or a service, typically, the first place they go is the search engine. Having a good web presence is essential for businesses, and internet marketing should be a significant piece of your marketing budget. Included in internet marketing, though, is social media marketing, which has become just as important as ranking high in search engine results.

Businesses have been using Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to build up their brands. There are new social media outlets like Pinterest that have been increasing in popularity as well. You may think that just having a page on these networks and posting something every few months is enough. However, it’s important to stay engaged with your followers (and potential customers) on these websites. It’s also important to post engaging content that will make people want to follow your page. Here are a few tips on using social media to effectively market your business.

1. Post Content that is Interesting, Entertaining, and Valuable

You don’t want to just be selling your products and services all day. People won’t want to follow your page if you aren’t posting anything of value. Are there interesting videos you could make and post? Do you have informative and cool infographics to create and share? There are a lot of ways that you can get creative and think outside the box. You want to post content that will encourage users to “like” your posts, post comments, and share with their friends. This is the way social media becomes extremely valuable to your brand.

2. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors

Make sure you know what your competitors are doing. How are they engaging customers and followers? If one of your competitors posts a really entertaining video, for example, you may want to think of creative ways to compete with them. Let your competitors inspire you and give you ideas.

3. Consistency is Key

Make sure you aren’t posting too much, too little, or too sporadically. A great way to ensure you are posting in a consistent manner is to actually schedule posts using programs like Hootsuite that allow you to manage multiple social media accounts at once. Your followers don’t want to see your updates jamming their news feeds, but you also want to make sure you post enough for people not to forget about you. You may want to try something like “the question of the day” to keep your followers engaged.

4. Stay Involved

Don’t just post your own content and call it a day. Tweet back to your customers. Reach out to new people on Google+. Post to other pages on Facebook. Be involved in your online community, and engage your followers in interesting conversations. This will make people want to follow your page, which will help you get your brand out there in a memorable way.

Having a great social media presence can be just as beneficial as ranking high in search engines. If people are having fun on your page, they will be more likely to purchase your products or services. So keep these tips in mind and have fun with it! Social media marketing can be enjoyable if you want it to be.

About Author:

Sara Crawford is a freelance writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She frequently blogs for SolutionBuilt, a digital marketing company in Atlanta.