Businesses of all sizes are coming to understand the importance social media now plays in networking and business growth. Many are investing in dedicated social media teams or consultants to make sure that their brand gets out there and gets seen. But in this relatively new world of online networking is social media understood?

It is very easy with sites like Facebook and Twitter to focus on the number of followers or likes your page has and this is certainly an indicator to success – but it shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all. Having a large following on Twitter or lots of fans on Facebook is no good if your audience doesn’t engage with your content.

Ultimately, companies are looking for social media to generate an income for their business. It can be tricky to measure a precise return on investment as a lot of potential customers view your social media pages and then contact you directly to do business. But those fans and followers that regularly engage with you are much more likely to become customers so we’ve developed 5 top tips to make sure your social media is being seen by the right people and working for you in the way that it should.

1)     Find out who your audience is. It’s no good trying to get people to talk to you if you don’t know what they might like, where they are or even basic things like age and gender. Facebook insights will give you a fairly good idea but using a tool like simplymeasured.com can give you a real insight in to who your audience is.

2)     Find out when your audience is online. This is particularly important for Facebook users. Facebook does not work in real-time, so it’s likely that a lot of your audience could miss your content if you post at the wrong time. Use a tool like http://likealyzer.com/ to give you great feedback on your page.

3)     Find out what your audience like. To make your audience engaged with you, you need to know what they are likely to engage in. Do a little bit of market research and always remember that social media is NOT about the hard sell. People want genuine, added-value content and to know more about you.

Get everyone involved. Image source: http://www.deafeyeseeit.com/2013/06/01/entralling-photoshop-art/aslarthands-of-face/

4)     Tempt your audience. Sometimes you need a little bit of motivation to kick start things and competitions are a great way of doing this. Facebook has a range of promotional options that can do wonders for small businesses.

5)     Talk back. It’s all very well posting a great piece of content that gets people talking but you shouldn’t just sit back and watch. Remember they are talking to you and they want to hear from you, so monitor the responses and get involved!

What else would you recommend? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below…

By Harriet Thacker