Using Social Media To Grow Your Business

There's no question your customers are spending time on social networks, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter, or any number of other apps and websites where folks are hanging out in digital form. Since you want your brand to be where your customers are, it makes sense to figure out how to grow your business using these platforms. 

1.  Optimization.
 Find a way to analyze your social media posts, rank them in terms of engagement, and figure out why they perform well (or don't), adjusting what you're putting out into the world accordingly. Listening tools such as  Google Analytics
​is good to use. 

2. You need to create great original content.
Doing so involves understanding trends, who your audience is, and how they want to engage with social media. If you want to target say  stay-at-home mothers, because they're the primary shoppers for the family.then it makes sense to post on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, which 74 percent, 32 percent, and 19 percent of this demographic respectively visits on a weekly basis. So, while Snapchat and Twitter might be trendy for other audiences, it's not where many moms are hanging out.

 3. Asking questions is a great way to drive engagement.
People want their opinions to be heard. It's just a matter of finding creative ways to encourage the sharing of them. Consider giving you customers or clients  free products or coupons  in exchange for their feedback.
4. Sweepstakes are a great way to drive engagement.
People love having the chance to win things. And, you can exponentially grow your following by requiring them to tag a few friends to enter a contest.

5. Featuring popular blogs works, too.
Consider the popularity of how-to videos on YouTube. "It's huge--whether it's putting on makeup, changing a car tire, or doing an anti-aging skin care regiment, there's somebody out there giving a tutorial in pretty much every category, You just have to look at the number of views these people are getting, sometimes in the tens or hundreds of thousands. They're clearly getting very strong airtime.