Social networking is one of the most effective marketing and branding tools for a business.

There is much more to social media than simply increasing sales. It is a very effective way to increase brand awareness and generate interest in your products and services without the high costs of traditional advertising.

It is also a great way to highlight the benefits of your services and makes it more appealing for prospective customers.

There are many ways to improve your social media presence. Here are 5 easy ways to do this:

1. Customised Branding

It is very important for your social media profiles to reflect your company’s brand. Most social networks allow you to customise the look and feel of your page. This is essential to reinforce your brand and improve brand visibility.

Here are some tips:

• Upload relevant Cover photo,
• Use your logo as profile icon
• Choose a user-name and custom URL that reflects your brand
• Include Links to your website and blog
• Use good description
• Complete your profile 100%

2. Leverage Groups

Groups are one of the hottest trends for marketing on social media. Groups expand your Reach manifold. Let’s take a simple example of LinkedIn where groups are particularly popular. You may only have a hundred direct connections in your network but you can end up with total group reach of  hundreds of thousands by simply joining a few of the leading LinkedIn groups in your niche.

The same applies to groups on Facebook and other social networks. Creating your own group offers even more value if your group grows large enough and offers an excellent way to create and expand your community.

3. Target Multiple Social Networks

It is common for a business to target several social networks in order to improve reach and increase the overall benefits. Today, it is essential for every business to have an active presence on the main social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  However, don’t limit yourself to these.

Relatively new social networks like Google Plus and Pinterest are growing at record breaking rates and are equally important. Additionally, you can also target niche social networks to grow your businesses. Examples include Spinn.com for marketers and SEO specialists, Design Float for Web and Graphic designers, and more.

4. Use The Right Posting Strategy

The information you share on your social profiles is the most important factor that will determine your long term success and overall benefits for your business. There are several posting techniques that you can take advantage of to improve your business presence on social media.

Here are some tips:

• Post at least 5 times a week
• Schedule your posts at times that get the most engagement
• Share content from several sources, not just your own website or blog
• Share s variety of content e.g. links, images, videos, infographics, blog posts, and more
• Post consistently e.g. one post a day is better than 7 on the same day
• Limit promotional content

5. Focus on Engagement

Social media is not effective when used for one way communication. It is very important for a business to engage actively with users. Engagement does not only take place on social networks but also via your website. There are many social media website features that you can take advantage of.

Here are some tips to engage with customers using social media:

• Use the right social plugins on website
• Make it easy for website visitors to share your content
• Respond promptly to direct messages or brand mentions
• Post open-ended questions
• RetWeet, Like or Vote Other Users content
• Comment on Posts
• Run Contests and Promotions
• Request Feedback or response
• Follow, Like users from your niche

6. Social Media Automation

Building a presence on social media takes time and effort. Fortunately, there are ways to automate some of your activities. It is not recommended to completely automate your social presence, but automating certain tasks such as blog post or website updates can improve efficiency and increase productivity.

You can add your RSS feed to Tools like HootSuite (See image below) to automatically post new content from your site to all your social profiles at once. HootSuite can also schedule your posts for optimal performance.

Source: HootSuite